Maniitsoq

© Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Infrastruktur
Maniitsoq. On top of the mountain you can see a radio link station that connects the west coast. Today, Maniitsoq also has submarine cable.
ANINGAAQ R. CARLSEN/VISIT GREENLAND, 2021

Maniitsoq, with 2,486 inhabitants, is located on an island in an archipelago area, and parts of the town are cut through by small canals where islands are connected by bridges or by rocks and earth. The three settlements of the district have 570 inhabitants.

Maniitsoq translates to ‘the uneven’ and refers to the topography of the town. One mountain hillock follows the next, so the town is characterised by many long stairways and walkways. In the hinterland, the town is bounded by high mountains. The town’s former Danish name, Sukkertoppen, is derived from the name given by Dutch whalers to the colony’s original location.

History of Maniitsoq

The Sukkertoppen trading post and colony was originally founded in 1755 by the Norwegian merchant Anders Olsen in the place, where the settlement of Kangaamiut is located today, but it was moved in 1782 to its current location on Maniitsoq Island because it had better whale hunting opportunities. Incidentally, it was the same Anders Olsen who founded the trading posts Fiskenæsset and Julianehåb (today: Qaqortoq). Merchant Jens Larsen Smidt proposed the relocation in 1779, thus founding Maniitsoq in the place, where the town is located today.

In connection with the Danish modernisation of Greenland after World War II, Maniitsoq (Sukkertoppen) was designated as one of the prioritised four open-water towns. And because the town was well located relative to the important fishing grounds, including the Store Hellefiskebanke, the Greenland Commission considered in its major G-50 plan to relocate the administrative centre of the country from Godthåb (Nuuk) to Maniitsoq. However, the idea of relocation was abandoned. Yet, in the subsequent G-60 plan, Maniitsoq was one of the key priorities of the Greenland Technical Organisation (GTO). A vigorous expansion of the port and associated fishing industry, as well as the housing to house the growing population, was carried out.

The Maniitsoq Health Centre has an X-ray department, a laboratory and a pharmacy. All births and patients with severe cases are cared for in Nuuk.
FILIP GIELDA/VISIT GREENLAND, 2019

Good fishing of Atlantic wolffish, cod and salmon contributed to the economic development of the town, but from the late 1980s the cod disappeared and it started an economic downturn that led to gradual migration away from the area. From 1989 to 2010, the Aalisakkanik Tunisassiornermut Ilinniarfik (ATI) fish processing school was located in Maniitsoq.

Infrastructure, culture and health in Maniitsoq

Due to the hilly terrain, the blocks of flats from the 1960s and 1970s are more scattered than in other Greenlandic towns, and the town is characterised by a relatively high proportion of multi-storey housing block and terraced houses.

Maniitsoq Airport replaced the old heliport in 1999. There are several weekly flight connections to Nuuk, Sisimiut and Kangerlussuaq and from there to the rest of the country and abroad.

The town has good connections by coastal passenger ships and private boat companies that call at the settlements, Nuuk and Sisimiut. As an openwater town, Maniitsoq is characterised by strong fishing and hunting traditions and a large and active marina that provides easy access to sailing trips in the fjords and to the many old summer settlements in the area.

Nukissiorfiit’s diesel-based power plant supplies district heating to parts of the town, and drinking water is reclaimed from a contained lake on the northern edge of the town.

The western and eastern part of town as well as the town centre are fully sewered, but the area around the football field is not connected to the sewer network.

Maniitsoq has a health centre which falls under the Sisimiut Regional Hospital. The town’s primary school seats approximately 440 pupils from 1st through 10th grades. In the oldest grades, the school has pupils from the municipality’s four smallest settlements – they live in the boarding house for school children. Pupils in Kangaamiut and Kangerlussuaq finish school there.

A continuation school with an associated hall of residence was established in 2011 in the former ATI school. The continuation school can take up to 70 pupils from all over Greenland.

There are two hotels in Maniitsoq, both centrally located in the town. The largest, Hotel Maniitsoq, overlooks the harbour and strait with the many whales, one of Maniitsoq’s tourist attractions.

The old church in the middle of the town centre dates back to 1864. It is erected in stone and has served as a municipal meeting place since the new church was finished in 1981.

The Maniitsoq Museum is housed in some of the town’s oldest buildings dating back to the mid-19th century. They were rebuilt on the site in the period 1970‑1978 and listed in 1982. Originally, they served as a workshop building (erected in stone in about 1874), provisions stall (board-clad timber-framed erected in about 1850), assistant’s residence (two-and-a-half-storey house built in 1844) and finally cooper’s workshop (stone house bricked with boulders erected in about 1840‑1950).

Population trends, trade and industry in Maniitsoq

Population trends in Maniitsoq 1886‑2021.
GRØNLANDS STATISTIK

In the inter-war period, Maniitsoq was one of the country’s largest towns, and from 1950 to 2009 the town was the main town of Maniitsoq Municipality. In 2009, the town became part of Qeqqata Kommunia, and much of its administration has subsequently moved to the main town, Sisimiut. Population peaked in 1991 at 3,197. Since then it has declined steadily – in 2002 it was 2,905, and in 2010 the population was 2,784.

Fishing and fish processing is an important industry in Maniitsoq, contributing 24 % of the employed. Royal Greenland imports and processes a variety of species and produces cod and Greenland halibut fillets, roe and dry fish. The capacity of the factory is 80 tonnes per day.
FILIP GIELDA/VISIT GREENLAND, 2019

Northeast of Maniitsoq lie some of the country’s greatest hydropower potentials, including Tasersiaq and Tarsartuup Tasersua. To exploit the energy potential, there was a plan in the 2000s to establish a larger aluminium smelter at Maniitsoq, but the plan was shelved in 2015. Other business opportunities are now being pursued – primarily in fisheries, tourism and minerals. The Maniitsoq area is rich in nickel, copper, rare earth elements, niobium, uranium, phosphate, gold and platinum. From 2005 to 2010, Minelco operated an olivine mine in Niaqunngunaq (Fiskefjord). The mouth of the fjord is at the settlement of Atammik south of Maniitsoq.

East of Maniitsoq Island, in the vast ice-free land area with several deep fjords towards the ice sheet, there are ample opportunities for hiking and mountain walks in the exciting landscape originally shaped by glaciers. In winter, the area’s ice caps, high mountains and deep valleys provide unique opportunities for cross-country skiing as well as alpine skiing. Heliskiing attracts ski enthusiasts from all over the world, but is mostly for those who do not worry about the price. Greenland’s first and best summer ski resort is located on the Apussuit ice cap barely 30 km east of the town.

The two fish factories in the town has between 35 and 100 employees depending on the season. Royal Greenland produces cod, Greenland halibut, roe and dried fish, and Maniitsoq Fish ApS, owned by Polar Seafood & Sermersooq Seafood, produces cod, Greenland halibut, Atlantic wolffish, trout and roe. Local fishermen obtain higher minimum prices due to the competition of the factory.

In recent years, fishermen in the area from Sisimiut to Paamiut have fished Nutaaq cod, meaning ‘new cod’. The fish is caught with pound nets, especially along the coast inside the fjords, and it is then moved to so-called net cages. The fish stays in the cage until their stomach contents disappear, typically after 10‑14 days. With this, a white meat product of very fine quality is obtained. Subsequently, the fish are picked up by a well-boat and moved to the seawater pool outside the fish factory, where they calm down before being transported live into the factory for production. In 2020, Royal Greenland produced about 4,500 tonnes of Nutaaq cod, and Maniitsoq is the only place in the world where it is produced.

Maniitsoq, street map. 1) Maniitsoq Church. 2) Fish factory 1. 3) Municipal office. 4) Primary school. 5) Continuation school. 6) Maniitsoq Museum. 7) Health centre. 8) Sports centre. 9) Settlement hall. 10) Drop-in centre (old church). 11) Hotel Maniitsoq. 12) Shipyard. 13) Fish factory 2. 14) Hotel Heilmann Lyberth.
ASIAQ, 2022

Further reading

Read more about the Municipalities and the towns in Greenland

  • Kåre Hendriksen

    (b. 1956) Ph.D. and MA in Technical Environmental Management. Associate Professor in Sustainable Arctic Infrastructure at the Department of Planning, Aalborg University.

  • Bo Naamansen

    (b. 1968) MSc. in Surveying, Planning and Land Management. General Manager of Asiaq, Greenland Survey.