Welcome to the National Museum

The National Museum is Greenland’s largest museum of cultural history.

The museum safeguards and promotes the history of Greenland, and our collections come from all over the country.

A visit to the National Museum is an experience and opportunity to gain insight into the many cultures that have existed in Greenland.

Here you can read more about the museum’s collections and exhibitions, as well as Greenland’s intangible cultural heritage.

The museum's history

The first museum exhibition opened in 1965 in the old Moravian Mission House from 1747. The National Museum was inaugurated in the same building on August 23rd 1966.

The museum was subsequently moved to its current location in the 1970s after a repatriation program between the National Museum of Denmark and the Museum of Greenland had begun. 
The repatriation  program, called Utimut - which means "Going back", meant that thousands of Inuit items that had been taken to Denmark by explorers, was returned to Greenland. This meant that the museum outgrew its original building and had to be moved to our current buildings.

The first legislation on museums in Greenland was passed on January 1st 1981, and the first legislation on archives on November 1st 1982. The National Museum and National Archives were separate, independent institutions until they joined forces on January 1st 1991 under the name Greenland National Museum & Archives.

The majority of the museum and office buildings are from 1930-34, with an extension from 1992. Opposite the main entrance is a cooper’s workshop from 1887. The building closest to the bridge was a carpenter’s workshop, built on the foundations of Hans Egede’s church in Nuuk. Next to that is the old Royal Greenland Trading store from 1850.