Ivittuut district

Ivittuut Communiate Ivittuut district
	;
Symbols
	coat of arms
	coat of arms
Basic data
Country	Greenland
Commune	Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq
Seat	Kangilinnguit
surface	600 km²
Residents	3 (January 1, 2019)
density	0 inhabitants per km²

Ivittuut has been a district in western Greenland since 2009 .

location

The Ivittuut district is by far the smallest in Greenland. It is located on a two-part peninsula between the fjords of Ilorput (Arsukfjord) in the north and Qoornoq in the south. The district is completely enclosed by the Paamiut district .

history

The district area, which had been uninhabited until then, only gained importance around 1800, when deposits of cryolite were discovered on the south bank of the Ilorput . These were made usable from the 1850s and the mining settlement Ivittuut arose east of Udsted Arsuk .

When the parish structure of Greenland was introduced in 1911, Ivittuut became part of the Arsuk parish within the colonial district of Frederikshaab.

In 1943, during World War II , the United States established the Bluie West-7 military base 4.5 km up the fjord from Ivittuut. The military base soon became the most important in Greenland. In 1950 Ivittuut was founded as an independent community within the Paamiut community. In 1951 Denmark took over the base and the Kangilinnguit station was created , which served as the seat of Grønland's command .

In 1987 cryolite mining in Ivittuut ended and the city lost its importance and the population migrated. In 2009, the municipality was integrated into the Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq during the administrative reform . In 2012 Grønlands Kommando was dissolved and Kangilinnguit was also relocated, which means that the district is now unpopulated.

places

The city of Ivittuut has been permanently abandoned since 2012. The only other location in the district is Kangilinnguit Station , which was abandoned at the same time and has been completely uninhabited since 2019. This means that the district currently has no residents.

coat of arms

Blazon : Two variants of the arctic fox .

literature

Jens Christian Madsen: Udsteder og bopladser i Grønland 1901-2000 . Atuagkat, 2009, ISBN 978-87-90133-76-4 .
Ole Bendixen , Louis Bobé : Beskrivelse af Distrikterne i Sydgrønland: Frederikshaab District . In: Georg Carl Amdrup , Louis Bobé , Adolf Severin Jensen , Hans Peder Steensby (eds.): Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing (= Meddelelser om Grønland . Volume 60-61 ). tape 2 . C. A. Reitzel Boghandel, Copenhagen 1921, p. 297–373 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).

61.12 -48.15Coordinates: 61 ° 7 ′ N , 48 ° 9 ′ W