Bethel Church 1775

Sisimiut’s first dedicated church building, the Bethel Church (B-114), also known as the Blue Church, is the first church in Greenland paid by the Greenlandic congregation on its own. The building was ordered from Copenhagen in 1771 and paid for with 60 barrels of blubber from four whales. The church was first erected in Copenhagen, where all parts of the building were numbered, before it was disassembled and shipped to Greenland. The planned year for consecration was 1773, and this is the year inscribed on the weathervane. However, due to bad weather the ship had to overwinter in Norway; when it finally reached the Holsteinsborg colony (the later Sisimiut), an epidemic broke out that further delayed the construction of the church. The building was finally consecrated in 1775. The church houses an interactive exhibition [link] where you can meet a Danish missionary from the 18^th century and a traditional Greenlandic shaman.