Byvandringer i Aarhus

Guided City Walk along Aarhus River

Hear about the river's central importance to Aarhus.    

This city walk starts from the museum Aros. From there we'll set out on a beautiful walk towards the river's estuary where it flows into the sea.

I'll tell about the river's significance for Aarhus, unique buildings and great personalities that have a relation to it.

The history of Aarhus based on the great men and women buried at Nordre Kirkegaard, the Northern Cemetery.

Nordre Kirkegaard was founded in 1876 in order to relieve the pressure of too many burials at the then existing Søndre Kirkegaard, the Southern Cemetery which was situated where Raadhusparken, the City Hall Park now is.

Nordre Kirkegaard soon became a much prefered place of burial for the citizens of Aarhus because of the environment and rural landscape just north of the city. Today the entire area is part of the city. Today the cemetery takes up an area of 14,8 hectars.

Buried at Nordre Kirkegaard are a number of former mayors of Aarhus, including perhaps the most popular mayor ever in the city's history Bernhardt Jensen alongside various Aarhus celebrities.

On this guided tour I reveal the history of Aarhus by means of the various celebrities buried at Aarhus Nordre Kirkegaard which also give a good hint of how Aarhus grew and developed from the middle of the 19th century to the present day.

A city walk in the centre of Aarhus, where I reveal links to the old settlement of the Vikings called Aros.

For 1200 years the centre of Aarhus has been situated at the exactly same place as of today but the street level has raised. The old Aros is therefore placed about three meters under the present street level.

There are places in the city centre where you easily can tell the old town rampart from the new and other sights have also left marks of the Vikings and their activities. Archaeological excavations tell the story of more than 1000 years of old living in Aarhus and the varios lifestyles.

Together we'll look for links to the very old settlement of the Vikings called Aros while we walk through the streets of Aarhus.

Vestergade, West Street, is one of the oldest streets in the city of Aarhus. It dates back to the Viking Age around 900 AD.

The street was then outside of the city walls and the city within the walls was mainly a royal fortification, naval base and a port for shipping goods to far away ports. Presumably the oldest building in Aarhus, Vor Frue Kirke, The Church of Our Lady, with its crypt dates back to around 1,000 AD and it is located in Vestergade. During the middle ages it became part of a Dominican convent, or a Black Friar convent, as it was also called. It became the hospital for the leppers of the city in the middle ages.

Between the 16th and the 19th centuries Vestergade became the centre for trade in Aarhus with a total of 17 merchant houses in Vestergade alone, the highest concentration of merchant houses in any street in Aarhus at the time. Some of these half-timpered buildings are preserved to this day and on this walk we will go into their hidden and picturesque back yards, where you can still see traces of their original purposes and of the uses of later times, where there were artisan shops and factories in the back yards of the inner cities. 

The walk takes 1-2 hours according to your preferences and shorter tours of Vestergade is also available.

Guidet walk in the Memorial park commemorating Danes killed in the Great War 1914-18. The Memorial Park is situated next to the palace gardens by HM the Queen's summer residence, Marselisborg Palace.

Next to the Palace grounds is the Memorial Park and monument commemorating all Danes killed in the Great War 1914-18. Although Denmark stayed neutral in the First World War a large number of merchant sailors and some fishermen died at sea in addition to Danes who volunteered for the allied armies.

By far the majority of Danish war dead were from Southern Jutland, then part of Germany after Denmark lost the war of 1864 against Prussia and Austria. Some 4,100 people from this part of Denmark were killed from 1914-18. In 1920, as a result of Germany losing the Great War, Southern Jutland once again became part of Denmark.

Disability access

Provided you bring somebody strong to push your wheelchair there is access for the disabled on this guidet walk. Please be aware that the ground can be soft and wet in some areas.