Byvandringer i Aarhus

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.

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.

We start at the sculpture by Bernhard Jensen (across the river at Magasin) and walk through the Latin Quarter, whose ground plan dates back to the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. We continue through the Øgade Quarter, which was developed from the 1860s, and end in the University Park.

Several places have been threatened by "development and modernization", which would have disfigured the city, but fortunately in many cases it has been possible to avoid the accidents.

Along the way you will hear stories about the background to the development. For example, about the Øgade Quarter, where many townhouses have been modernized and saved from condemnation, and where active residents are behind Børnenes Jord and Beboerhuset.

On the way to the University Park we pass Galgebakken. The University Park was built in 1933 and, despite many new buildings, is still a beautiful park, which is a recreational area, with grass areas, beautiful trees and two lakes. The park functions partly as a natural connection to the university's many buildings, and partly as a recreational area, which is used by many.

It is possible to combine the tour with a visit to the Viking Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Steno Museum or the Antique Museum. The latter three are located in the University Park.

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.