Immervad, previously Emmervad, is a pedestrian street in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

, Denmark, which runs north to south from

Lille Torv Lille Torv ( lit. Little Square) is a cobbled public square located in the Indre By neighborhood in Aarhus, Denmark. It is situated between the squares of Store Torv and Immervad in the historic Latin Quarter neighborhood and it is one of the old ...

Åboulevarden Åboulevarden is a street and promenade in Aarhus, Denmark. It is 975 meters long and runs west to east from ''Vester Allé'' to ''Europaplads'' at Dokk1. The street is situated in the Indre by, Aarhus, Indre by neighborhood where it is a popular ...

and

Frederiksgade Frederiksgade is a street in the Frederiksstaden neighbourhood of central Copenhagen. It runs east from Store Kongensgade to Toldbodgade on the waterfront, passing the Marble Church, Bredgade and Amaliegade on the way. At the Marble Church the ...

. The alley ''Sankt Clemens Stræde'' leads to Immervad from the east. The street is situated in the historic

Latin Quarter The Latin Quarter of Paris (french: Quartier latin, ) is an area in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne. Known for its student life, lively atmosphere, and bistros ...

neighborhood and has existed as a road or street since the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

when it was used as the eastern

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

to cross the

Aarhus River Aarhus River ( da, Århus Å) is a long river or stream, in eastern Jutland, Denmark. The river flows through the large river valley of Aarhus Ådal. The valley itself, stretches from Silkeborg to the coastal city of Aarhus, but the Aarhus River ...

. Immervad is fairly short at just 110 meters long but it is one of the streets with the most foot traffic in Aarhus. At the southern section of the street is the bridge of ''Frederiksbroen'', the first bridge built to cross the river in the city. Immervad is home to

Magasin du Nord Magasin is a Danish chain of department stores. It has seven department stores with its flagship store located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The company is a subsidiary of the German department store retailer Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf, Ma ...

, one of the largest

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

s in Aarhus, and runs next to the recreational space of ''Vadestedet'' (The Ford) on the street of

which runs perpendicular to the southern end of Immervad.

Etymology

The name Immervad is unique as a street name in Danish cities. The ending "vad" refers to the Danish word ''vadested'' (ford) while "Immer" is of unknown origin. It is possible ''Immer'' is the German word meaning "always", an allusion to a ford that can always be crossed. Another theory is that the original spelling ''Emmervad'' refers to a person named Emmer who may have lived by the ford. A third theory states that ''Emmer'' was the leftovers after creating

slaked lime Calcium hydroxide (traditionally called slaked lime) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca( OH)2. It is a colorless crystal or white powder and is produced when quicklime (calcium oxide) is mixed or slaked with water. It has ma ...

, used to stabilize the river floor at the ford. However, there are also indications that the name was not known in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

as sources from 1512 mentions the street as "the street to the bridge".

Frederiks Bridge

The southern section of Immervad is the bridge ''Frederiks Bro'' or ''Frederiksbroen''. It is not known exactly when Frederiks Bro was built but it existed in the 1400s when ''Brobjerg'' on the south side of the bridge was settled. The bridge was early on known as ''Brobjerg Bro'' (Brobjerg Bridge) and from the 1600s to 1824 as ''Basballe Bro'' after one of the prominent merchant families that lived on Immervad at the time. In 1824 the street south of the bridge was renamed Frederiksgade after King

Frederik VI Frederick VI (Danish and no, Frederik; 28 January 17683 December 1839) was King of Denmark from 13 March 1808 to 3 December 1839 and King of Norway from 13 March 1808 to 7 February 1814, making him the last king of Denmark–Norway. From 1784 un ...

who visited Aarhus at the time and at the same time the bridge was renamed to Frederiks Bro. In the 1930s the section of the river which runs through the city proper was paved over and the bridge was dismantled. In 1989 Aarhus City Council officially adopted a policy to reopen the river and between 2005 and 2008 the section from Immervad to Vester Allé was reopened and a bridge reestablished. The name Frederiks Bro is not a well known in daily parlance as a much larger and more prominent bridge on ''Frederiks Allé'' carries the same name.

Buildings

In the

the street was home to "helligåndshuset" (House of the Holy Ghost), part hospital, part nursing home and part gust house, but the building fell into disrepair after the

reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

and was eventually replaced by a large merchant's building. Immervad was situated close to some of the main thoroughfares in the city such as

Vestergade Vestergade ( lit. "West Street") is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark, linking Gammeltorv in the northeast with the City Hall Square in the southwest. The street defines the southern boundary of Copenhagen's Latin Quarter. Most of the build ...

and the river harbor so it was an ideal location for merchants to establish themselves. By the late Middle Ages Immervad was characterized by a number of large and prominent merchants mansions with warehouses, stables etc. Few of these buildings remain today although the adjacent ''Maren Smeds Gyde'' contains a warehouse from that period. The largest and most prominent mansion was built in 1597 and was through time inhabited by several of the mayors of the city until it was bought by the merchant Poul Pedersen Frausing in 1788. The building remained in the Frausing family until 1901 when it was taken down and moved to

Tangkrogen Tangkrogen (lit.: The Kelp-nook) is a public park in Aarhus, Denmark. The park is situated in the neighborhood Midtbyen by the coast with the Bay of Aarhus to the southeast, the Marselisborg neighborhood to the West and the Port of Aarhus to the ...

for the

Danish National Exhibition of 1909 The Danish National Exhibition of 1909 or The National Exhibition in Aarhus 1909 (Danish: Landsudstillingen i Aarhus) was an industry, crafts and culture exhibition held in Aarhus, Denmark in 1909 from 18 May to 3 October. The exhibition displayed ...

to serve as a museum. It subsequently became the first building in the Old Town Museum, known as the ''Mayor's Mansion''. In 1871 the store

moved from

to Immervad where it has been situated ever since. The store has been expanded a number of times and in the 1960s the current complex was built, dominating the western side of the street. Today the street is dominated by the large

from the 60s and 70s on the west side and older buildings on the east side.

References

;Publications * *

External links

{{Coord, 56.1571, 10.2071, region:DK_type:landmark, display=title Streets in Aarhus