Mindegade is a 120 meters long 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 ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, situated in the historic

Indre By Indre By (lit. English, "Inner City"), also known as Copenhagen Center or K or Downtown Copenhagen, is an administrative district (''by'') in central Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It covers an area of , has a population of 26,223, and a po ...

neighborhood. Mindegade runs from north to south from ''Fiskergade'' to ''Dynkarken'' and the square ''Europaplads''. Mindegade gradually evolved from around 1606 as the city slowly extended southwards as the harbor was expanded and the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

was covered up. The name is from some time before 1796 and refers to the nearby outlet of the river; the word "minde" is an old Danish world for river mouth and "gade" means street. Mindegade is fairly narrow and is a

one-way street One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typical ...

going from north to south. *The street contains two

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

; Trods Katholm and Hans Broge's House.

History

The city gate ''Mindeport'' was originally situated at the end of Mindegade and is first mentioned in the 1500s. Mindeport was the gate travelers coming from the south had to come through. After coming through the gate one had to move over the bridge ''Mindebroen'' 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 ...

and move on into

Skolegade Skolegade ( Lit.: School Street) is a street in Aarhus, Denmark which runs north to south from Mejlgade to ''Mindebrogade''. The street is situated in the Midtbyen neighborhood. Skolegade is home to two listed buildings and runs past the Aarhu ...

and the city proper. In 1690 the city gate was moved further south to ''Dynkarken'' by ''Ridderstræde'' but as the area became more heavily populated it was eventually moved to ''Sønder Allé''. In 1857 the

octroi Octroi (; fro, octroyer, to grant, authorize; Lat. ''auctor'') is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption. Antiquity The word itself is of French origin. Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being ...

taxes were abolished and ''Mindeport'' along with the rest of the gates in the city were torn down. In 1606 the large mansion » Trods Katholm« was erected at the southern edge of the city by ''Fiskergade''. The area was not especially attractive and new developments tended to mostly happen to the north and west. In 1634 the bridge ''Mindebroen'' was built across the

south of Trods Katholm and it became possible to develop a new neighborhood by the

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current reducing the carrying ...

. The new neighborhood was initially called "over broen" ( Lit. Over the bridge) and later "Mindegade" and "Dynkarken". The

harbor A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

saw a series of expansions in the 18th century and the

pier image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century. A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...

s were gradually extended into the bay which made Mindegade increasingly attractive and a main thoroughfare to the city center. The proximity to the harbor and the road leading south made it an attractive area for merchants who built many of the buildings in the street, including Hans Broge's House. In the 1930s the river by the coast was paved over and ''Mindegade'' lost its significance as a thoroughfare.

References

;Publications *

External links

{{commons category, Mindegade, position=left Streets in Aarhus