Domkirkepladsen 1 is a

listed building 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 I ...

and the former

Bank of Denmark Danmarks Nationalbank (in Danish often simply ''Nationalbanken'') is the central bank of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is a non- eurozone member of the European System of Central Banks ( ESCB). Since its establishment in 1818, the objective of the ...

branch building 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 northwe ...

, Denmark. The bank was built in 1926 and was listed in the Danish national registry of protected buildings and places by the

Danish Heritage Agency The Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces ( da, Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen) is an agency under the aegis of the Danish Ministry of Culture. The agency carries out the cultural policies of the Danish government within the visual and performing arts, ...

on 22 February 1996. The bank is situated on the

Store Torv Store Torv ( lit. Great Square) is a public square located in the Indre By neighborhood in Aarhus, Denmark. It is situated between Lille Torv and Aarhus Cathedral, shaped as an elongated triangle. It is the largest public square in Aarhus and one ...

square in the central Indre by neighbourhood next to the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

where it has functioned as a bank since its completion until today. The building is no longer in use by the Bank of Denmark but still functions as a bank, occupied by a branch of Nykredit.

History

The Bank of Denmark branch in Aarhus was established in 1837 and it was the first bank in the city. 90 years later the branch needed expansion and the architect Axel Berg was commissioned to draw up plans for a new building. The building was constructed between 1924 and 1926 and has remained almost unchanged since then apart from a minor expansion.

Archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...

from Moesgård Museum have excavated the basement and area around the building where evidence of

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 Germ ...

structures and church buildings from 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 ...

. The Bank of Denmark left the building in 1989 and one year later the building was taken over by a private bank after an extensive renovation by C. F. Møller Architects.

Architecture

The building design is broadly speaking

historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

, combining

English Baroque English Baroque is a term used to refer to modes of English architecture that paralleled Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London (1666) and roughly 1720, when the flamboyant and dramatic qualities of Baroque ...

with influences of Italian

renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought ...

. The building is clad in porphyry with sandstone from Nexø used for the base,

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...

and architraves. The low

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus ...

is covered in verdigris green copper plating. The interior decoration is preserved with marble floors, mahogany doors and brass railings. In the expedition room the stucco ceiling remains in original condition except for the implementation of modern halogen lamps in the 300 rosettes as a replacement for the original lights. The design is by Axel Berg and it is the last of his works. Berg drew inspiration from

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

' interpretation of works by

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of ...

Gallery

File:Nationalbankens tidl. filial (detalje 01).jpg File:Indgang (Nationalbankens tidl. filial).jpg File:Nationalbankens tidl. filial (Nykredit).jpg File:Nationalbanken, Aarhus (vinduer) 02.jpg Nykredit13.jpg File:Nykredit1.jpg

References

External links

* {{Coord, 56.1574, 10.2105, region:DK_type:landmark, display=title Listed buildings in Aarhus Commercial buildings completed in 1926