Mejlen or Asylet Børnely is a house, former asylum and a
listed building in
Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Ã…rhus 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. The house was built in 1768 and was listed in the national Danish 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 8 November 2008. The building originally functioned as a kindergarten but is today home to an art gallery.
History
In the 1880s Aarhus experienced rapid growth and the population ballooned from 6.000 people in 1850 to 50.000 in 1900. The large number of new inhabitants made it necessary to provide daycare for children of the working class. The kindergarten was commissioned by the religious charitable organization ''Stefansforeningen'' and was paid for by charitable contributions and fundraisers. On 10 March 1883 an editorial in
Ã…rhus Stiftstidende invited people to donate and on 9 April 1883 a list of contributors was published.
The building was designed to house 100 children and it was constructed in 1883 by architect
Carl Lange. Originally the institution was simply called ''Asylet'' (English: The Asylum), which at the time meant kindergarten, but it was quickly changed to ''Stefansforeningens Børnely'' or colloquially just Børnely. The institution was managed by a number of
deacons from Stefansforeningen which also used the building for religious children's services and meetings for christian organizations.
In 1954 the kindergarten was moved to a new building in ''Valdemarsgade'' where the institution Børnely has survived into the 21st century.
Aarhus Municipality took over the building when it became available and moved a
youth club from
Mejlgade
Mejlgade is a street in Aarhus which runs north to south from ''Østbanetorvet'' to Skolegade and intersects ''Nørrebrogade''. The street is situated in the historic Latin Quarter neighborhood and has the highest number of historic and listed ...
into it. The club was named Mejlen after the former address and the building is still known by this name. The club stayed until the 70s when
Red Cross rented the building. In 2009 the building was listed and in 2012 it was renovated after which the art gallery V58 moved in.
Architecture
The building was constructed in the historicist style popular at the time with references to
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
and
Renaissance styles while drawing clear inspiration from
Diakonissestiftelsen
() is a large site in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark, owned by the Danish Deaconess Community and used for various social and healthcare-related activities, including a home for the elderly and training of nurses.
History
...
on
Frederiksbjerg
Frederiksbjerg is a borough in Aarhus, Denmark.
Frederiksbjerg is part of the postal district Aarhus C and is located just south of the historical city centre, separated from it by a broad railway yard and connected by three bridges. Despite bein ...
from 1876. The small tower above the front entrance, which used to feature a bell, and the pointy arches of the windows are elements absent from the earlier work in Frederiksbjerg. The building material is red and brown brick.
References
External links
*
Gallery V58
{{Coord, 56.15368, 10.20425, region:DK_type:landmark, display=title
Listed buildings in Aarhus
Houses completed in 1883
1880s architecture in Denmark