Aarhus Old City Hall is the former city hall of Aarhus,

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, and 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 Irel ...

. The city hall was built in 1857 and was listed in the Danish national registry of protected buildings and places by the Danish Heritage Agency on 18 March 1996. It is the second, and oldest preserved, city hall of Aarhus. The city Hall is situated next to

Aarhus Cathedral Aarhus Cathedral ( da, Århus Domkirke) is a cathedral in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the longest and tallest church in the country, at in length and in height. The construction of Aarhus Cathedral began in the 12th century and it is the main edific ...

on the corner of ''Domkirkepladsen'' and Mejlgade in the central

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 ...

neighbourhood and has functioned as city hall, police station and today as a museum, housing both the Women's Museum and the Occupation Museum.

History

The city hall was built between 1856 and 1857 to a design by architect and royal building inspector C.G.F. Thielemann as a replacement for the former city hall which has been located opposite the cathedral. The building was designed to be a combined city hall, police station and jail. The main entrance led to the city hall and an entrance on the west side gave access to the police station while the jail was placed in a smaller building in a court yard behind the city hall. The mayor's office and council hall was placed on the first floor. In 1906, a new jail and council building was built and the jail building behind the city hall was substantially changed to make room for offices. The interior of the city hall was renovated and the main entrance was enhanced with a large arch. The rapid growth of the city in the early 20th century meant the administrative needs quickly outgrew the city hall and offices spread to other nearby buildings. In the 1930s it was again decided to build a new city hall which became the current city hall on Park Allé, complete in 1941. When the city administration finally moved, the old city hall became the city's police from 1941 to 1984, when a new police station was built. In 1949 the third-floor attic was taken into use as a storage space and small exhibition hall for a collection of

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

rarities collected by a professor from the

University of Aarhus Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

. In 1971 this collection was moved and became the Museum of Ancient Art. Since 1995 the building has housed the Women's Museum and the Occupation Museum. During the renovation in the 1990s a garden was established by the entrance, named for the women's rights activist Matilde Fibiger.

Architecture

The building is an example of

Renaissance Revival architecture Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

and was designed by C.G.F. Thieleman. Inspired by the psychiatric hospital Jydske Asyl in

Risskov Risskov is the name of both a neighbourhood and a district in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. The district of Risskov is sometimes referred to as Vejlby-Risskov, as it is a merger of the neighbourhood of Risskov and the neighbourhood of Vejlby. The ...

by Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll, it reflects Thieleman's interest in

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

and

Neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

. The interior was redesigned by S.F. Kühnel in 1907 and features prominent national romantic elements in the

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or an entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc. ...

and council chambers. The building is built of red brick with horizontal bands of cement and granite ashlar in the corners. The main entrance is set under a large archway and the windows are decorated with pilasters. The structure rests on a base of granite ashlar with decorative bands above the basement windows. The ridged roof is covered in winged brick tile, broken only by two small

dormer window A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...

s. The foyer features large granite columns under a painted strip

waffle slab A waffle slab or two-way joist slab is a concrete slab made of reinforced concrete with concrete ribs running in two directions on its underside. The name ''waffle'' comes from the grid pattern created by the reinforcing ribs. Waffle slabs are pre ...

ceiling. The solid granite staircase is surmounted by two large glass ceiling mosaics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aarhus City Hall Former seats of local government Aarhus Aarhus Old City Hall 1857 establishments in Denmark

History

Architecture

See also

References