Viby J (or just Viby) is a former town and now a district, in the southwestern part of

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 ...

in Denmark. The district has almost 30,000 inhabitants. The "J" stands for

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

, as there is another town called Viby on the island of

Zealand Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020. It is the 1 ...

, officially referred to as Viby Sj and also a village on

Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as o ...

Etymology and origin

Viby derives from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

words ''vé'' and ''býr'', meaning holy place and town respectively. '' Vi'' is a word represented in many place names in both Denmark and Sweden. Several places are named Viby in both Denmark and Sweden (see Viby (disambiguation) for examples) and ''vi'' is also present in names like Viborg or the Swedish towns of Odensvi, Torsvi, Frösvi, Ullavi or Visby. ''Vi'' refers to "an enclosed holy place", and it is believed that Viby was once a holy place where the

Norse gods Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nors ...

were worshipped, with one or several cult houses. The shrines were probably located at what was formerly known as Tyrseng - the area around the large association football fields in the southwest of Viby. The name ''Tyrseng'' translates as "Tyrs-meadow", referring to the Norse God Tyr. These theories are backed up by other more or less sound evidence. In 1915, remains of an old hall dating from 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 Germ ...

, was unearthed at the hill of Kongsbakke (lit.: ''kings-hill''), when the public school of Viby Skole was constructed. Medieval sources explains, that the hill of Kongsbakke was once the site of a royal estate in ancient times. Our general research-based knowledge of the Norse culture in the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

and

tells us, that kings and magnates settled near vis and hofs, as they also worked as priests of the

Norse religion Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is the most common name for a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into a distinct branch of the Germanic people ...

and were needed there to attend the

rituals A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

. Archaeological excavations conducted by Moesgård Museum at a motorway junction in Viby, has also revealed a former holy spring, a chapel and a cemetery used from the 11th century to around 1200.

Description

Apart from the former suburban town of Viby J, the postal district also includes the neighbourhoods of Kongsvang and Stavtrup Viby J is primarily a working-class neighbourhood, including many

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

s, but the area also presents large boroughs of detached family houses for the upper-middle class. There are several educational institutions here, such as Viby Gymnasium and Aarhus Business College, making it a centre of education for its part of the city. Two major

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, de ...

projects are located in Viby J. Rosenhøj is made up by low-rise apartment blocks, while Grøfthøjparken comprise

row house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United Sta ...

quarters, low-rise apartment blocks 4–6 stories tall and the landmark high-rise block of Grøfthøjhuset, with 17 floors and 51 meters tall. It is also the 6th tallest building in greater Aarhus. The urban square of Viby Torv, is one of Aarhus' southernmost traffic nodes, joining the international E45 motorway with the Ring 2 ring road. There is a shopping centre at the square by the name of Viby Centret,Viby Centret
Official homepage including parking lots, a high-rise hotel and several office buildings and businesses. Viby J houses the main editorial office of

Jyllands-Posten ''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circula ...

Sports

Viby is known for its

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

-club, which has fostered several European Champions.

History

In the

and early

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 ...

there might have been a royal residence in Viby. Viby Church was finished in the later part of the 1100s. Viby J became a

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporar ...

in 1884. The 1960s marked the beginning of large scale urban development projects in Viby. The expansions were intended to increase the population from 16,000 to 50,000. In early July 1961,

Århus Stiftstidende ''Århus Stiftstidende'' (colloquially ''Stiften'') is a Danish newspaper based in Aarhus, Denmark, focusing largely on local topics. History and profile First published by Niels Lund on 3 January 1794, ''Århus Stiftstidende'' is among the ol ...

could announce that: *100

acres The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

(40 ha) of land were to be designated for industry; *1800 new flats were to be built; *The centre would be freshened up to include a 10 storeys tall hotel, and a shopping centre; *Two new schools and a church would be constructed; *Road expansions would be made. In 1970, a municipality reform made Viby a part of Aarhus and the Viby Centret shopping centre was finished. The centre project ended up costing about £4 million, instead of the originally estimated £1.85 million.

References

External links