Aaby, or Åby, is a suburban area 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, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Located 4km from the city centre of Aarhus, Åby was originally an old village, but is now an integrated a part of Åbyhøj, that sprawled around it. To distinguish Åby from Åbyhøj, the village area is often referred to as ''Gammel Åby'' (lit.:Old Åby). Åby is situated at a bend of the Aarhus River and there is access to the river and the pathway of Brabrandstien from here.

Etymology

The name Åby translates literally as ''river-town'' in modern Danish and it also derives from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

for "village on a river" (Old Norse ''á'', river, and ''býr'', village). Åby is identical in meaning with Aby in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

The town of Åby is very old and grew from a port that used to be here in the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, when Aarhus Å was a

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

. Over the years, the fjord sanded up and transformed into the narrow waterway we now know as Aarhus River. The usual village charm and characteristics are still clearly visible in Åby, especially around the church.

Gallery

File:Gl. Aaby gadebillede 4.jpg File:Gl. Aaby gadebillede 3.jpg Street-at-Aaby-2.JPG Gl. Aaby gadebillede 2.jpg Åby Park.jpg, Åby Park Kayak på Aarhus Å.jpg, At Aarhus River and Brabrandstien.

Sources

Åby Kirke - Hasle Herred
Nationalmuseet
There is a map of the village around 1780 on p.1451. Summary of the text in English. * August F. Schmidt (1941–43): ''Aaby Sogns Historie (Hasle Herred)'', Vol. I-II. Volume I was self-published, Volume II was published by Aaby Kommune. * ''Åby og Åbyhøj - Fra landsby til forstad'', Aaby - Aabyhøj Lokalhistoriske Forening (Sep. 2002)
Pamphlet published by the local-history association in Åby and Åbyhøj on the 100th year jubilee of Åbyhøj.

External links

Neighbourhoods in Aarhus {{CentralDK-stub