Mindegade is a 120 meters long street 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, 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 ...

, situated in the historic

Indre By Indre By (English language, English: ), also known as Copenhagen Center or K or Downtown Copenhagen, is an districts of Copenhagen, administrative district (''bydel'') in central Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It covers an area of , has a p ...

neighborhood. Mindegade runs from north to south from ''Fiskergade'' to ''Dynkarken'' and the square ''Europaplads''. Mindegade gradually evolved from around 1606 as the city slowly extended southwards as the harbor was expanded and the

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

was covered up. The name is from some time before 1796 and refers to the nearby outlet of the river; the word "minde" is an old Danish world for river mouth and "gade" means street. Mindegade is fairly narrow and is a

one-way street One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typicall ...

going from north to south. *The street contains two

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

; Trods Katholm and

Hans Broge's House Hans Broge's House () is a house and a listed building in Aarhus, Denmark. The house was built in 1850 and was listed on the Danish registry of protected buildings and places by the Danish Heritage Agency on 6 September 1987. The house is situat ...

History

The city gate ''Mindeport'' was originally situated at the end of Mindegade and is first mentioned in the 1500s. Mindeport was the gate travelers coming from the south had to come through. After coming through the gate one had to move over the bridge ''Mindebroen'' to cross the

Aarhus river Aarhus River () is a long river, in eastern Jutland, Denmark. The river flows through the large river valley of Aarhus Ådal. The valley itself, stretches from Silkeborg to the coastal city of Aarhus, but the Aarhus River only runs through the e ...

and move on into Skolegade and the city proper. In 1690 the city gate was moved further south to ''Dynkarken'' by ''Ridderstræde'' but as the area became more heavily populated it was eventually moved to ''Sønder Allé''. In 1857 the

octroi Octroi (; , to grant, authorize; Lat. ''auctor'') is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption. Antiquity The word itself is of French origin. Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being known in R ...

taxes were abolished and ''Mindeport'' along with the rest of the gates in the city were torn down. In 1606 the large mansion » Trods Katholm« was erected at the southern edge of the city by ''Fiskergade''. The area was not especially attractive and new developments tended to mostly happen to the north and west. In 1634 the bridge ''Mindebroen'' was built across the

south of Trods Katholm and it became possible to develop a new neighborhood by the

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current, reducing the carryin ...

. The new neighborhood was initially called "over broen" ( Lit. Over the bridge) and later "Mindegade" and "Dynkarken". The

harbor A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

saw a series of expansions in the 18th century and the

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

s were gradually extended into the bay which made Mindegade increasingly attractive and a main thoroughfare to the city center. The proximity to the harbor and the road leading south made it an attractive area for merchants who built many of the buildings in the street, including

. In the 1930s the river by the coast was paved over and ''Mindegade'' lost its significance as a thoroughfare.

References

;Publications *

External links

{{commons category, Mindegade, position=left Streets in Aarhus