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A Brief History of Aarhus
Viking-era Aarhus Mask Stone at the Moesgård Museum in Aarhus, Denmark (cc)
Photo: Lars Zwemmer
A Brief History of Aarhus
Aarhus is an old city, founded in the 10th century by the Vikings, who liked to establish new settlements on the coast by the mouth of a river. The old Viking name for the city was Aros, which means “the river mouth.” Over time, the name changed from Aros to Aarhus, which also became the name of the river. The first cathedral, the Vor Frue Church (the Church of Our Lady), was built in the 11th century and is not far from the present cathedral in Aarhus, built some 200 years later. The Vor Frue Church has been rebuilt but the crypt from the original building can still be seen inside.
Aarhus expanded a great deal when the new cathedral was built and flourished during the Middle Ages much thanks to its big harbor. The city continued to grow and in the 17th century it became the second biggest city in Denmark. Both trading and population stagnated over the next 200 years and it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that Aarhus started to see some changes. The harbor was expanded around the same time the railroad was built, which led to the biggest upswing Aarhus had seen since the Middle Ages.
The present city hall building and the university buildings were built in the 1930s and 1940s and Aarhus went from being just a commercial port to a modern city. Still, it retains many traces of the past, which is what makes Aarhus so popular today among citizens and visitors alike.
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