Every design for Aarhus

Aarhus takes its name from its position: the Old Norse words for river and mouth, for the spot where Aarhus Å meets the sea. A harbour settlement grew up there in the Viking Age, soon became a trading hub and was ringed with ramparts, and the bishops who followed filled it with churches.

Set on the eastern shore of Jutland, facing the Kattegat, Aarhus is now the second-largest city in Denmark and the largest centre for trade, services and tourism in Jutland. It is a university city with the youngest population in the country, known to Danes as Smilets By, the City of Smiles. Its museums give it shape on the map: ARoS Kunstmuseum, the open-air museum Den Gamle By, KØN and the old lane of Møllestien.

For anyone who studied here and stayed, or grew up between the harbour and the river, Den Gamle By says it best: a whole old town kept alive inside a young city, which is exactly how belonging to Aarhus feels.