Domkirkepladsen 1 is a

listed building 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, Hi ...

and the former Bank of Denmark branch building 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 ...

. The bank was built in 1926 and was listed in the Danish national registry of protected buildings and places by the

Danish Heritage Agency The Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces () is an agency under the aegis of the Danish Ministry of Culture. The agency carries out the cultural policies of the Danish government within the visual and performing arts, music, literature, museums, h ...

on 22 February 1996. The bank is situated on the Store Torv square in the central

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 ...

neighbourhood next to the

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

where it has functioned as a bank since its completion until today. The building is no longer in use by the Bank of Denmark but still functions as a bank, occupied by a branch of Nykredit.

History

The Bank of Denmark branch in Aarhus was established in 1837 and it was the first bank in the city. 90 years later the branch needed expansion and the architect Axel Berg was commissioned to draw up plans for a new building. The building was constructed between 1924 and 1926 and has remained almost unchanged since then apart from a minor expansion.

Archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

from Moesgård Museum have excavated the basement and area around the building where evidence of

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 ...

structures and church buildings from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The Bank of Denmark left the building in 1989 and one year later the building was taken over by a private bank after an extensive renovation by C. F. Møller Architects.

Architecture

The building design is broadly speaking

historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying the process or history by which they came about. The term is widely used in philosophy, ant ...

, combining

English Baroque English Baroque is a term used to refer to modes of English architecture that paralleled Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London (1666) and roughly 1720, when the flamboyant and dramatic qualities of Baroque ...

with influences of Italian

renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

. The building is clad in porphyry with sandstone from Nexø used for the base,

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

and architraves. The low

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

is covered in verdigris green copper plating. The interior decoration is preserved with marble floors, mahogany doors and brass railings. In the expedition room the stucco ceiling remains in original condition except for the implementation of modern halogen lamps in the 300 rosettes as a replacement for the original lights. The design is by Axel Berg and it is the last of his works. Berg drew inspiration from

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmet ...

' interpretation of works by

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( , ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be on ...

Gallery

File:Nationalbankens tidl. filial (detalje 01).jpg File:Indgang (Nationalbankens tidl. filial).jpg File:Nationalbankens tidl. filial (Nykredit).jpg File:Nationalbanken, Aarhus (vinduer) 02.jpg Nykredit13.jpg File:Nykredit1.jpg

References

External links

* {{Coord, 56.1574, 10.2105, region:DK_type:landmark, display=title Listed buildings in Aarhus Commercial buildings completed in 1926