Marselisborgcentret, formerly Marselisborg Hospital, is a

rehabilitation hospital Rehabilitation hospitals, also referred to as inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, are devoted to the rehabilitation of patients with various neurological, musculoskeletal, orthopedic, and other medical conditions following stabilization of their ...

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 ...

, situated on ''P. P. Ørums Gade'' in the borough of

Marselisborg Marselisborg is a small borough of Aarhus, Denmark. Being small and situated just south of Frederiksbjerg, Marselisborg is often considered part of Frederiksbjerg. History Like most of the boroughs outside the inner city of Aarhus, Marselisbor ...

. The original hospital was established in 1913 and has been repurposed for rehabilitation, including related research and innovation, in 2001. A project at the rehabilitation centre, known as Spark, aims at creating a local public meeting space for everybody, including the well-functioning. The Spark project includes a café and canteen, and communal projects in the associated Rehabilitation Park.

History

Marselisborg Hospital was originally Aarhus'

epidemiological Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

hospital, replacing the former epidemiological hospital (from 1875) in ''Ny Munkegade'', where Samsøgades School is situated today. The Marselisborg Hospital grounds was at the time of construction outside city limits, but rapid population growth in the late 19th century resulted in city expansion engulfing the hospital area. In 1901, the inhabitants of Ny Munkegades contacted the city council, concerned about the hospital and the possibility of contagious and infectious diseases. In 1907, the city council established a commission to look at the possibility of a new, larger hospital. The commission reviewed a number of locations but eventually decided on a site in

outside the urban area. Construction of the new hospital began in 1910 and it was inaugurated on 31 May 1913. Originally the new hospital had a budget of 600,000 DKK but in 1911, costs had ballooned to 856,000 DKK. One reason was that the city council had decided the hospital should have a department for skin and

venereal disease A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, or ...

s. When the hospital was finished, it had homes for two

attending physician In the United States and Canada, an attending physician (also known as a staff physician or supervising physician) is a physician (usually an M.D., or D.O. in the United States) who has completed residency and practices medicine in a clinic ...

s for the two departments, one for

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...

and

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

and the other for skin and venereal diseases. The department for venereal diseases was segregated by gender and patients made to wear striped uniforms to clearly mark them from other patients. The first director of the hospital was also selected based on his past as a

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

. The hospital quickly turned out to be too small to keep up with the growth of the city. The location was also isolated from the Municipal Hospital and the County Hospital which made it less useful for more complex treatments. The departments was gradually transferred to Skejby Sygehus and in 1992, Marselisborg Hospital ceased to operate as an independent institution. In 2001, the hospital closed entirely and was made a department of the new Aarhus University Hospital as the Marselisborg Center (''MarselisborgCentret''), the Danish Center for Rehabilitation and research.

Architecture

Marselisborg Hospital is styled as 10 separate pavilions connected by hallways. The overall

floor plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...

was drawn by the architect Ludvig Petersen and was intended to make it easier to control infectious diseases by separating patients as much as possible. The buildings was designed by the architect

Thorkel Møller Thorkel Luplau Møller (28 July 1868 – 21 December 1946) was a Denmark, Danish architect who primarily worked in and around Aarhus at the turn of the 20th century. Stylistically he worked in the National Romantic style and later Baroque Reviva ...

National Romantic style The National Romantic style was a Nordic architectural style that was part of the National Romantic movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is often considered to be a form of Art Nouveau. The National Romantic style spread ...

. Between 1996 and 2001 a addition by C. F. Møller Architects was constructed.

Rehabilitation Park

Rehabiliteringsparken (The Rehabilitation Park), or Marselisborg Hospitalspark (Marselisborg Hospital Park), is a public park that was established in conjunction with the Marselisborg Hospital. At the time the hospital was built, most treatment was inpatient as opposed to modern practices that focus more on outpatient treatment. It was considered important that patients were given green spaces and fresh air as part of the treatment process and the park was established with that goal in mind. Today the Rehabilitation Park is public, covering roughly 4 acres of landscaped terrain. The terrain was originally flat but has had many small hills added while the trees date back to when the park was established and include fruit trees. Small plots of land in the park are allotted to citizens of Aarhus who wish to maintain a small garden.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1913 establishments in Denmark Hospitals established in 1913 Hospitals in Aarhus Hospitals in Denmark