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Mejlen or Asylet Børnely is a house, former asylum and 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 ...
in
Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Ã…rhus 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. The house was built in 1768 and was listed in the national Danish registry of protected buildings and places by the Danish Heritage Agency on 8 November 2008. The building originally functioned as a kindergarten but is today home to an art gallery.


History

In the 1880s Aarhus experienced rapid growth and the population ballooned from 6.000 people in 1850 to 50.000 in 1900. The large number of new inhabitants made it necessary to provide daycare for children of the working class. The kindergarten was commissioned by the religious charitable organization ''Stefansforeningen'' and was paid for by charitable contributions and fundraisers. On 10 March 1883 an editorial in Århus Stiftstidende invited people to donate and on 9 April 1883 a list of contributors was published. The building was designed to house 100 children and it was constructed in 1883 by architect Carl Lange. Originally the institution was simply called ''Asylet'' (English: The Asylum), which at the time meant kindergarten, but it was quickly changed to ''Stefansforeningens Børnely'' or colloquially just Børnely. The institution was managed by a number of
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...
s from Stefansforeningen which also used the building for religious children's services and meetings for christian organizations. In 1954 the kindergarten was moved to a new building in ''Valdemarsgade'' where the institution Børnely has survived into the 21st century.
Aarhus Municipality Aarhus Municipality (), known as Ã…rhus Municipality () until 2011, is a ''Municipalities of Denmark, kommune'' in the Central Denmark Region, on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and ...
took over the building when it became available and moved a
youth club A youth center or youth centre, often called youth club, is a place where young people can meet and participate in a variety of activities, for example table football, association football (US soccer, UK football), basketball, table tennis, v ...
from Mejlgade into it. The club was named Mejlen after the former address and the building is still known by this name. The club stayed until the 70s when
Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
rented the building. In 2009 the building was listed and in 2012 it was renovated after which the art gallery V58 moved in.


Architecture

The building was constructed in the historicist style popular at the time with references to Gothic and
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
styles while drawing clear inspiration from Diakonissestiftelsen on Frederiksbjerg from 1876. The small tower above the front entrance, which used to feature a bell, and the pointy arches of the windows are elements absent from the earlier work in Frederiksbjerg. The building material is red and brown brick.


References


External links

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Gallery V58
{{Coord, 56.15368, 10.20425, region:DK_type:landmark, display=title Listed buildings in Aarhus Houses completed in 1883 1880s architecture in Denmark