Vester Allé Barracks

Vester Allé Kaserne is a former military barracks and listed building in the city of Aarhus. The barracks was built on the area between Vester Allé, Frederiks Allé and Thomas Jensens Allé in 1875-1878 and was closed in 1969 after which the buildings were taken over by Aarhus Municipality. There are two remaining buildings left from the original complex; the Officersbygningen (The Officers Buildings) and Ridehuset (The Riding Hall).

Today the riding hall today functions as a small multi-hall in Aarhus city hosting concerts, exhibitions and markets; frequently cultural events, but anyone can rent it and use it for private or commercial purposes as well. The officers building is home to Aarhus School of Music and the Aarhus Festuge secretariat. There is a small café here too - Café Monroe -, serving breakfast and lunch three days in the week and occasionally hot evening meals accompanying small concerts.

The parade grounds between the buildings feature a white wooden building known as Jacob Haugaards' Toilet. It was constructed when Jacob Haugaard was elected to the Folketing in 1994 and one of his campaign promises was to build a toilet there.

Vester Allé Kaserne is an example of the National Romantic style; designed by Carl Lange. The officers building is a three floor structure with a basement, constructed in 1874-1878 in conjunction with a number of other structures that are now gone. It is a red brick structure with bands of yellow bricks, arched windows and doors of yellow brick. For decorative reasons corner towers and buttresses were included. The building was meant to house 100 soldiers, officers, school rooms and commonrooms. The riding hall is a single hall of 900m2 with enough room for 1130 people.

The riding hall was constructed in 1860 by the Ministry of War for the 3rd Dragoon Regiment, also called Prins Frederik Ferdinands Dragoons, which had been stationed in Aarhus since 1819. The riding hall was the only military structure in the city at the time with soldiers being quartered in private homes and interimistic barracks around the city. In the 1860s the garrison was increased and it became necessary to build new barracks.

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