Vestergade, Aarhus

Vestergade

Vestergade is a diverse mix of buildings, representing its long history
Length	718 m (2,356 ft)
Location	Latin Quarter/Vesterbro, Aarhus, Denmark
Postal code	8000
Coordinates	56°09′27.1″N 10°12′04.9″E / 56.157528°N 10.201361°E / 56.157528; 10.201361

Vestergade (lit: Westward-street) is a street in Aarhus, Denmark, which runs east to west from the central square of Store Torv to the city park of Åparken at Carl Blochs Gade, intersecting the main streets of Grønnegade and Vester Allé along its course. Vestergade begins in the Indre By neighborhood and ends in neighborhood of Vesterbro, close to CeresByen. Vestergade has some of the best preserved 18th-century merchant estates in Aarhus and a history of creativity and artistic expression.

Vestergade was the original road leading to Viborg in the old Viking Age settlement. The buildings along Vestergade were the first outside the western defensive ramparts and formed the first civilian settlement. Originally, the street ended at Grønnegade but has since been lengthened as the city grew around it. Vestergade represents most periods in the history of Aarhus.

The early Viking Age settlement is thought to have been a military fortress and port. In the 900s, a settlement gradually developed outside the ramparts by the western gate. The new settlement housed traders, craftsmen, farmers and others that made a living dealing with the military base but were not permitted within it. In the settlement, a wooden church was constructed on the site of present-day Church of Our Lady. Vestergade is the street that led from the western gate of the fortress through the settlement by the church.

In the 11th century, Aarhus had become the seat of a diocese and the wooden church was replaced by a new whitewashed travertine church devoted to St. Nicholas; officially the cathedral of the diocese. Vestergade became the trade and ecclesiastical center while the fortress remained the domain of the king and military. However, by the late 11th century the power of the church had grown and the King and Catholic Church worked more closely together. The fortress was opened for civilian use and a new cathedral was constructed within it. The St. Nicholas church was subsequently given to the Dominican Order which built a convent around it and eventually tore the church itself down. Until the Reformation, the convent in Vestergade was home to the Dominicans and their beggar monks.