page_title: Den Gamle By
section_title: Buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Den Gamle By / Buildings
caption_attribution_description: Dansk: Møntergården den gamle by Århus
context_page_description: Den Gamle By, or The Old Town in English, is an open-air town museum located in the Aarhus Botanical Gardens, in central Aarhus, Denmark. In 1914, the museum opened as the world's first open-air museum of its kind, concentrating on town culture rather than village culture, and to this day it remains one of just a few top rated Danish museums outside Copenhagen, serving more than 400,000 visitors pr. year. Today the museum consists of 75 historical buildings collected from 20 townships in all parts of the country. The town itself is the main attraction but most buildings are open for visitors; rooms are either decorated in the original historical style or organized into larger exhibits of which there are 5 regular with varying themes.
  The museum buildings are organized into a small town of chiefly half-timbered structures originally erected between 1550 and the late 19th century in various parts of the country and later moved to Aarhus during the 20th century. In all there are some 27 rooms, chambers or kitchens, 34 workshops, 10 groceries or shops, 5 historical gardens, a post office, a customs office, a school and a theatre.
context_section_description: The Old Town features a total of 75 buildings from 20 Danish towns while another three are in storage awaiting later reconstruction. The oldest structure is a storage house from Aalborg from c. 1550 and the youngest is a garden pavilion from the 1909 Country Exhibit in Aarhus. The majority of the structures are from the mid 18th to early 19th centuries in typical half-timbered Renaissance style.
  The largest and most impressive buildings are the Coin Master's Mansion from Copenhagen (c. 1683), the Mayor's House from Aarhus (c. 1597), a merchant's house from Aarhus (c. 1723) and the Aalborg Estate from Aalborg (c. 1570 and 1807). Many smaller buildings of diverse persuasions are scattered around the site, ranging from ordinary residences to a small dock for boat construction, a tobacco barn, several watermills and a windmill.
  The most recent addition to the museum town was the half-timbered Coin Master's Mansion (Møntmestergården). It was erected as a residence for the royal coin masters in Copenhagen by Gregorius Sessemann in c. 1683 and was used for this purpose until 1749. The Copenhagen City Museum disassembled the building in 1944 and in 1995 it was handed over to The Old Town who initiated its reconstruction in 1998, finishing in 2009. The Coin Master's Mansion was reconstructed as it is believed to have presented itself in 1750 and the interior was furnished accordingly, using methods and materials true to this period.
  The Mayor's House is one of the most significant Danish half-timbered Renaissance buildings with many unique architectural features. It was the first building in The Old Town and is still one of the central pieces in the town. The Mayor's House now contains a cavalcade of common city culture from 1600 to 1850. Original located at Lilletorv (Lesser square) at the corner of Vestergade and Immervad at the site of present-day department store Magasin du Nord.
  The merchant's mansion from Aarhus is the main parts of a large mansion originally at Brobjerg Port later named Frederiks Port, the city gate at the end of Frederiksgade. At the city boundary at the time, now  opposite the present day city hall. The mansion was rebuilt in The Old Town in 1942. Facing the street there is a grocery, residential wing and large grain storage in the attic and the stable and garden are situated in the back. The merchant's mansion is now home to one of the regular exhibits in the museum, The Merchant Mansion of 1864.
  The Aalborg Estate consists of five buildings, two from c. 1570, one from c. 1585, one from c. 1634 and one from c. 1807. The complex was part of the same merchant's estate in central Aalborg and was rebuilt in The Old Town in 1926 and 1934 and one building now doubles as a brewery.
caption: The Coin Master's Mansion. Reconstructed in 1998-2009.
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