Aarhus

Founded in the late eighth century as a harbour at the mouth of the Aarhus River, fortified with ramparts in the Viking Age, and a trade hub almost from the start, though market town privileges did not come until 1441. The cathedral is the longest in Denmark at ninety-three metres, and the Church of Our Lady, first built in 1060, is the oldest stone church in Scandinavia. Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller finished the City Hall in 1941 in a spare Functionalist style. Jutland’s first railway ran from here in 1862 and its first university opened in 1928.