Aarhus | |
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State | Central Denmark Region |
Country | Denmark |
Capital | |
Population | 273077 |
Postcode | 8000 |
Aarhus (, also US: , Danish: [ˈɒːˌhuˀs] (listen); officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality. It is located on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula, in the geographical centre of Denmark, 187 kilometres (116 mi) northwest of Copenhagen and 289 kilometres (180 mi) north of Hamburg, Germany. The inner urban area contains 280,534 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2020) and the municipal population is 349,983 (as of 2020). Aarhus is the central city in Business Region Aarhus and in the East Jutland metropolitan area, which had a total population of 1.378 million in 2016.The history of Aarhus began as a fortified Viking settlement founded in the 8th century and with the first written records stemming from the bishopric seated here from at least 948. The city was founded on the northern shores of a fjord at a natural harbour and the primary driver of growth was for centuries seaborne trade in agricultural products. Market town privileges were granted in 1441, but growth stagnated in the 17th century as the city suffered blockades and bombardments during the Swedish Wars. In the 19th century it was occupied twice by German troops during the Schleswig Wars but avoided destruction. As the industrial revolution took hold, the city grew to become the second-largest in the country by the 20th century.
Today, Aarhus is at the cultural and economic core of the region and the largest centre for trade, services, industry, and tourism in Jutland.
Kiel | |
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State | |
Country | |
Capital | |
Population | 0 |
Kiel (German: [kiːl] (listen)) is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 249,023 (2016).
Kiel lies approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula and the southwestern shore of the Baltic Sea, Kiel has become one of the major maritime centres of Germany. For instance, the city is known for a variety of international sailing events, including the annual Kiel Week, which is the biggest sailing event in the world. Kiel is also known within modern history for the Kiel Mutiny, where German sailors refused to board Navy vessels in protest against Germany's continued fighting in World War I which led to the abdication of the Kaiser and the formation of the Weimar Republic. The Olympic sailing competitions of the 1936 and the 1972 Summer Olympics were held in the Bay of Kiel.Kiel has also been one of the traditional homes of the German Navy's Baltic fleet, and continues to be a major high-tech shipbuilding centre.