Vester Allé 12 1.68

Vester Allé 12 is a listed building in Aarhus, Denmark. The building was completed in 1902 and was listed by the Danish Heritage Agency in the Danish registry of protected buildings and places on 5 April 1988. The building is situated on the west side of Vester Allé close by Vester Allé Barracks and ARoS Aarhus Art Museum. The building has been home to some of the earliest cultural institutions in the city.Colloquially the building is known as Smykkeskrinet (The Jewel Box) for its distinctive shape or as Erhvervsarkivet (The Business Archive) for its long tenure as the home of the Danish National Business Archives.HistoryVester Allé 12 was constructed between 1898 and 1902 as the home of the newly established State Library. In 1928 Aarhus University was established and the State Library became the official library of the new university and was renamed the State and University Library. The added functions meant there was insufficient space for storage and the library functions became scattered to a number of locations. In 1963 the library moved to the new building Bogtårnet (The Book Tower) designed by C.F. Møller on the Aarhus University campus. When the State and University Library vacated the building it was taken over by the Business Archives (later the Danish National Business Archive). The business archive had been established by the city in 1946 as an independent historical institution focused on historical documents related to commerce, business and economy. The Business Archive was taken over by the Danish State Archives in 1968. The archive has functioned in a double role as both the national archive of business records and the local archive of the city of Aarhus since then.