Midtbyen is part of district Aarhus C, mainly with postal code 8000, together with Vesterbro, Nørre Stenbro Trøjborg and Frederiksbjerg and has a population of around 90000.

Parts of the old town center has been saved and protected from destructive modern development and can be experienced in the neighbourhood of Latinerkvarteret, but old individual listed houses are scattered all across Midtbyen.

Midtbyen comprise the oldest part of the city of Aarhus and was where the town itself originated more than a thousand years ago.

Midtbyen dates back to at least late 700 AD, at the beginning of the Viking Age and was originally and previously confined by fortifications and walls.

The canal of the Aarhus River runs through Midtbyen, along the street of Åboulevarden and was important to the development of the early settlements, that sprawled around it.