Gothenburg
Gothenburg (in Swedish: Göteborg) is the second-largest city in Sweden (after Stockholm) and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. It is situated on the southwest coast of Sweden. The city has a population of around 500 000 inhabitants and around 900 000 in the metropolitan area. The City was founded in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. It lies by the sea at the mouth of Göta Älv - the river running through the city - and is the largest seaport in the Nordic countries. Gothenburg is a university city includes both the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. Volvo Cars was founded in Gothenburg in 1927.
Culture
The sea, trade and industrial history of the city is evident in the cultural life of Gothenburg. The greatest attraction in the city is the amusement park Liseberg. Related to the industrial heritage of the city is that many of the institutions were created thanks to donations from rich merchants and industrialists, for example the Röhsska Museum and Chalmers University of Technology.
Gothenburg is the host of several large festivals. The Gothenburg Film Festival, held each year, is the largest film festival in Scandinavia and the Gothenburg Book Fair, held every year in September, is the largest such event in Scandinavia.
Gothenburg has a rich music life - the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra is the best known when it
comes to classical music and is the National Sympony Orchestra. Gothenburg also was the birthplace of
the Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg. Bands like The Soundtrack of Our Lives and Ace of Base are well
known pop representatives of the city. There is also an active indie scene.
» Top
Food
Gothenburg is famous for the quality and variety of its seafood dishes. Various fish restaurants
exist in the city, from low-class shacks to world-class eateries. The city also has a number of star
chefs - over the past decade, seven of the Swedish Chef of the Year Awards have been won by
Gothenburgers. A popular place to buy fish ingredients is the Feskekôrka ("Fish Church"); an indoor
fish market which got its name from the building's resemblance to a Gothic church. Five Gothenburg
restaurants have a star in the 2008 Michelin Guide: 28 +, Basement, Fond, Kock & Vin, Fiskekrogen and
Sjömagasinet.
» Top
Tourist sites
Gothenburg is a popular destination for tourists on the Swedish west-coast, and offers a number of cultural and architectural highlights.
The main boulevard is called Kungsportsavenyn (commonly known as Avenyn, "The Avenue"). It is about one kilometer long and starts at Götaplatsen - which is the location of the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the city's theatre, the city library as well as the concert hall— and stretches out all the way to Kungsportsplatsen in the old city centre of Gothenburg, crossing a canal and a small park. The Avenyn was created in the 1860s and 1870s as a result of an international architecture contest, and is the product of a period of extensive town planning and re-modelling. Avenyn has Gothenburg's highest concentration of pubs and clubs.
Scandinavia's largest shopping centre, Nordstan, is located in central Gothenburg. Gothenburg's Haga district is known for its picturesque wooden houses and its cafés.
The Gothenburg Opera house was inaugurated in 1994, and is an architectural landmark situated right next to the Göta älv river. Museums include the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Göteborgs Konsthall, Röhsska Museum, and several museums of sea and navigation history, natural history, the sciences, and East India. The Museum of World Culture was inaugurated in 2004. Aeroseum, close to the Göteborg City Airport, is a unique aircraft museum in a former military under ground Air Force base.
The Göteborg Botanical Garden is considered to be one of the most important botanical gardens in Europe with three stars in the French Guide Rouge. Next to the botanical garden is Gothenburg's largest park, Slottsskogen, where the Natural History Museum (Naturhistoriska Museet) is located. The park is also home to the city's oldest observatorie and a zoo.
The amusement park Liseberg is located in the central part of the city. Liseberg is Scandinavia's largest amusement park by number of rides, and most popular attraction in Sweden by number of visitors per year (>3 millions). Located near Liseberg is a science discovery centre named Universeum.
One of Gothenburg's most popular natural tourist attractions is the Southern Gothenburg Archipelago, which is a set of many picturesque islands that can be reached by ferry boat. Within the archipelago Älvsborg Fortress, Vinga and Styrsö islands are popular places to visit.
The Gunnebo House can be seen South of Gothenburg, in Mölndal. It was built in a neoclassical
architecture in the end of the 18th century.
» Top