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Gothenburg is a city and municipality in the province V sterg tland on the west-coast of Sweden. As of 2005, the population amounted to 485,000 in the actual city and 879,000 in the metropolitan area making it the second largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm. ... more »
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Airports Gothenburg is a city and municipality in the province Västergötland on the west-coast of Sweden. As of 2005, the population amounted to 485,000 in the actual city and 879,000 in the metropolitan area making it the second largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm. Gothenburg is the largest university city in Scandinavia with some 60,000 students.
The city is situated where the Göta Älv discharges into the Kattegat; the River divides the city in two halfs: the upper part located on the island Hisingen. The inlet of Göta Älv is well suited for a harbour, and Gothenburg has expanded its port into becoming the largest among the Nordic countries.
Situated on the western coast by Kattegatt, an arm of the North Sea, at the outlet of the river Göta älv and the Göta Canal. Due to the Gulf Stream the city has a mild climate and quite a lot of rain. The archipelago of Gothenburg consists of rough, barren rocks and cliffs, which also is typical for the coast of Bohus County.
By its naturally advantageous location, Gothenburg houses the largest and most important harbour installation in Scandinavia. Trade and shipping have always been important businesses and in the 18th century, the city was the home to the Swedish East India Company. Industry developed into an important business, e.g., SKF, Volvo and Ericsson.
The blue collar industries dominated until the late 1980s when shipyards started to shut down. Today the town has a mix of hi tech industries with Volvo Cars being the largest employer and a number of smaller computer software vendors.
Things to do
Gothenburg has a wide selection of cultural establishments worth seeing. A new opera house was inaugurated in 1994, the Gothenburg Opera. Museums include art (Gothenburg Museum of Art) and (Göteborgs Konsthall), design and handcrafts (the Röhss Museum), sea history, natural history, science, East India, and the Museum of World Culture inaugurated in 2004.
Kungsportsavenyn, commonly known as just Avenyn, "The Avenue", is the main boulevard. It was created in the 1860s and 1870s as a result of an international town planning competition. With a total length of about two kilometers, it stretches from the old moat at the edge of the older part of Gothenburg, and ends at the Götaplatsen square, where the Gothenburg Museum of Art and several other cultural institutions are located. Avenyn passes the Stora teatern, a Neo-Renaissance theatre and opera building from 1859, and has a major concentration of pubs, discoteques and restaurants.
The Göteborg Botanical Garden is considered to be one of the most outstanding botanical gardens in Europe.
Just across Dag Hammarskjöldsleden is Gothenburg's largest park, Slottskogen, where you can visit Gothenburg's Natural History Museum (Naturhistoriska Museet), a tropical animal park (Tropikhuset), a children's zoo (Barnens Zoo), and a family animal park (Djurgårdarna). The park is also home to the city's oldest observatory, but if you prefer, it's a perfect place for sun-bathing, picnicking, or taking a relaxing stroll through Gothenburg's shady forests.
The amusement park Liseberg located in the central part of the city, is the largest in Scandinavia, and the most popular attraction in Sweden by number of visitors per year (>3 millions). Next to Liseberg is the science discovery centre Universeum.
The central city and the harbour can be viewed from the The Gothenburg Lookout.
One of Gothenburg's most popular tourist attraction is the archipelago (Southern Gothenburg Archipelago), which can be reached by boat. Älvsborg Fortress, Vinga and Styrsö islands are popular places to visit.
In the 16th and 17th century, the situation of Sweden's borders made it strategically important to have an outpost on the west coast the exposed area in between rivalling countries Denmark and Norway. After some initial failed attempts, Gothenburg was successfully founded in 1621, by King Gustavus Adolphus (Gustaf II Adolf). The coat of arms was based on the lion of the coat of arms of Sweden, symbolically holding a shield with the national emblem, the Three Crowns, to defend against its enemies.
In 1658 and the Treaty of Roskilde, the Danish and Norwegian provinces (Halland, south, and Bohus County or Bohuslän, north), became Swedish, and with a less exposed position, Gothenburg was able to grow into an important port and trade centre on the west coast.
The architectural structure was made by contracted Dutch town planners hired by the Swedish king, and the blueprint for the canals of Gothenburg are actually the same as those used for Jakarta.
In the 18th century, the most important industry was the fishing industry. However, in 1731 the Swedish East India Company was founded, and the city flourished due to its foreign trades with highly profitable commercial expeditions to Asian countries.
The harbour developed into Sweden's main harbour for trades towards the west and with the Swedish emigration to North America increasing, Gothenburg became Sweden's main point of exit. The importance of Gothenburg as a main port of exit for Swedish emigrants is apparent in the naming of Gothenburg, Nebraska a small Swedish settlement in the United States.
With the 19th century, Gothenburg evolved into a modern industrial city that continued on into the 20th century. The population increased ten-fold in the century, from 13,000 (1800) to 130,000 (1900). In the 20th century major companies that developed were SKF (est. 1907) and Volvo (est. 1926).
In more recent years however, the industrial section has faced a recession, which has spurned the development of new sectors such as increased merchandice and cultural and educational institutions.
Gothenburg, with its location just by the North Sea, has a number of top class fish and seafood restaurants. 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. The most popular place to buy the raw ingredient is the Feskekôrka ("Fish Church"); an indoor fish market, it got its name from the building's resemblance to a Gothic church. Four restaurants have presently (2006) a star in the Michelin Guide: 28 +, Basement, Fond and Sjömagasinet.
Gothenburg is perhaps the city with the highest concentration of cafés and coffee shops in Sweden; with a large group of students in the city centre and a long tradition of more traditional cafés the number of establishments exploded in the 1990s.
There are also a large number of pubs, bars and discotheques – for example at the main street Kungsportsavenyn.
The sea, trade and industrial history of the city is evident in the cultural life of Gothenburg. The biggest attraction in the city is the amusement park Liseberg. Another fact related to the industrial heritage of the city is that many of the cultural institutions, as well as hospitals and the university, were created thanks to donations from rich merchants and industrialists, for example the Röhss Museum.
The 1923 Gothenburg Industrial Exhibition saw the creation of the art museum and a number of other institutions. The event culture of the city was an important factor behind the creation of a number of other sport and cultural institutions.
Gothenburg has a rich music life - the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra is the best known when it comes to classical music. Bands like Soundtrack of Our Lives and Ace of Base are well known pop representatives of the city. The city is also noted for being the centre of the melodic death metal movement(sometimes even called "The Gothenberg sound"), a typically Swedish musical style, being home to such internationally known bands as At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, The Haunted, In Flames, Soilwork, and Arch Enemy. It is also a pop music center in Sweden, with an active indie scene.
There are many free theatre ensembles in the city, besides institutions like Gothenburg City Theatre, Backa Theatre (youth theatre) and Folkteatern.
The Gothenburg Film Festival, held each year, is the biggest film festival in Scandinavia.
The main airport is located at Landvetter, 20 km east of Gothenburg. The smaller Gothenburg City Airport lies 14 km northwest of the city. Other major transportation hubs are Centralstationen ("the Central Station") and the Nils Ericson Terminal with trains and buses to various destinations in Sweden, as well as connections to Oslo and Copenhagen. Several ferry lines run to/from Fredrikshavn, Kiel, Kristiansand and Newcastle.
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Gothenburg is a logistic centre, with transports by train and truck from Sweden and Norway to Gothenburg harbour which is by far the largest port in Scandinavia with a cargo turnover of 36.9 million tonnes a year (2004).
With over 150 km the Gothenburg tram is the largest tram/light rail network in Northern Europe.
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Temperature - Yearly Average
Distances are calculated as the crow flies, and are provided as an aid in planning only.
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
