The old town and the harbour
The old town is divided in two by the Stora Hamnkanalen, to the north of which is the harbour, where the impressive shipyards make for a dramatic backdrop. The streets south of the canal stretch down to Rosenlundskanalen and the excellent Stora Saluhallen. Straddling the Stora Hamnkanalen is the stately main square, Gustav Adolfs torg, a good starting point for sightseeing around the old town; you can easily see the whole area in a day.
Gustav Adolfs torg
At the centre of Gustav Adolfs torg, a copper statue of Gustav II Adolf points ostentatiously to the spot where he reputedly declared: “Here I will build my city.” This isn’t the original German-made statue of the city founder however: that one was kidnapped on its way to Sweden and, rather than pay the ransom demanded, the Gothenburgers commissioned a new one.
On the western edge of Gustav Adolfs torg stands the Rådhuset, which isn’t a town hall as the name suggests, but has housed the criminal law courts since 1673. The dull Neoclassical facade is dramatically improved by an extension designed by the ground-breaking Functionalist architect Gunnar Asplund in 1937.
Lilla Bommen harbour
At the riverside Lilla Bommen harbour Gothenburg’s industrial decline is juxtaposed with its artistic regeneration to dramatic visual effect. To the west, beyond the harbour, redundant shipyard cranes loom across the sky, making a sombre background to the industrially themed bronze and pink-granite sculptures dotted along the waterfront.
Maritiman
Walking west along the quay, it’s just a couple of minutes to Maritiman, the city’s engaging maritime museum, which comprises nineteen boats, including the 1915 lightship, Fladen, a submarine and a freighter which once sailed regularly from Gothenburg across the North Sea to the east coast of England, each giving a glimpse of how seamen lived and worked on board. The most impressive ship is a monstrous naval destroyer, Småland, which saw active service until 1979. There’s a rather good café on another of the ships, the ferry Dan Broström, with outdoor seating available on the upper deck.
Stadsmuseum
The Stadsmuseum is Gothenburg’s biggest museum. It is located in the Ostindiska Huset, which housed the offices, goods store and auction house of the enormously influential Swedish East India Company. Envious of the major maritime nations, two Gothenburg-based industrialists, Colin Campbell and Niklas Sahlgren, set up the firm in the early eighteenth century. Granted the sole Swedish rights to trade with China in 1731, the company monopolized all Swedish trade with the Far East for over eighty years, on condition that the bounty – tea, silk, porcelain, spices and arrack (an East Indian schnapps used to make Swedish punch) – had to be sold and auctioned in Gothenburg. As a result, Chinese influence pervaded Gothenburg society, and wealthy financiers adorned their homes and gardens with Chinese motifs. By 1813, unrest caused by the French Revolution and competition from British and Dutch tea traders meant that profits slid, and the company lost its monopoly. The headquarters, however, remain an imposing reminder of the power and prestige the company – and Gothenburg – once had.
Elsewhere in the museum, other main exhibits focus on Gothenburg’s Viking past and include the impressive remains of the Äskekärr longboat, a trading vessel dating from around 900 which was found 30km up the Göta River from present-day Gothenburg. There’s also a breathtaking collection of medieval triptychs from churches across western Sweden, as well as a thorough account of the founding of Gothenburg in 1621 and its development through the centuries.
Along Rosenlundskanalen
Following the zigzagging Rosenlundskanalen that marks the southern perimeter of old Gothenburg – a moat during the days when the city was fortified – makes for a fine twenty-minute stroll, past pretty waterside views and a number of interesting diversions.
The stretch along Stora Nygatan is the most scenic; to one side are Neoclassical buildings all stuccoed in cinnamon and cream, and to the other is the green expanse of Trädgårdsföreningen park.
Kungsportsplatsen and Stora Saluhallen
Continuing west from Trädgårdsföreningen park, you’ll pass Kungsportsplatsen, in the centre of which stands a useful landmark, a sculpture known as the “Copper Mare” – though it’s immediately obvious if you look from beneath that this is no mare. A few minutes further on, and one block in from the canal at Kungstorget, stands Stora Saluhallen, a pretty, barrel-roofed indoor market built in the 1880s. Busy with shoppers perusing the forty-odd stalls and shops and full of atmosphere, it’s a great place to wander, as is the market outside.
Trädgårdsföreningen park
Well-groomed Trädgårdsföreningen park contains a number of attractions, the most impressive of which is the 1878 Palmhuset (Palm House); designed as a copy of London’s Crystal Palace, and looking like a huge English conservatory, it contains a wealth of very un-Swedish plant life, including tropical, Mediterranean and Asian flowers.
Elsewhere in the park is the Rosarium, which, with nearly three thousand varieties of rose, provides a myriad of colours throughout the year; in summer it hosts lunchtime concerts and a special children’s theatre (details are available at the tourist office).
Just north of the main entrance to the park, across the canal, is Kungsportsplatsen, in the centre of which stands a useful landmark, a sculpture known as the “Copper Mare” – though it’s immediately obvious if you look from beneath that this is no mare.
Slottskogsparken
Slottskogsparken is a huge, tranquil expanse of parkland with farm animals and birdlife, including pink flamingoes in summer. On its south side are the impressive Botaniska Trädgården, a vast glasshouse akin to London’s Kew Gardens, which, at almost two square kilometres, are the biggest in Europe. The gardens hold some sixteen thousand species of plants; highlights are some of Sweden’s biggest orchids, the summer flower plantations and the adjoining arboretum.
Vasastan
Having explored the city centre, don’t miss the opportunity to wander into the Vasastan district, where the streets are lined with fine nineteenth-century and National Romantic architecture, and the cafés are cheaper, more laidback and much more charismatic than those in the centre. The area also boasts Gothenburg’s collection of applied arts, the Röhsska Museum, and several fine university buildings.
Vasagatan
Along Vasagatan, the main street through the district, and parallel Engelbrektsgatan to the south, you’ll come across solid, stately and rangy buildings that epitomize Gothenburg’s nineteenth-century commercial wealth and civic pride. White-stuccoed or red-and-cream brick facades are decorated with elaborate ceramic tiles, intricate stone-and-brick animal carvings, shiny metal cupolas and classical windows. With the detail spread gracefully across these six-storey terraces, the overall effect is of restrained grandeur. Many of the houses also have Continental-style wrought-iron balconies; it’s easy to imagine high-society gatherings spilling out into the night on warm summer evenings. In contrast, interspersed among all this nineteenth-century swagger are some perfect examples of early twentieth-century National Romantic architecture, with rough-hewn stone and Art Nouveau swirls in plaster and brickwork; look particularly at the low-numbered buildings along Engelbrektsgatan.
Röhsska Museum
The excellent Röhsska Museum is Sweden’s main museum of design, fashion and applied arts and an aesthetic Aladdin’s cave, with each floor concentrating on different areas of decorative and functional art, from early-dynasty Chinese ceramics to European arts and crafts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most arresting is the first floor, which is devoted to twentieth-century decor and features all manner of recognizable designs for domestic furniture and appliances from the 1910s to the twenty-first century – enough to send anyone over the age of 10 on a giddy nostalgia trip.