Gothenburg

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Template:Alternateuses Template:Infobox Kommun2 Gothenburg (Swedish: Template:Audio) Template:IPA) is a city and municipality on the west-coast of Sweden, in the County of Västra Götaland. 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 seat of residence for the county, which itself is located in the historical province of Västergötland.

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History

Image:Arkeologi - Rekonstruktionsritning av staden Nya Lödöse.jpg Image:Carl Milles Poseidon 01.jpg

In the Middle Ages the town of Lödöse - 40 kilometers north of present day Gothenburg up the Göta älv - served as trade centre and port to the west. For strategic reasons (the Norwegian Bohus Fortress was a threat further down the river, cutting it off from the sea) the town was moved closer to the sea. But the new settlement, Nya Lödöse (New Lödöse), also had its problems and the town dwellers had to seek protection at the old Älvsborg Fortress.

In the early 17th century Sweden controlled only one point on the western coastline. An attempt in 1607 to found a city by the name of Gothenburg on the nearby island of Hisingen had failed due to the Kalmar War, but the second attempt in 1621, by King Gustavus Adolphus (Gustaf II Adolf), was successful. Following the successive wars, by 1658 all the Danish eastern provinces were ceded to Sweden, by the Treaty of Roskilde; it meant that Halland, south of Gothenburg, and Bohus county (Bohuslän), north of Gothenburg, became Swedish - making Gothenburg's position less exposed and enabling the town to grow into an important port and trade centre on the west coast.

A curiosity in the history of the city is that the Dutch town planners that the Swedish king summoned when he founded the city (the Netherlands were a world leading nation in the field at the time) used the same blueprint for the canals of Gothenburg as they used for Jakarta.

In the 18th century the Swedish East India Company in Gothenburg became the largest trading company in Sweden.

In Dutch, Scots, German and English- languages with a long history of being spoken in the trade and maritime-oriented city - the name Gothenburg (with varying pronunciations) was traditionally used for the city, while the French form of the city name is Gothembourg. These traditional forms are now widely replaced with the use of the Swedish form Göteborg.

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Politics

The legislative body of Gothenburg is the City Council with 81 members elected by proportional representation for a four-year term. The council appoints an executive 13-member Board of Commissioners, headed by the mayor. Currently, the mayor of Gothenburg is Göran Johansson, from the Social Democratic Party

The municipality is subdivided into 21 boroughs, which carry responsibility for primary school, social, leisure, and cultural services within their respective areas. A point of some controversy is the fact that the borough councils do not reflect the local majority, but follow the majority at City Hall for the entire municipality. In the election of 1998 three boroughs -- Askim, Torslanda and Älvsborg -- held local referenda on forming their own municipalities, but their petitions were rejected by the Government of Sweden.

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Geography

Image:Gothenburgharbour.JPG Image:Göteborg spårvagn.jpg Main article: Geography of Gothenburg

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.

The Gothenburg Metropolitan Area extends to the municipalities of Ale, Härryda, Kungälv, Lerum, Mölndal, Partille, Stenungsund, Tjörn, Öckerö in Västra Götaland County and Kungsbacka in Halland County.

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Transportation

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.

Gothenburg is a logistic centre, with transports by train and truck from Sweden and Norway to Gothenburg harbor which is by far the largest port in Scandinavia with a cargo turnover of 36.9 million tonnes a year (2004).

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Demographics

Gothenburg, as most Swedish metropolitan areas, has a large immigrant population. According to SCB in 2005, there are 93,965 immigrants resident in Gothenburg, which is about 20% of the population, out of which 10% is from Iran and 9% from Finland. The Iranian population, as well as other immigrants from the Middle East (notably Iraq) and former Yugoslavia, is concentrated in Angered (most notably Bergsjön, Hjällbo and Hammarkullen) and other suburbs in the north east. This has received criticism from the Swedish Integration Board (Integrationsverket), since these areas are becoming more and more subjects of segregation.

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Economy

By its naturally advantageous location, Gothenburg houses the largest and most important harbor 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 Car being the largest employer and a number of smaller computer software vendors.

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Universities

Image:Handelshogskolan.jpg Main article: Universities in Sweden

The universities of Gothenburg, originally small university colleges, started thanks to private doners in the 19th century. Today there are more than 60,000 students.


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Culture

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 (see Sites of interest), an institution that was largely built because the workers should have something to do on their spare time, except to drink liquor. 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.

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.

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Sites of interest

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 [1] inaugurated in 2004.

The Göteborg Botanical Garden [2] is considered to be one of the most outstanding botanical gardens in Europe.

The amusement park Liseberg located in the central part of the city, is the largest in Scandinavia, and among the most popular attractions in Sweden. Next to Liseberg is the science discovery centre Universeum.

The central city and the harbour can be viewed from the The Gothenburg Lookout.

Another tourist attraction is the archipelago of Gothenburg, it can be reached by boat; Älvsborg Fortress, Vinga and Styrsö islands are popular places to visit.

Museum of World Culture

Gothenburg Opera

Skansen Crown

East Indiaman Götheborg

Liseberg

Haga

Gothenburg Museum of Art

Universeum

Masthugget Church

Göteborg Botanical Garden

Älvsborg Fortress

The Canals

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Food and drink

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.

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Sports

Held events
Annual events

Image:Nyaullevi.jpg

Planned events
Arenas
Teams
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Notable natives

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Miscellaneous topics

Off the coast of Gothenburg is the Southern Gothenburg Archipelago, a group of completely car-free islands.

The city of Gothenburg has the worst air pollution in Sweden. In 2006, the number of days where the levels of NO2 was higher than 60mg/m3 had exceeded the EU air pollution limit for the year by the end of January. The level of dust PM10 also exceeds the EU framework directive for ambient air quality 1999/30/EC and the four Daughter Directives. Not surprisingly is Gothenburg the only city in Sweden that has a regular Critical Mass demonstration every month.

On the evening of October 29 1998, a fire developed in the premises of the Macedonian Association discotheque in Gothenburg. On the evening of the fire it was estimated that the number of people in the disco reached 400. In this incident 63 people died[3] [4].

Gothenburg is also noted for being the centre of the melodic death metal movement, a typically Swedish musical style, being home to such internationally known bands as At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, The Haunted, In Flames, and Arch Enemy. It is also a pop music center in Sweden, with an active indie scene.

Gothenburg has been in a friendship partnership with the South African City of Port Elizabeth since 1998, a partnership fostering development of common fields of interest such as solid waste management, public libraries, sport and tourism.

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See also

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External links

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