Founded 1621 Restaurants with one star in the Michelin Guide = 6 Photo: House of Vision/Göteborg & Co

 Gothenburg was founded in 1621 by Gustav II Adolf, but it was not the first town at the mouth of the river Göta älv. At the end of the 15th century, Nya Lödöse was built and became an important trade city for Sweden. Nya Lödöse stood at the site where the neighborhood Gamlestaden is today. 

King Charles IX  (for many people in Gothenburg as the king on the stallion “Kopparmärra” at Kungsportsplatsen) took the decision to build the city of Gothenburg in 1603 at the current area Färjenäs on the island Hisingen. This town was completely destroyed in 1611 when the Danes burned it to the ground. Fortunately, the Swedes did not give up the idea of ​​a western commercial city, and in 1619 the king Gustavus Adolphus proclaimed “Here, the city shall lie” and pointed to the ground in today’s Gothenburg. This alleged occasion is immortalized at Gustaf Adolf Square by artist Bengt Erland Fogelberg and his famous statue of the king (as seen at the top). 

Gothenburg was built during the 1600s by the Dutch, as they were considered the best at building on marshland. This has given Gothenburg’s city centre its famous canals that are distinctly Dutch-inspired. The original city was built inside a large zigzag-shaped city wall that came to characterize Gothenburg for centuries to come. Not much is preserved today from this fortification, but a remnant of the bastion Carolus Rex XI remains at Esperantoplatsen, close to Feskekörkan the fish market. The moat along with the two redoubts Skansen Lejonet and Skansen Kronan, made the 17th-century Gothenburg one of Northern Europe’s most fortified cities.

Tip: There is a self-guided walk around the oldest part of Gothenburg called Dutch Gothenburg, that will give you an introduction to its heritage from the 17th century. Read more at innerstaden.se.

During the 1700s Gothenburg grew into a huge city for the time: over 10,000 (!) inhabitants. The port’s importance grew and thanks to the Swedish East India Company, as well as exports of iron and wood, Gothenburg became a major trading and shipping town. The tobacco and sugar industry accompanied the herring fishery and other key industries and gave the city of Gothenburg big profits. Many of the wealthy merchants of those days built magnificent log houses along the city canals. Unfortunately, Gothenburg was hit by a series of fires in the late 1700s and therefore none of the original wooden buildings remain. 

Because of the fires, a building ordinance was added in 1803 which declared that only stone houses could be built inside the moat. Some of Gothenburg’s most characteristic neighborhoods were built in the 19th century, for example Vasastaden, Lorensberg and the main boulevard Avenyn (clearly inspired by other formal European streets like Champs-Élysées in Paris). These neighborhoods were the first middle-class residential areas outside the moat, all with large stone buildings as their characteristics.

It was also at the end of the 1800s that the world-famous landshövdingehus (governor houses) began to be built. These houses were built over large areas in Gothenburg’s suburbs at the time (areas like Majorna, Annedal, Lunden and Haga among others) and mainly for the growing working class.

In the 1800s, both industries and the trading houses expanded in Gothenburg. The industrial revolution particularly came to change the urban landscape and new industrial harbors along the river Göta älv came to replaced the older and smaller ones. 

During the 1900s Gothenburg grew and as part of this expansion many new neighborhoods were built. The island Hisingen became a more integral part of the city centre of Gothenburg when neighborhoods like Lindholmen, Lundby, Brämaregården and Rambergsstaden was built. Two bridges were built over to Hisingen: Göta Älvbron opened in 1939 and Älvsborgsbron in 1966. The infrastructure in Gothenburg evolved gradually during the 1900s and this changed the cityscape a lot.

In 1902, the former horse-powered tram was converted to electric power and decades later, the car traffic increased, which naturally changed the structures of many neighborhoods and streets. The 1900s was also the century when many Gothenburg landmarks were built. The Röhsska Museum and Lorensbergsteatern (theatre) opened in the 1910s and in the same decade the first seed was planted in what would become the Gothenburg Botanical Gardens.

During the 300th anniversary in 1923 (delayed two years due to difficult economic times), Götaplatsen was inaugurated with the Gothenburg Museum of Art as the crown jewel. Another important Gothenburg institution that was also opened at the jubilee exhibition was the Liseberg amusement park.