Gothenburg

A first town on the site, founded in 1604, was burned down by Danish forces in 1611. Gustavus Adolphus tried again and in 1621 granted Gothenburg its charter as a heavily fortified trading town — Sweden's only gateway to the North Sea, squeezed between Danish Halland and Norwegian Bohuslän. Dutch engineers drained the marshy ground and laid it out like Amsterdam or Batavia, with canals and straight streets; Dutchmen dominated the council until 1652, and Germans and Scots settled in numbers too. The 1641 council had four Swedish, three Dutch, three German and two Scottish members.

The Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 moved the borders away and left the city less exposed. Fishing was the main industry until the Swedish East India Company was founded in 1731, and its profitable expeditions to China paid for the Neo-Classical stone houses along the canals. The walls came down from 1810. In the 19th century Gothenburg became Sweden's main port for the west and the point of departure for emigrants to America, and its population grew tenfold, from 13,000 in 1800 to 130,000 in 1900. Scots left lasting marks: William Chalmers endowed what became Chalmers University of Technology, and Alexander Keiller founded the Götaverken shipyard in 1841.

From its founding until the late 1970s the city was a world leader in shipbuilding, with yards such as Eriksberg, Götaverken and Lindholmen. SKF, founded in 1907, and Volvo, founded in 1927, carried the industrial economy on, and both Volvo companies still have their headquarters on Hisingen. The old shipyard land along the river has since been rebuilt with campuses, offices and housing, and Karlatornet, the tallest building in the Nordic countries, rises at Lindholmen.

The sea, trade and industry run through the city's culture, and much of it was founded by merchants: the Röhsska Museum, hospitals and the university all began with private donations. Götaplatsen, built for the city's 300th anniversary, gathers the art museum, the city theatre, the concert hall and the library at the top of Avenyn, and the Göteborg Opera stands on the river at Lilla Bommen.

Music has a strong local tradition. The Spotnicks were the first Swedish group to succeed internationally; Ace of Base and The Soundtrack of Our Lives came from here; in the 1970s the city was a centre of the left-wing progg movement; and At the Gates, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity are credited with pioneering melodic death metal. The indie scene produced Jens Lekman, José González and Little Dragon, and Håkan Hellström fills his songs with the city's places.

Football in Sweden began here with the first match in 1892, and IFK Göteborg has won the UEFA Cup twice; Frölunda HC is a five-time ice hockey champion. The Gothia Cup, Göteborgsvarvet, the film festival and the Book Fair are among Scandinavia's largest events of their kind. Gothenburgers are known for their love of wordplay — Göteborgsvarvet's name puns on the Swedish word for both a lap and a shipyard — and on 6 November the city marks its founder's death day with Gustavus Adolphus pastries.

About 600,000 people live in the city proper and about 1.08 million in the metropolitan area (2023), which stretches into neighbouring municipalities such as Partille, Kungälv and Kungsbacka. In 2019 about 28 per cent of residents were born abroad. The inner districts — the canal city, Haga, Linnéstaden, Majorna and Vasastan — are dense and walkable, while the Million Programme estates of Angered, Bergsjön and Biskopsgården on Hisingen lie further out and are more isolated from the centre.

Volvo Cars is the largest employer, and SKF, the Volvo Group and Ericsson also run plants in the area; the port is the largest in Scandinavia. High-tech work is gradually replacing blue-collar jobs, and banking, finance, events and tourism are also important. The University of Gothenburg, with about 58,000 students, and Chalmers give the city a large student population.

Trams are part of everyday life, with lines converging on Brunnsparken, and around 25,000 sailing boats and yachts are kept in and around the city. In summer many residents leave for the archipelago and the coast between Midsummer and the end of July.

Seafood is at the centre of the city's cooking: shrimp and lobster are specialities of the Skagerrak coast, and Feskekôrka, the 'fish church' of 1874, was for generations Gothenburg's indoor fish market before a renovation begun in 2021 left it with a single restaurant. The city has a strong record in fine dining — five Gothenburg restaurants held a Michelin star in 2008, and by 2007 Gothenburg chefs had won seven of the previous twelve Swedish Chef of the Year awards.

The coffee break is just as important. The cafés of Haga are known for the Haga bulle, a large cinnamon roll similar to the ordinary kanelbulle, and Gothenburg is particularly attached to the Gustavus Adolphus pastry, eaten on 6 November and usually topped with a chocolate or marzipan portrait of the king. Hönökaka, a soft, round, pricked white flatbread named after Hönö and first baked by the people of the northern archipelago's islands, is now also made industrially.

For everyday eating, Linnégatan is the main restaurant street, Avenyn and the Långgatorna streets fill with outdoor tables in summer, and the Saluhallen market hall on Kungstorget holds food stalls and small eateries. Liseberg's Christmas market serves mulled wine and other seasonal specialities.