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Gothenburg
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GOTHENBURG |
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Sweden |
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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 872,000 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.
History
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 up the river) 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.
Places
of interest
The Göteborgs
Operan:

The Göteborgs Operan or Gothenburg Opera is an opera house
in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Göteborg Opera
house is relatively new: construction started in September 1989
after significant local commitment in the late 1980s (with as many
as 6,000 contributors to the new house) and it was completed with
great speed. Ground breaking took place in June 1991, and the building
was inaugurated in October 1994. The result was a world
class opera house with its auditorium built in the classical style.
With its stalls and balconies, it has 1,301 seats. The orchestra
pit has room for about 100 musicians. The House is shared by opera,
ballet, musicals and operettas so the architects had to meet a number
of challenges.It is a large house -
160 metres long and 85 metres wide at its widest – and the
building is 32 metres high. The floor area is 28,700 square metres.
The main stage is 500 square metres, while the stage opening is
20 metres high and 9 metres wide. There are four movable platforms
that each can carry a weight of 15 tons. The stage can be lit by
1000 spotlights with 250 automatic color scrollers and 900 dimmer
lights. The architect, Jan Izkowitz,
shares his vision of the house: “The building should be possessed
by an airiness that sends your mind soaring across the meandering
landscape like wings of seagulls.
Its shape should be inspired by
its location, from the magnificent but elusive landscape with its
light and open spaces, to the harbor’s more tangible technical
constructions; the bridges gracefully suspended across the water,
the transparent framework of the harbor cranes, the strength, softness
and elegance of the ships’ hulls, the wings of seagulls and
the flawless aerodynamic shape of sails”. Its reflects on the operatic
aspect of the design: “The world of opera should also be visible
in the architecture: the rear stage wall as a large set piece, the
colonnade as a series of symbolic gates and stage openings, the
fly towers as gigantic lighting towers, the shape and color of the
auditorium as an allusion to old traditions”. The overall size of the
building is a reflection of the company’s growth and it’s
spread throughout the city. Therefore, the building attempts to
encompass all the activities that were earlier spread out at six
different locations are now housed in one building.
Another reason
is that the Göteborg Opera should be able to offer as wide
a selection of productions as possible, with the possibility of
changing performance and art form from one night to another. There
can be five assembled stage sets stored in the house at the same
time, in five different areas the same size as the main stage. With
the help of advanced modern technology, whole stage sets can be
moved around, exchanged and assembled for the next performance.
Gothenburg Museum
of Art:

The Göteborg Museum of Art at Götaplatsen,
Gothenburg, is renowned for its collection of Nordic art from around
the close of the 19th century. A must see is the lavisciously decorated
Fürstenberg Gallery, named after a leading Gothenburg art donor,
Pontus Fürstenberg and his wife Göthilda. Among the artists
showcased one can mention Carl Larsson, Anders Zorn, and P.S. Kröyer.
The museum also houses older
and contempory art, both Nordic and international. The Museum has
been awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide (Green Guide Scandinavia).The
museum building was created for the international exhibition in
Gothenburg 1923, celebrating the city's 300th anniversary, and represents
the monumental Neo-Classical style.
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