10 random facts you (maybe) didn’t know about Gothenburg

Here are 10 random facts you didn’t know about the second biggest city in Sweden:

1. Gothenburg is the city with the longest summers in Sweden, 144 days to be precise. 

2. During the 1600s the Dutch nicknamed the city New Amsterdam due to the urban planning of Gothenburg, which was inspired by the Dutch model of canals and fortifications. 

3. In fact, the first officially registered resident in Gothenburg was Dutch.

4. The city is also called Little London due to a large influx of Brits in the 1800s who helped build the city. This nickname is still used.

5. The football tournament Gothia Cup which is normally held every year in Gothenburg, is actually the largest football cup in the world. Europe’s largest basketball tournament, Scandinavia’s largest film festival and the largest Nordic literary festival also take place in the city.

Gothia Cup in 2017. Photo: Adam Ihse/TT

6. Gothenburg’s amusement park Liseberg is Sweden’s most visited tourist destination with three million visitors each year.

7. The tram network in Gothenburg consists of 240 trams, many of them named after famous cultural figures. It is also the largest Nordic tram network.

One of Gothenburg’s famous trams. Photo: Adam Ihse/TT

8. Gothenburg port is the largest in the Nordic region. 

9. There is a skyscraper (er, by Swedish standards – it’s 86 metres tall) in the city that is nicknamed The Lipstick (läppstiftet).

The Lipstick building. Photo: Erik Svensson/TT

10. Gothenburg natural museum features the world’s only stuffed blue whale. It was killed by the locals after it got stranded in 1865 and bought by the museum. The whale was over 16 metres long and weighed over 25 tonnes.