THE CITY OF GUSTAVOS ADOLPHUS

Evening Star, Issue 22817, 27 November 1937, Page 21

THE CITY OF GUSTAVOS ADOLPHUS

When, more than 300 years ago, Gustavus Adolphus commanded construction of Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast, his main reason was that the country sorely needed a port facing the North Sea and the Ocean. “ Here a city shall rise,” was his order. And there it rose, modest at first, but growing and prospering through the years. When Hollanders build they build to last. Soon after the King bad issued his command he summoned experts from Holland to lay out a typical seaport, and those experts built Gothenburg just as they would have a town in their own land, making it with canals and straight streets and a large moat. The moat has been transformed into a waterway bordered with trees, and the old wall has been removed to make way for an esplanade, but even to-day most of the canals remain, giving the city its characteristic appearance, and travellers a strong reminder of the Netherlands. Now Gothenburg is Sweden’s second largest city, its wide window to the west, and a port whore gather ships from all over the world. Cargo vessels, coast steamers, timber boats, lishipg

smacks, and ocean liners crowd its wharves. Its shipyards are_ busy turning out still more tonnage; its factories are hard at work producing almost 10 per cent, of the nation’s manufactured goods. But the city’s chief glory, in the eyes of its inhabitants and visitors alike, is not its industrial life, hut its avenues of trees and its parks. “ Slottskogen,” commanding a view of the surrounding country, is judged one of the finest parks in Europe while except for the Kew gardens near London “ Tradgardsforeningen ” contains some of the best hothouses for tropical plants. The city stands on a broad plain on the left bank of the great South Estuary of the Gota Elf, and it has a splendid harbour, rarely blocked w.ith ic<j,