Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
series of changing exhibitions, the museum aims to reflect the depth, variety and
ever-evolving nature of world culture - past displays have focused on sexuality in India,
human trafficking around the world and the native people who live along the Orinoco.
Vasastan
Having explored the city centre, don't miss the opportunity to wander into the
Vasastan
district, where the streets are lined with fine nineteenth-century and National
Romantic architecture, and the cafés are cheaper, more laidback and much more
charismatic than those in the centre. The area also boasts Gothenburg's collection of
applied arts, the
Röhsska Museum
, and several fine university buildings.
Vasagatan
Along
Vasagatan
, the main street through the district, and parallel
Engelbrektsgatan
to
the south, you'll come across solid, stately and rangy buildings that epitomize
Gothenburg's nineteenth-century commercial wealth and civic pride. White-stuccoed
or red-and-cream brick facades are decorated with elaborate ceramic tiles, intricate
stone-and-brick animal carvings, shiny metal cupolas and classical windows. With the
detail spread gracefully across these six-storey terraces, the overall effect is of restrained
grandeur. Many of the houses also have Continental-style wrought-iron balconies; it's
easy to imagine high-society gatherings spilling out into the night on warm summer
evenings. In contrast, interspersed among all this nineteenth-century swagger are some
perfect examples of early twentieth-century National Romantic architecture, with
rough-hewn stone and Art Nouveau swirls in plaster and brickwork; look particularly
at the low-numbered buildings along Engelbrektsgatan.
3
Röhsska Museum
Vasagatan 37-39 • Tues noon-8pm, Wed-Fri noon-5pm, Sat & Sun 11am-5pm • 40kr •
W
designmuseum.se
The excellent
Röhsska Museum
is Sweden's main museum of design, fashion and applied
arts and an aesthetic Aladdin's cave, with each floor concentrating on different areas of
decorative and functional art, from early-dynasty Chinese ceramics to European arts and
crafts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most arresting is the first floor,
which is devoted to twentieth-century decor and features all manner of recognizable
designs for domestic furniture and appliances from the 1910s to the twenty-first century
- enough to send anyone over the age of 10 on a giddy nostalgia trip.
Haga
A 10min stroll west along Vasagatan; alternatively take tram #2 or #13 from Vasaplatsen to Olivedalsgatan
The city's oldest working-class suburb is
Haga
; once so run-down that demolition was
on the cards, today it's one of Gothenburg's most enjoyable quarters. The
transformation took place in the early 1980s, after someone saw potential in the web of
artisans' homes known as “governor's houses”, distinctive early nineteenth-century
buildings constructed with a stone ground floor and two wooden upper storeys.
Haga Nygatan
Haga is now a miniature version of Greenwich Village, with well-off and socially aware
20- and 30-somethings hanging out in the style-conscious cafés and shops along its
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
CAFÉ LIFE, HAGA(P.116); KONSTMUSEUM (P.114);
KANELBULLAR
AND COFFEE AT HUSAREN CAFÉ (P.122);
FESKEKÔRKA (P.113) >
