In 2023, we will not only celebrate the city’s delayed 400th anniversary, but also several of Gothenburg’s most popular places as they turn 100 years old.

It’s no coincidence that so many attractions and institutions will turn 100 in 2023: they came about in various ways as a result of the great anniversary exhibition of 1923, when Gothenburg celebrated its 300th birthday.

Liseberg amusement park, Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Gothenburg Museum of Art, the Maritime Museum and Aquarium, the Slottsskogsvallen stadium, Göteborgs Konsthall and Göteborg Natural History Museum were all built for the great exhibition. The current layout of the main boulevard Avenyn was established that same year, the School of Business, Economics and Law received its first students, and Bräcke Diakoni began its operations.

They all plan to celebrate their 100th anniversaries in different ways in 2023! You can find out more on this page.

The 1923 anniversary exhibition

A major exhibition was planned to commemorate Gothenburg’s 300th anniversary in 1921. However, it was not ready in time and was delayed until 1923. This was the largest exhibition ever to have been held in the Nordic countries, and occupied large parts of the city.

The anniversary exhibition was opened on May 8 at 13.00 by King Gustav V and was due to close on September 30, but was extended until October 30.

The opening ceremony for the anniversary exhibition in 1923, which took place on May 8 on the square Gustaf Adolfs torg. Photo: Anders Wilhelm Karnell, 1871–1934, the Museum of Gothenburg

The exhibition attracted 4.2 million visitors and was spread across much of the city centre. A number of buildings and new institutions were created in connection with the exhibition.

Götaplatsen was built at the top of Kungsportsavenyn as an impressive backdrop to the main boulevard. Gothenburg Museum of Art and the Göteborgs Konsthall centre for contemporary art were built here, with both housing a contemporary Nordic art exhibition during the anniversary period.

The entrance to the anniversary area behind the art museum was also located on Götaplatsen. Temporary buildings were erected, housing a historical memorial exhibition including culture, crafts and sports. There was also a children’s area here, and from the top of the hill visitors could take a cableway to the newly built Liseberg amusement park.

Liseberg’s anniversary projects

Just south of the park, Liseberg’s expansion plans – the Anniversary Project – are currently taking shape. This includes the Liseberg Grand Curiosa Hotel, a 457-room family hotel that is integrated with the park, and Liseberg Oceana, a 14,000 m² aquatic experience unlike anything else in Scandinavia. The hotel will open in spring 2023, just in time for the amusement park’s 100th anniversary, with Liseberg Oceana due to open in spring 2024.

Liseberg Grand Curiosa Hotel

Liseberg Grand Curiosa will be Sweden’s most imaginative family hotel. This will be a hotel unlike anything visitors have experienced before, centred around children’s desire for discovery. With a slide from the second floor straight down into the lobby and a fully functioning pony carousel from 1923 in the restaurant, the Liseberg feeling will accompany guests from check-in to bed time.

The hotel in brief

• 29,900 m² total area (gross area)
• A total of 457 family rooms of at least 29 m², all with at least five beds
• 12 rooms will be specially designed for extra accessibility
• Restaurants and bars on the lobby level, seating a total of 830 indoors and 220 outdoors
• Penthouse with a bistro and bar, seating a total of 220 indoors and 150 outdoors
• Small meeting facility and gym
• Fully functioning pony carousel dating from 1923
• Slide from the second floor straight down into the lobby
• Games room for family and friends
• Cinema for film screenings

Liseberg Oceana

Oceana will be a magnificent water experience unlike anything else in Scandinavia. With almost 6,000 m² of indoor swimming space and 4,000 m² outdoors, guests will be able to enjoy everything from quiet indoor sandy beaches to adventurous thrills at northern Europe’s most exciting water attraction.

The water park in brief

• Approximately 14,000 m² in total, of which the main pool area makes up 5,600 m²
• 1,750 guests can visit the water park at the same time in the summer, when the outdoor section will also be open. At other times of the year, the capacity will be 1,250 guests
• 14 water attractions, including four large attractions
• Family river and wave pool
• Water play for all ages
• Restaurant
• Adjacent café and shop

Find out more about Liseberg Grand Curiosa and Oceana.

Gothenburg Botanical Garden

With 16,000 plant species spread across 175 hectares, Gothenburg Botanical Garden is one of the largest – and finest – botanical gardens in Europe. The garden was laid out between 1915 and 1923 by the City of Gothenburg, and was intended from the outset to serve not only as a botanical garden but also as a recreational area for the city’s inhabitants. The emphasis on horticultural values was unique at the time. The scientific collections are displayed in beautiful garden spaces, with equal importance being attached to knowledge and beauty. The garden was opened on July 8, 1923, and its first director was the renowned explorer and botanist Carl Skottsberg. The garden’s plant collections mostly came from countless expeditions around the world. These world-class collections include alliums and tuberous plants that were gathered from the wild, and that create a dazzling display in the allium garden and the rock garden. Plants include species from the colchicum, fritillaria, tulip, iris, trillium, erythronium, crocus, corydalis and dicentra genera. While most botanical gardens in European cities have been laid out on flat surfaces, Gothenburg Botanical Garden was built in a naturally undulating environment in a nature reserve, which makes it naturally varied. The nature reserve is located in the heart of the city and wild nature meets cultivated gardens here, with the boundaries are often being fluid. This is particularly clear in the rock garden, with its 4,000 species from every corner of the world. Here, you can also see Scandinavian plants in an area that aims to preserve Swedish plants that are endangered due to changing conditions.

Below the rock garden is the rhododendron valley which features around 100 different species, most of them collected in the wild from East Asia.

The greenhouses are home to Sweden’s largest collection of tropical orchids. Visitors can also see the toromiro tree, which is extinct in its natural environment of Easter Island but has been preserved and spread thanks to Gothenburg Botanical Garden. There is also a unique collection of dionysia, which are challenging to grow and mainly come from Afghanistan and Iran.

The current greenhouses were built in 1983, and are currently closed while waiting for new, larger greenhouses and a visitor centre to be built on the same site. In the meantime, some of the garden’s plants have been moved – including to the brand new ‘cultural gardens’. The new greenhouses are expected to be completed in 2026.

The garden runs extensive public and educational activities, and works closely with the University of Gothenburg. With around 650,000 visitors each year, Gothenburg Botanical Garden is one of Västra Götaland’s top visitor attractions.

A Friends of Gothenburg Botanical Garden association was formed in 1987, when it was feared that the garden would be unable to survive due to funding cuts. 120,000 people signed a petition to save the garden, which has since flourished to become an extremely popular attraction. The association now has around 7,000 members, and makes a significant financial contribution to the development of the garden.

Gothenburg Botanical Garden was owned by the City of Gothenburg until 1998, when it was handed over to the newly formed Region Västra Götaland.

New cultural gardens

Gothenburg Botanical Garden’s 100th birthday will be celebrated in 2023 with the inauguration of a brand new facility in the garden. This will be built next to Stora Änggården, as many plants – such as dahlias and plants from Landeriet and Stallbacken – will need to be moved here to make space for the new greenhouses and visitor centre. The Stallet building will also be relocated here.

The facility will include a kitchen garden and an educational garden, as well as a small greenhouse. It is hoped that the small mountain greenhouse and the allium garden will be completed in time for the 100th anniversary, when construction can begin on the new large greenhouses and visitor centre.

Konstepidemin takes over the botanical garden

There have been ideas about a collaboration between Gothenburg Botanical Garden and Konstepidemin for many years. The aim is to both collaborate and challenge each other, with guest performances in each other’s areas – both geographically and in terms of content.

The basic idea behind this collaboration is an exchange in which art and horticulture can work together, generating interest and commitment in relation to biodiversity. The project will run during 2021 and 2022, culminating with Gothenburg Botanical Garden’s 100th anniversary in 2023.

Find out more about Gothenburg Botanical Garden at botaniska.se.

Gothenburg Natural History Museum

Gothenburg Natural History Museum has been in Slottsskogen for a hundred years. This is Gothenburg’s oldest museum, having been established in 1833 using the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences’ natural collections. In 1911, a need for larger premises to house the zoological collections was identified. The city council decided in 1914 that a new museum should be built at Olivedalshöjden, and the museum moved from the former Swedish East India Company building to its own purpose-built home in Slottsskogen. The doors were opened to the public on July 8, 1923. 

The anniversary plant bed

Gothenburg Natural History Museum will celebrate 100 years in its current location in 2023. Ahead of the celebrations, local schools have been invited to help sow wild plants. The anniversary plant bed is part of Gothenburg Botanical Garden’s So wild! project. The aim is to involve children and adults in their local environment, to teach them more about wild plants, and to promote biodiversity.

Anniversary publication

A great deal has happened during the museum’s 100 years in Slottsskogen city park. The museum itself has been reorganised and rebuilt, exhibitions have come and gone, and scientific research has made huge advances, often with the help of our collections. The museum has been established as a leading player within research, education and further education.

Anniversary exhibition: Nature through a lens – birds, fossils and photographs

As part of the anniversary celebrations, the museum wants to showcase the significance that science and nature have had – and continue to have – for our contemporary society. We are creating an anniversary exhibition in partnership with the Hasselblad Foundation, with programme activities including talks and workshops. 

The exhibition will be shaped by a combination of natural artefacts from the museum’s scientific collections, together with photographs and stories that reflect the museum’s history and highlight how the discovery and exploration of nature has brought new knowledge about biodiversity.

The idea is that more people should be able to access and discover nature. When collecting materials for the exhibition, we want to encourage all age groups to explore and photograph their local nature. We will use photography as a method for heading into nature, and for learning and discovering new things.

Find out more about Göteborg Natural History Museum here.

Gothenburg Museum of Art

The art museum was designed by Arvid Bjerke and Sigfrid Ericson, and was built for the 1923 anniversary exhibition when Gothenburg celebrated its 300th birthday. The museum building opened two years later, once the interiors had been completed and the collection had been hung in place.

Since it was first opened in 1925, the museum has been expanded twice. A wing housing an exhibition hall on the east side of the old building and three floors for the modern collection at the rear were completed in 1968. In January 1996, the museum gained a new entrance hall and an extension housing the Hasselblad Centre, the museum shop and a restaurant.

Gothenburg Colourists exhibition in 2023

To mark the anniversary year in 2023, a Gothenburg Colourists exhibition and related activities have been planned.

Find out more about Gothenburg Museum of Art at goteborgskonstmuseum.se.

The main boulevard Avenyn

Gothenburg’s main boulevard Avenyn is actually called Kungsportsavenyn or, to be slightly pedantic, Kungsportsavenyen.

The street is 860 metres long, and was built in the late 1800s. Today, it stretches from Kungsbron to Götaplatsen in the city centre. It was not until the anniversary exhibition in 1923 that the street was extended to Götaplatsen and achieved its final length. Avenyn as a whole street will therefore turn 100 in 2023.

The renovation of Avenyn

Avenyn has not been renovated for 50 years, and it has now been decided that the boulevard itself and Götaplatsen should be restored to their former glory, thereby reinforcing the area’s identity. The renovation project also aims to enhance the street’s position and implement improvements for the winter.

The first phase is expected to begin in mid-2024. The renovation of Avenyn and Götaplatsen is expected to be complete by summer 2026.

Historical photographs of Södra Vägen

Twelve electrical cabinets from Berzeliigatan to Korsvägen have been adorned with images from the past in a collaborative project between the Avenyföreningen association, Göteborg Energi and BRF Berzelius.

The images have been donated by Andreas Holmström, who inherited a photographic collection. Most of the photographs on display on Södra Vägen were taken by his relative Axel Wilhelm Olsson. Andreas’s great-grandmother (and Axel’s daughter) Magnhild also took some of the photographs.

Slottskogsvallen

The Slottsskogsvallen athletics stadium and its entrance park were built for Gothenburg’s great anniversary exhibition in 1923 to mark the city’s tercentenary. Due to the anniversary celebrations being delayed, the stadium was completed in May 1923. In July that same year, the international Swedish games took place at Slottsskogsvallen.

The stadium was designed in the light and elegant 20th century classicist style, as were the other buildings constructed for the exhibition. It was designed by architect and professor at the Royal Institute of Technology Lars Israel Wahlman.

Due to its proximity to Slottsskogen city park, the stadium was one of the first sports facilities in Sweden to be integrated into a park environment. The second International Women’s Games were held at Slottsskogsvallen in 1926, and in 1942 the Swedish runner Gunder Hägg set a world record for running a mile. In the early 2000s, Slottsskogsvallen also came into use as a concert venue about twice a year.

The renovation of Slottsskogsvallen

In honour of Gothenburg’s 400th birthday in 2021, Slottsskogsvallen was renovated by the Sports and Associations Administration. This included recreating the stadium’s original colour scheme of grey-beige and cobalt blue.

New entrance park

Slottsskogsvallen’s new entrance park opened in 2021. There is now a stage for yoga and dance, swings, table tennis tables and scooter riding areas. The park also has simple running tracks, and the existing boules courts and pond have been renovated.

The Maritime Museum and Aquarium

The Maritime Museum itself is not celebrating its centenary yet, but the aquarium that was established for the 1923 anniversary exhibition is.

The Maritime Museum will reopen on December 10, 2022 following extensive redevelopment work that began in 2018.

The aquarium will mark its 100th birthday by reopening in 2023 – twice the size, and with ten times as much water compared to before!

Find out more about the museum at sjofartsmuseetakvariet.se.

Göteborgs Konsthall – Center for contemporary art in Gothenburg

In 1923, a major anniversary exhibition was staged in Gothenburg to mark the city’s 300th anniversary two years earlier. Several new attractions were built as part of the exhibition, including Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Liseberg amusement park and Gothenburg Botanical Garden. At this time, there were also several associated buildings behind the current Göteborgs Konsthall gallery, but these are no longer standing.

As part of the anniversary exhibition, an exhibition of contemporary Nordic art was displayed at the gallery and the art museum. The Norwegian part of the exhibition was shown in what is now Göteborgs Konsthall, and included works by Edvard Munch.

The gallery was designed by the architects Sigfrid Ericson and Arvid Bjerke, who also designed the art museum. The yellow brickwork on the façades of the gallery was supplied by Lomma Brick Factory. On the side facing Götaplatsen, there are three arched niches with sculptures by the artist Palle Pernevi.

In 2017, Göteborgs Konsthall was designated a historic building by the county administrative board, which wrote: “The building is very typical of the time with its classicist features, and has high architectural and artistic value both internally and externally.”

New book: ‘Göteborgs Konsthall – A Hundred-Year History of Art’

Discover the history of Göteborgs Konsthall, a centre for contemporary art in Gothenburg. This new book begins in 19th century Europe when public art exhibitions were first held, describes the city’s anniversary exhibition in 1923 when the gallery opened, and brings us right up to date with 2020 and the pandemic. The book has been written by Andréas Hagström together with several guest authors. 

Anniversary activities in 2023

In June 2023, the gallery will mark its 100th anniversary with celebrations and activities.

Find out more about the gallery at goteborgskonsthall.se.

School of Business, Economics and Law

Plans to establish a business school in Gothenburg were first drawn up towards the end of the 19th century, in order to provide future generations of merchants in the trading city with the scientific – and practical – education they needed.

However, the time was not yet right, and it was not until 1923 that the School of Business, Economics and Law opened its doors. The first intake consisted of nine students who were taught economics, business technology (or what we would now call business administration), economic geography and legal science, as well as English, German, French and Russian. A great deal has happened during the past hundred years, but some of the School’s original characteristics can still be seen to this day, such as close cooperation with industry and society, global perspectives and prestigious education.

The School has had several different addresses over the years. Having been temporarily housed at Gothenburg University College, it moved to Gamla Handels at Läroverksgatan 1 in 1925, now known as Gustaviskolan. However, the School quickly outgrew these premises and plans for a new, separate building began to take shape. An architectural competition was announced, and Carl Nyrén was commissioned to design the building at Vasagatan 3, opened by Prince Bertil in October 1952.

With time these premises also became too small, and in September 1995 the School moved into a new home at Vasagatan 1. The new building has been recognised for its architectural merit, and was awarded the Kasper Salin Prize in 1995.

The School once again found itself in need of larger, more flexible premises, and a new architectural competition was announced in 2014. The new building will have space for expanding research, new teaching and rewarding meetings, enhancing the School’s ability to contribute towards positive societal development. The School’s entire operations will also be able to come together under one roof.

The building will include an entrance to the new Haga Station, making the School an even clearer part of the city with better commuting opportunities for students and employees alike. The building is expected to be complete in 2025, and is being built by Serneke on behalf of Akademiska Hus.

Anniversary activities in 2023

The centenary of the School of Business, Economics and Law will be celebrated throughout 2023. The anniversary year brings many opportunities for the public to take part in socially relevant research and fascinating discussions with invited guests. A long-awaited bachelor’s programme in economics taught entirely in English, and open to both Swedish and international students, will begin in autumn 2023. 

Find out more about the School of Business, Economics and Law at gu.se.