The Bourse () is a municipal building in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, western

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It is located on the north side of Gustaf Adolf Square. Originally it was designed as a mercantile exchange, with a ballroom, by architect Pehr Johan Ekman in the Neoclassical style. It opened on 1 December 1849. The Gothenburg Municipal Council and its predecessor have conducted their meetings here since 5 January 1863. The Swedish term for this building, ''Börsen'' (derived from the French "La bourse"), is frequently mis-translated into English as "The Stock Exchange". However, the building was never primarily a

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...

, but rather a commercial exchange or mercantile exchange (see

Exchange (organized market) An exchange, bourse (), trading exchange or trading venue is an organized market (economics), market where (especially) tradable securities, commodity, commodities, foreign exchange market, foreign exchange, futures contract, futures, and option ...

), in the same spirit as a modern

commodities exchange A commodities exchange is an exchange, or market, where various commodities are traded. Most commodity markets around the world trade in agricultural products and other raw materials (like wheat, barley, sugar, maize, cotton, cocoa, coffee, ...

. Although the Gothenburg exchange had no royal patronage, it fulfilled a similar function to the contemporaneous royal exchanges of, for example,

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

History

By statute enacted in 1661, the first trade guild in Sweden was created in Gothenburg, meeting at a town hall building located on what is now the Gustaf Adolf Square. The current Bourse building is located on the site of the Kaulbarska House, that had been owned by Baron Johan von Kaulbars, who had been a general in the army of King

Charles XII Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII () or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.), was King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of the House of ...

. The mansion was demolished in the early 19th century, to make way for a new civic building. By 1844, the city's merchants had raised enough funds for the construction of this building, with the cornerstone being laid by King Oscar I on 1 June 1844 and the building being completed in 1849. Since the original meeting of the Gothenburg city council in 1863 the Bourse has been the ordinary meeting place of the council and the current municipal council which succeeded the city council. A renovation project of the Högvakten neighbourhood, including the Bourse, began in the autumn of 2014. Works were completed in early 2019 and the municipal council returned to the building.

External links

References

{{coord, 57, 42, 28, N, 11, 58, 2, E, display=title Listed buildings in Gothenburg City and town halls in Sweden Government buildings completed in 1849 1849 establishments in Sweden Commodity exchanges Ballrooms Neoclassical architecture in Sweden 19th-century establishments in Gothenburg and Bohus County