The Eriksberg Crane () is a full gantry crane in the Eriksberg district of

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 ...

, part of the former Eriksberg shipyard. It is a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, and is considered to be one of the city's main

landmarks A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern-day use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures ...

and an important relic of its industrial and maritime heritage. The company

Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstads AB was a Swedish shipbuilding company based in Gothenburg. It was founded in 1850 by Christian Barchman under the name ''Ericsbergs metall och tackjerns-gjuteri''. It delivered its last ship in 1979. History Intr ...

was founded in the Eriksberg district of Gothenburg in 1876, and initially specialised in manufacturing iron and steel parts, but later switched its focus to shipbuilding and built up a sizeable shipyard on the north bank of the

Göta Älv Göta is a Swedish given name, which is the female equivalent of Göte. It may refer to: * Göta Ljungberg (1893–1955), Swedish singer * Göta Pettersson (1926–1993), Swedish gymnast Other uses * Göta, Sweden *Göta älv, a river in Swede ...

, on the island of

Hisingen Hisingen () is the fifth-largest island of Sweden (after Gotland, Öland, Södertörn and Orust), with an area of . It is a river island, formed by the split of the Göta Älv at Bohus Fortress, Bohus, and is defined to the east and south by t ...

. The main structure of the crane was fashioned in eight sections by

NOHAB NOHAB (Nydqvist & Holm AB) was a manufacturing company based in the city of Trollhättan, Sweden. History The company was founded by Antenor Nydqvist, Johan Magnus Lidström and Carl Olof Holm in 1847 as ''Trollhättans Mekaniska Verkstad'' as ...

Trollhättan Trollhättan () is the 23rd-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Trollhättan Municipality, Västra Götaland County. It is situated by Göta älv, near the lake Vänern, and has a population of approximately 50,000 in the city proper. It is loc ...

in 1968, and was transported by barge down the

to Gothenburg. The crane was assembled and erected at one of the dry docks in the Eriksberg shipyard in 1969. The lifting gear was manufactured by Pohlig-Heckel-Bleichert (PHB) in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. However, in the event the new gantry crane only saw a decade of use. Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad was bought out by the Swedish state in 1975, becoming part of the

nationalise Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

Svenska Varv Svenska Varv AB was a Swedish state-owned company that was founded in 1977. It was formed to liquidate the many unprofitable assets of the Swedish shipbuilding industry which experienced a major financial crisis during 1969–1985 due to competi ...

, and production at the Gothenburg shipyard was wound down in 1978–1979, with the yard's final vessel, the M/T ''Atland'', being delivered on 15 June 1979. From 1993 the crane has been used for

bungee jumping Bungee jumping (), also spelled bungy jumping, is an activity that involves a person jumping from a great height while connected to a large elastic cord. The launching pad is usually erected on a tall structure such as a building or crane, a ...

, and at 84 metres in height, it is Sweden's highest bungee-jumping location.“Eriksbergs bockkran blir byggnadsminne”
Länsstyrelsen I Västra Götalands län. Press release 26 June 2012. It was recognised as a listed building in 2012.Beslutsdatum 2012-06-25.
Eriksbergs bockkran. Although no longer operational, the Eriksberg Crane is the only remaining full gantry crane in Sweden. There were once similar cranes at shipyards in

Uddevalla Uddevalla is a Stad (Sweden), town in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It’s the seat of Uddevalla Municipality. In 2015, it had a population of 34,781, making it the largest town fully in Bohuslän. Uddevalla is located where the river Bäveån ...

and

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, but the former was scrapped in 1986 and the latter (the so-called

Kockums Crane The Kockums Crane () is a high gantry crane in the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea. It was originally used at the Kockums shipyard in Malmö, Sweden. History It was built in 1973–74 and could lift . The gauge of c ...

) was sold to

Hyundai Heavy Industries HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea. History HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division ...

in 2002, for the nominal sum of $1 (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

), and transported to

Ulsan Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

.”Eriksbergs bockkran”
article by Olle Niklasson in

Göteborgs-Posten (), abbreviated GP, is a major Swedish language, Swedish-language daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden. History and profile was first published in 1813, but ceased publication in 1822. It re-appeared in 1850. Publication seven day ...

, 14 March 2013, updated 22 January 2014.

References

{{coord, 57.6976, 11.9090, type:landmark_region:SE, display=title Buildings and structures in Gothenburg Shipyard cranes Individual cranes (machines) Buildings and structures completed in 1969 1969 establishments in Sweden 1960s establishments in Gothenburg and Bohus County

See also

References