Heleneborg is an estate on

Södermalm Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is the southern district of Stockholm City Centre. Overview The Södermalm district covers the island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''), which, however, is not fully separated from th ...

, a part of the city of

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

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 opposite Långholmen island (home to Långholmen prison until 1975). The property was bought in 1669 by Jonas Österling and was used by the Swedish tobacco manufacturing company (''Tobakskompaniet'') for tobacco production. However, after a conflict with both the company and the royal court, Österling went bankrupt and died in poverty in 1691. His estate was burnt down in 1701. From 1739 to 1759 the estate was owned by Olof Forsberg, who produced white clay pipes on the premises. Adolph Christiernin bought the property in 1759 and continued clay pipe production until 1766. He was a very wealthy man who spent his entire fortune on a fixed idea that he could find gold in the Swedish silver mines. He named the property Heleneborg after his wife Helena Catharina Malmin. Miserably poor, he had to abandon Heleneborg in 1767. In the 1860s Heleneborg was owned by W.N. Burmester, who housed the manufacturer and inventor

Immanuel Nobel Immanuel Nobel the Younger ( , ; 24 March 1801 – 3 September 1872) was a Swedish people, Swedish engineer, architect, inventor and industrialist. He was the inventor of the Lathe (tool), rotary lathe used in plywood manufacturing. He was a mem ...

on the premises. There his son

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( ; ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, inventor, engineer, and businessman. He is known for inventing dynamite, as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes. He also m ...

and Alfred's brothers experimented with the safe handling of the explosive

nitroglycerin Nitroglycerin (NG) (alternative spelling nitroglycerine), also known as trinitroglycerol (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless or pale yellow, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by ...

. After a big explosion in this plant on September 3, 1864, which killed the youngest brother,

Emil Oskar Nobel Emil Oskar Nobel ( , ; a.k.a. Oscar; 29 October 1843 – 3 September 1864) was a member of the Nobel family. Biography Emil Nobel was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He was the youngest son of Immanuel Nobel (1801–1872) and Karolina Andri ...

, Alfred Nobel created the Alfred Nobel & Company in Germany to continue his work in more isolated circumstances.
In 1874 captain Johan Adolf Berg bought the estate and renovated it to its present appearance. After his death, his widow sold Heleneborg in 1906 and the grounds were divided into lots for construction of apartment houses. Only the main building of Heleneborg was left, and today it can still be seen next to Söder Mälarstrand, close to Västerbron. Heleneborg has given its name to the close by street Heleneborgsgatan.

References

;Bibliography * Arne Munthe: ''Västra Södermalm intill mitten av 1800-talet'' (1959) * Birgit Lindberg: ''Malmgårdarna i Stockholm'' (1985, andra upplagan 2002) ;Notes {{coord, 59, 19, 10, N, 18, 02, 03, E, region:SE_type:landmark_source:kolossus-svwiki, display=title Geography of Stockholm