Avenyn (; formally Kungsportsavenyen, (en. "Kingsgate Avenue")) is the main

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...

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 ...

, Sweden. Designed in the mid 19th century as the first middle-class residential district outside the bastions of the fortified heart of the city, the design of Avenyn was inspired by established formal European streets like the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an Avenue (landscape), avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc ...

in Paris and the

Ringstraße The Ringstrasse or Ringstraße (pronounced Help:IPA/Standard German, �ɪŋˌʃtʁaːsə:File:De-Ringstraße.ogg, ⓘ, lit. ''ring road'') is a 5.3 km (3.3 mi) circular grand boulevard that serves as a ring road around the historic city centre, ...

in Vienna. The layout was the result of an international

town planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

competition. With a total length of about 1000 meters, it stretches from Vallgraven ("The

Moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

") at the edge of the oldest part of Gothenburg, and ends at the Götaplatsen square, where the Gothenburg Museum of Art and other prime cultural institutions are located. At Vallgraven, it connects to the narrower street ''Östra Hamngatan'' (formerly a canal), and the Avenue takes its full name after ''Kungsporten'', the "King's Gate", which was located at the point in the fortifications where Östra Hamngatan ends (see Kungsportsplatsen). The gate and the rest of the fortifications were demolished in the 19th century and replaced by a park. Initially a residential street for the wealthy businessmen of the city, Avenyn passes the '' Stora teatern'', the

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

theatre and opera building from 1859, and today has a major concentration of pubs, clubs and restaurants.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kungsportsavenyn 1860s establishments in Sweden Avenues (landscape) Shopping districts and streets in Sweden Streets in Gothenburg Urban planning in Sweden Tourist attractions in Gothenburg Avenyn 19th-century establishments in Gothenburg and Bohus County