Ålkistan (

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

: "The Eel Hatch") is the name of a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

, and the surrounding area, north of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The canal connects

Lilla Värtan Lilla Värtan ( sv, Smaller Värtan) or simply Värtan is a strait in Stockholm, Sweden. Separating mainland Stockholm from the island and municipality Lidingö, it stretches from Blockhusudden in the south to Stora Värtan in the north, and is ...

to Lake

Brunnsviken Brunnsviken (literally ''The Bay of Wells'') is a by brackish lake in Sweden located on the boundary between Solna Municipality and Stockholm Municipality, connecting to Lilla Värtan through Ålkistan. It has a perimeter of . Around Brunnsvi ...

, and delimits Bergshamra, the northern part of

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of t ...

, from the northern part of

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum ...

. The name ''Ålkistan'' first appears on a map of

dated 1649, pointing out ''Åhlekijstetorpet'' ("The Eel Hatch Cottage"), ''Åhlekijstebackan'' ("The Eel Hatch Hillside") and ''Åhlekijste wijken'' ("The Eel Hatch Bay"). In a

rivulet A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams are ...

leading to the bay

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

s were caught using cages (in Swedish called ''kista'', "coffin"), which gave the area its present name. The cottage is mentioned as a

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...

in 1789. By the mid-19th century, mud threatened to cork the rivulet, which would effectively have turned Lake Brunnsviken, being used as refuse dump as it was, into a sewer. King

Charles XV Charles XV also Carl (''Carl Ludvig Eugen''); Swedish: ''Karl XV'' and Norwegian: ''Karl IV'' (3 May 1826 – 18 September 1872) was King of Sweden (''Charles XV'') and Norway, there often referred to as Charles IV, from 8 July 1859 until his dea ...

therefore ordered the present canal to be constructed in 1863, which lowered the water level of Brunnsviken by two metres. A wooden bridge with a mobile flap leading over the canal was added at the same time. The bridge was substituted in 1937 by a bridge with an roadway and a horizontal clearance of 8 metres, rebuilt in 1972. There was a railway stop at Ålkistan from 1885 until 1923, at the Roslag Railway. The railway is still operational, but the trains do not stop at Ålkistan anymore. , no ships wider than 4.0 metres or deeper than 1.6 metres are allowed in the canal. Next to Ålkistan is a residential area, ''Sfären'' ("The Sphere"), with a local centre.

References

See also