Valhalla Swimming Hall ( Swedish: Valhallabadet) is a swimming hall located in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

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 ...

. Valhalla was officially opened on December 6, 1956, by Gothenburg's municipal commissioner

Torsten Henriksson Thorsten (Thorstein, Torstein, Torsten) is a Scandinavian given name. The Old Norse name was ''Þórsteinn''. It is a compound of the theonym ''Þór'' (''Thor'') and ''steinn'' "stone", which became ''Thor'' and ''sten'' in Old Danish and Old Sw ...

History

Valhalla was designed by

Nils Olsson Nils Olsson (March 10, 1891 – September 21, 1951) was a Swedish architect. Biography Nils Olsson was born at Halmstad in Halland, Sweden. He studied at the Technical Elementary School in Malmö and then at Technical University of Muni ...

, the design was awarded with a bronze Olympic medal at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. The work was completed by Gustav Samuelsson in 1956 after Olsson's death. Upon completion at 67,000 m³, Valhalla was the biggest and most modern swimming facility in Sweden. The

interior decoration Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

of 700 square meters (7,535 square feet) was made by local painter Nils Wendel. In 1959 the men's tub bathing area was rebuilt to a

thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large Roman Empire, imperial public bath, bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed i ...

bath. In 1967 a 50-meter outdoor swimming pool was added to the facility. In 1987 the outdoor pool was replaced by a 50-meter indoor pool.

Events

Valhallabadet was a venue for the 1997 Short Course World Championships, the main venue was

Scandinavium Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971. Scandinavium has been selected as a championship arena at least fifty t ...

. During the 2005 Swedish Short Course Championships

Anna-Karin Kammerling Anna-Karin Kammerling (born 19 October 1980) is a world-record breaking Swedish former swimmer, who was born in Malmö, Sweden. Kammerling has twice lowered the world record in the 50-meter butterfly event. In 2000, she was a member of the 4× ...

broke the world record on 50 meter butterfly with the time 25.33 seconds. Valhallabadet was the swimming venue for the XIII

FINA World Masters Championships The FINA World Masters Championships (or "Masters Worlds") is an international Aquatics championships for adults (per FINA rules, Masters are 25 years old and older). The championships is held biennially, with competition in all five of FINA's di ...

in the summer of 2010.

References

External links

* * Website for th
2010 Masters Worlds

Newsreel of the inauguration
from SVT Sports venues in Gothenburg Swimming venues in Sweden Modernist architecture in Sweden {{Sweden-struct-stub