Ålkistan ( Swedish: "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 ...

, and the surrounding area, north 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 ...

. The canal connects

Lilla Värtan Lilla 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 joined by the Stocks ...

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 ( or , ), also known as Solna Municipality, is a municipality in central Stockholm County, 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 i ...

, from the northern part of

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , 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 Skansen, the small resident ...

. 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 water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

leading to the bay

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 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 type 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 ...

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 or Carl (''Carl Ludvig Eugen''; Swedish language, Swedish and Norwegian language, Norwegian officially: ''Karl''; 3 May 1826 – 18 September 1872) was King of Sweden and List of Norwegian monarchs, Norway, there often referred to as C ...

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