Hjälmare Kanal

Hjälmare Canal ( ) is a 13 kilometres long

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 ...

that connects Lake Hjälmaren with Lake Mälaren in

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 was taken into use in 1639, aimed to transport iron from the Central Swedish Mining District to Stockholm and further abroad. Plans to extend the canal west of Örebro to Lake

Vänern Vänern ( , , ) is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the European Union and the third-largest lake in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia. It is located in the provinces of Västergötland, Dalsland, and Värmland in the sou ...

and further to

Göta älv The (; "River of (the) Geats") is a river that drains lake Vänern into the Kattegat, at the city of Gothenburg, on the western coast of Sweden. It was formed at the end of the last glaciation, as an outflow channel from the Baltic Ice Lake to ...

were never realized (hilly area). Instead

Göta Canal The Göta Canal () is a Swedish canal constructed in the early 19th century. The canal is long, of which were dug or blasted, with a width varying between and a maximum depth of about .Uno Svedin, Britt Hägerhäll Aniansson, ''Sustainab ...

, located further south and taken into use in 1832, fulfilled the aimed function of connecting the Baltic with the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. Traffic on the Hjälmaren Canal was frequently discontinued due to a considerable maintenance need, which is why the canal was relocated in 1830. The relocation led to radically decreased maintenance costs and increased reliability. But the canal's importance diminished in the late 19th century due to competition from

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. At the same time Sweden's metallurgic and timber industry came to focus on provinces far further north in Sweden. Since the reconstruction of 1830, 9

canal lock A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a chamber in a permanently fixed position i ...

s lower the boats 22 metres down to Lake Mälaren. Boats may not exceed the dimensions 30x7 metres and a maximum draught of 1.9 metres. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hjalmare Kanal Government-owned companies of Sweden Canals in Sweden Norrström basin Canals opened in the 17th century Buildings and structures completed in 1639 Transport infrastructure completed in the 1630s 1639 establishments in Sweden