Lödöse (), also known as Gamla Lödöse is a locality situated in

Lilla Edet Municipality Lilla Edet Municipality () is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Lilla Edet. The present municipality was formed in 1971, when the market town (''köping'') Lilla Edet (instituted as ...

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County () is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of S ...

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 ...

. It is situated 40 kilometers northeast of Gothenburg and is considered the precursor to modern-day

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 ...

Gamla Lödöse

Lödöse was a politically crucial centre of trade in Sweden during the

middle ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. By the year 1000, Lödöse was an important trading town, located between modern-day

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

and near the mouth of the Göta river. It was the Geats' only port on the west coast: hence, it had great strategic importance. Until 1473, Lödöse was Sweden's only port with an exit to the North Sea. Trapped as it was between

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, Lödöse was moved further down the river to Nya Lödöse, where the present day suburb Gamlestan in Gothenburg is today. In 1621, King

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus (9 December ld Style and New Style dates, N.S 19 December15946 November ld Style and New Style dates, N.S 16 November1632), also known in English as Gustav II Adolf or Gustav II Adolph, was King of Sweden from 1611 t ...

decided the location of present-day

with direct access to the North Sea and Atlantic.

Modern Lödöse

Today, Lödöse is a small town with 1,300 inhabitants in

, 40 kilometers northeast of Gothenburg up the Göta älv. The medieval history of the town is displayed at the Lödöse Museum which opened in 1996. Lödöse had 1,266 inhabitants in 2010.

People

* Bero Magni de Ludosia, medieval scholar and book collector

References

Other sources

*Järpe, Anna (1986) ''Nya Lödöse'' (Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet och Statens historiska museer)

External links