Haga quarters and Church, Göteborg

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Haga is Göteborg’s beautiful old town. It was originally built in the 1600s and over time went through a period of disrepair and bad reputation. It was revitalized in the 1980s, and I’m glad it was. It is the picture of quaint and pretty, with small unique shops, café’s and galleries along it’s cobbled streets. It is much quieter and peaceful than other parts of the city and has great atmosphere. Go to Haga for a relaxing afternoon of browsing through bookstores, sipping a coffee or strolling hand in hand with your sweetie.

The Haga Church (Hagakyrkan) was built in the middle of the 19th century. The architect of the Neo-Gothic style building was inspired by churches in England. In the well preserved interior a baroque Brombaugh organ can be found.

Directions:
The Haga Church can be found in a little park of Goteborg's Haga district. The Haga district is situated southeast of the city centre. The nearest tram stop is "Hagakyrkan".

Mors Mössa is a small galleri in Haga, a very popular area among both tourists and people from Göteborg. It's not on the main street though so you can ask anyone about the address. The woman who runs the galleri has been running it for decades and she has always shown very interesting contemporary artists. Some of the artists she showed ages ago when they were still quite unknown are now established artists.

Iron used to be an important export, and it was weighted before being exported.
This was done at Jarntorget, hence the name.
At Jarntorget there is a fountain with five female figures symbolising the five continents.

Goteborg's oldest suburbs, started in 1648.
During the 1980s and 90s Haga has been carefully renovated in order to keep its style. New buildings built in the old styles have been mixed with the old ones.
Antiquarian bookshops, antique dealers, cafés, design art and handicrafts shops are located in this area.
Just have a walk around to feel the atmosphere!

Haga is an old part of town which used to be the King's meadows outside the city defense system (hence its name) but which was then built on and later turned into a working class area as the city grew. Being quite run down at the time, it suffered heavily from the "tearing down" frenzy of Sweden in the 1960s and 70s but then planners realised its historic and social value and some of it was stopped in time. New houses were also built in the same wooden style as before. Today, this has become quite a lively area full of intellectuals and students from the nearby university faculties and "cultural" Linnégatan and people come here to browse the curiosity shops or hang around all day over a cup of tea. The house in the picture is a museum dedicated to life in the old wooden houses of Haga.

The special thing about this church is that I happen to have worked in it one summer! :))) No, I am not an active church-goer but this was my local congregation and the church where most of my friends had their confirmation ceremony (mine was with relatives in the countryside) and so, I often went with them during that time and got an offer to work here, helping the few tourists who found their way to it. The church is very much in an Anglican style and has always reminded me of Salisbury Cathedral with its spire. Not that I have ever been to Salisbury :))) Inside, it has English looking pews and dark wooden colours too. It IS actually quite famous for its church-organ which is one of Europe's biggest. Hence, there are often organ concerts here. To me, the church is now one of the places where I got to "VT" a bit for tourists already as a teenager :)))

These are the steps you have to climb to go from Haga up to Fortlet Kronan. Well, these are some of the steps anyway. There are more waiting for you once you get to the top of these ones.

How many they are I do not know, but bring a waterbottle on a hot day! :-)