The key to Gothenburg

Gothenburg was founded in 1621. However, the city was not the first stronghold for the old population of Gothenburg who sought a gateway to the sea in the west. One of its predecessors, the late medieval town Nya Lödöse, is now housed within Gothenburg's borders as the district of Gamlestaden (The old Town).
Nya Lödöse received its first privileges in 1473. 

During archaeological investigations in 1965, a key of iron, about twenty-five centimeters long, was found. It bore traces of gilding. 

Twenty-five centimeters is a pretty considerable length for a key. A key of that size would certainly have been too unwieldy to carry even for the most boastful bourgeois in Nya Lödöse. And hardly would he have come up with the idea of gilding it. 

"In what lock could this key have once fit?" Yes, that is the question asked by Hubert Lärn, a well-known Gothenburg journalist, in his book Vägen till Göteborg (The Road to Gothenburg). 

"It may have been the official city key," the archaeologists say. In that case, the maintainer of order in Nya Lödöse has walked from one city gate to the other every evening and made sure it had been properly locked to return and unlock it in the morning. 

Because in the old days, it was believed that E6 road users were in no more hurry than that they should not pass through the city at night. The key original belongs to the Gothenburg Historical Museum.

Text: Sven Schånberg, translation by Business Region Göteborg