Gotha Canal Museum

The Gotha Canal forms part of a 558-km waterway that links Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden with Stockholm on the Baltic. It was built between 1810 and 1832 through the energy of Count Baltzar von Platen (1766-1819), following the recommendations of Thomas Telford, who visited Sweden in 1808 and 1813. The canal company’s headquarters is a Motala where the artificial waterway joins Lake Vattern. A substantial mechanical engineering concern was established there under the direction of a Scots manager, Daniel Fraser, in 1822. The company is responsible for a small museum in two pavilions between the Borenshults lock and Motala harbour, one with displays about von Platen and his colleagues in the canal project, and the other with the methods of construction that they employed.