Gothenburg City Museum

Don't be fooled by the renovations going on outside. Inside is where all the good stuff is. A really good layout with different rooms for different time periods. Starts off with the ice age then the Vikings. I really enjoyed some of the present history because I could remember some of the events as they happened.

Fabulous museum that describes the history of Göteborg very well. It starts off with basic history with the Norse gods, hunters and gatherers, etc. Then it does a very good job explaining and mapping out how Göteborg came to be as a city. There is wifi, a bathroom, and many chairs throughout the museum. One thing I would recommend is having a better flow/direction of where to visit, in addition to having more clear English translations.

A great museum showcasing the history of Gotenburg, with rooms dedicated to different historical periods, each well explained. It wasn’t crowded, so you can take your time to explore at your own pace. Plan for around 2 hours to see everything comfortably. The museum shop is also excellent, with a wide range of interesting souvenirs - one of the best I've seen in the city.

This is a pleasant, moderately immersive experience! I enjoyed the unique storytelling in each exhibit across 400 years of city history. Creative use of shadows and lighting to represent ideas. Showcasing insanely small and large object (e.g., flakes of gold with images on them; battle axels and Morningstar spike balls). I did not have enough time during my first visit to finish so I came back a second day! Tickets were reasonable (70 krones per visit)!

Loved it! The history is broken down into three broad periods, prehistoric through to medieval, then to mid 17th century, then to the present. To do it justice, you'll need at least two hours. I rushed through in about 90 minutes, skipping the last 150 years or so. I'll be back in a few years to walk through at a more leisurely pace.

Found a portrait that was eerily similar to my own face. Absolutely adored this museum (free for students!) and was the perfect way to spend over half a day learning about Gothenburg. We were so lucky to have witnessed the opening of the Lillihagen exhibition which touchingly recollected the art programmes at this establishment before it closed. Now going to look up my family tree and search for Swedish roots xx

I was a little disappointed about the left over Viking ship- expected more;) Loved the first Volvo! Enjoyed the museum and highly recommend it.

A very informative museum, covering all stages of the city's development, interesting layout of the exhibits, very interesting objects, look at how the dresses are made, the costumes are fantastic!!

This museum is a must-see in Gothenburg. It contains a slew of well-laid-out exhibits filled to the brim with artifacts. My favorite exhibit by far was the Viking exhibit. The ship, of course, was absolutely incredible to see and was also the only one you could see in Sweden. But, the other artifacts were incredible as well. The axes, beads, and coins were all beautifully displayed and were of very high quality and condition. Even though I thought that was the best exhibit, this doesn't take away from the rest of the museum. The walk-through of Medieval Gothenburg, again filled with interesting artifacts, was informative and quite endless. There was a milieu of medieval weaponry and armor, as well as a great collection of paintings. As time progressed, my eyes started to glaze over. There was a ton to see here, but you can only appreciate it so much before needing a break. To me, the exhibitions displaying the more recent history of Gothenburg were interesting, but not in the same way as the older ones. There were locations where you could write on sticky notes and put them up under a question to answer them, which resulted in an interesting display of human behavior: some took them very seriously, some the exact opposite, but you still came away with a unique perspective of Gothenburg.

I had fun here, it's worth visiting. After an hour of wandering, felt like I was in a huge labyrinth and I could hardly find the way out.

Pretty cool museum. Free for anyone under the age of 25 years old! Although one of the floors was under construction and there were rooms with classrooms with no signs on the door; the other floors were pretty cool and was jammed packed with information about the Norwegian culture. I specifically loved the music and viking floors because it was interactive and interesting!

This museum is free for those under the age of 25. As some other reviews mentioned, the layout of the museum is pretty confusing. There are multiple staircases on each floor, and hidden hallways, making it easy to miss a section of the galleries. The 2nd floor has a permanent (?) exhibit of neolithic peoples living in the Gothenburg area, as well as vikings. The layout is pretty neat, with information about displays written in both Swedish and English. I would suggest to the museum to recheck some of the displays though because there were typos in the English text. Another thing to mention is that many of the display texts end in questions. While it is okay to ask a question once in a while to make the attendee think about the history, it is totally different when there are questions on each display. "Who did the home belong to?" "Why was there a portrait of a man on the jewelry? Maybe a fashion symbol?" It makes it seem that the people putting up the displays don't know enough about to history to be putting on an exhibit on the topic. The 3rd floor had a very interesting (and also somewhat creepy in some parts) exhibit focusing on touch (exhibition using senses other than sight). While this is a really good idea, some of the artwork, and dolls used in this exhibit were pretty scary and probably not suitable for children. Also, it's good to mention that none of these displays had any English on them. Only Swedish. Other sections of the 2nd and 3rd floors had pretty cool displays of old clothes and rooms from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Pretty cool, but also kinda boring. I wouldn't come again, but if you're into history of clothes and sugar mills, and are somewhat fluent in Swedish, this may be the place for you.

Really decent museum to be honest... Also because I'm under 25 my entry was free. It was a good way to spend an hour or so. The museum tells the history of Gothenburg and some displays about vikings. Unfortunately quite a large section of the museum was under refurbishment or they were preparing a new exhibition. The layout of the museum itself is a little confusing.

Very cool place to see. Has the whole history of Gothenburg from Viking ages to present including some photography of the Volvo factory in the 1970s. Definitely worth checking out.

The Göteborg City Museum is a cultural history museumand it's obsessed with chairs! There's a temporary exhibit on right now called All these chairs which asks how and why we collect things, and how hundereds of chairs have ended up in the museum's collection. Very cool design and a great little video interview with 2 curators who raise really interesting points about collections and whether a neutral point of view can be expressed when things are donated and come with certain expectations of class and gender One of the permanent exhibits is all about the vikings with a huge ship in the middle - Äskekärrsskeppet, the only ship from the Viking era on display in Sweden. Also very well designed and there were lots of school groups and students wandering around the place. Like all the other museums in the city, you can leave your coats and bags in a locker for a 5k deposit. Very sensible! There's also a lovely little coffee shop which feels like it's underground with big pillars and a curving ceiling. Great cakes and refills of strong coffee. We went slightly mad in the shop, buying a ton of super-cool gifts for adults and kids alike. I was VERY impressed with this place - if you like museums (or it's just cold and rainy outside) pop inside for a great experience. I'd also recommend getting the museum pass which includes this, the art museum, design museum and natural history museum. Very good value for money.

The Göteborg City Museum is very inexpensive--40 SEK for an annual ticket (which also lets you into a number of other museums), and free for people under the age of 25. (Sadly, I'm old, so couldn't take advantage of the free admission.) There were a number of interesting exhibits, and for the price we paid, it was definitely worth it. We saw the remnants of a Viking ship ("the only Viking ship preserved in Sweden"), an exhibit about the history of Göteborg, and a temporary exhibit about children in orphanages and foster homes, among other things. (The upcoming exhibit in September, "(In)human" sounds very fascinating--too bad I won't be returning to Sweden within the next year!) If you're into history or have some time to kill, I would suggest a visit to the City Museum, as you do get a good bang for your buck. Due to the excellent price and the amount of things to see, this museum deserves 4 stars.