Fattighusån

This is actually an artificially built outlet to Mölndalsån. They started to dig this canal in 1640 to 1641, when Gothenburg was very a young town. The aim was first to provade drinking water to the new town, and the second aim was to fresh up the water in the moat and in Stora Hamnkanalen. For this a lock and a dam. The first lock was built much closer to Mölndalsån. Today the lock is by Drottningtorget.
The inauguration of this canal was celebrated with pomp and circumstance. The Lord High Chancellor Per Brahe and his wife made a boat trip through the new canal and Mölndalsån to Underås bridge in autumn 1641 accompanied by the municipal authorities. Those who made a trip like that some hundred years later would do that in the shade of the limestrees that was planted here in 1770 on the initiative of Niklas Sahlgren. Some of those trees are still there, even if they have had a hard time. These are the oldest planted trees in Gothenburg.

Frome the beginning the it was called Stampån or Mölndalskanalen. Stampån (stampcreek) because of the stamping mills that were situated here just outside town, and Mölndalskanalen because ittook it's water from Mölndalsån. One of these stamping mills, owned by the mayor Hans von Gerdes, was later rebuit to a poorhouse. The poorhouse was designed by the town architect Bengt Carlberg in 1767. You can still see this house by the canal. It's a low red and wooden house on the north side of the canal. Beside this poorhouse a poorhouse church was built too. The church is still there and now it is called Maria Church. The Swedish word for poorhouse is fattighus so that is why the canal nowadays is called Fattighusån.

© Text written by Ingrid Wirsin
Ingrid Wirsin is a welknown journalist in Gothenburg, with a special feeling for buildings and history.

The lock-keepers hut, the lock, the dam and at right Drottningtorget.

The dam and the lock seen from west.

This is the start of Fattighusån. From the right comes Mölndalsån with fresh water to Gothenburg. Towards left is the natural outlet of Mölndalsån towards Säveån and Göta River. But here Mölndalsån changes name to Gullbergsån.

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