Bourse (Gothenburg)

Not to be confused with Gothenburg City Hall.
The neoclassical facade of the Gothenburg bourse

The Bourse (Swedish: Börsen) is a municipal building in Gothenburg, western Sweden. It is located on the north side of Gustaf Adolf Square.

Originally it was designed as a mercantile exchange, with a ballroom, by architect Pehr Johan Ekman in the Neoclassical style. It opened on 1 December 1849. The Gothenburg Municipal Council and its predecessor have conducted their meetings here since 5 January 1863.[1]

The Swedish term for this building, Börsen (derived from the French "La bourse"), is frequently mis-translated into English as "The Stock Exchange". However, the building was never primarily a stock exchange, but rather a commercial exchange or mercantile exchange (see Exchange (organized market)), in the same spirit as a modern commodities exchange. Although the Gothenburg exchange had no royal patronage, it fulfilled a similar function to the contemporaneous royal exchanges of, for example, Dublin, Edinburgh and London.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference goteborgs-stad-historia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).