Borgåsund Harbor – The Largest Inland Port in Sweden

It all began in the late 18th century. Before then, people lived in the remote cottages on both sides of the strait, but no one could have imagined what would happen when the Strömsholm Canal was completed.
 
With the canal’s completion in 1795, Borgåsund, located on the northern bay of Lake Mälaren between the towns of Västerås and Köping, suddenly gained strategic importance with a harbor and cargo transfer site.
Soon, the area bustled with activity, and homes were built for captains, dockworkers, merchants, weighmasters, pharmacists, and others who moved to the area.
Borgåsund grew into its own community, complete with a district nurse, post office, pharmacy, shops, tavern, poorhouse, and a mission house.
 
Thanks to the canal, tons of iron and other goods from Bergslagen were shipped via waterways to Lake Mälaren and out into the world. Borgåsund had become the largest port and transshipment hub on Lake Mälaren. Canal boats unloaded their cargo at Lake Freden, and Mälaren ships took over on the other side of the cape. During transshipment, all the iron had to be weighed in the large weighing house before being loaded onto Mälaren’s larger cargo ships for the next leg of the journey. Three days a week, passenger trips also ran from Stockholm across Lake Mälaren to the Strömsholm Canal, carrying 13,000 passengers annually.
 
For over a century, the canal was the primary transport route in Bergslagen, and Borgåsund flourished. However, in the early 1900s, it faced competition from the railway, which was built along the canal’s route. Parts of the community were demolished when the railway to Eskilstuna was constructed across the strait.
 
The bourgeoisie of Köping and Västerås owned the weighing house and harbor in Borgåsund. They shared the revenues from weighing fees as well as responsibility for freight across Lake Mälaren.
By the late 1920s, as the canal’s significance waned, the weighing house was moved to Västerås and demolished in 1967, while the Strömsholm Canal Company took over operations in Borgåsund.
The last cargo boat passed through the Strömsholm Canal in 1948.
 
Fact Box
Borgåsund’s narrow setting resembles a fishing village on the Bohuslän coast.
It features a loading site and a strategic entry to the Strömsholm Canal. Guest harbor with a small museum.

Borgåsund Guest Harbor has 20 guest spots, showers, toilets, and shore power.
Lock operations along the canal occur during the summer months.
Remaining historic buildings include an iron warehouse from 1872 and a bridge keeper’s cottage from 1861.
Information about the Strömsholm Canal can be found in a warehouse building.

 
 

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