The Säffle Canal – the Viking Route
On 11 October 1837, Lieutenant D.W. Lilliehöök wrote in his pocket diary: ”Konungen wid Seffle” [The King at Seffle]. It was the occasion of a visit by Carl Johan XIV. His task was to inspect the canal which had opened that same year. For two years, Lilliehöök had supervised the construction work on the canal and he also became the first manager of the canal company.
The canal was excavated to bypass the Byälvens streams. In combination with the lock, which formed part of the project, it brought about completely new conditions for shipping. The canal, which is approximately eighty kilometres long in all, took on enormous significance for western Värmland. It played a decisive part, for example, when the founder of Billerud chose a site for a new paper mill in 1883. Over time, Billerud became the company that made the most use of the Säffle canal and it also ran its own shipping business for many years.
The history of the canal contains a long list of prominent personalities: Baltzar von Platen, who was the figure behind the origin of the Göta canal; Olof af Wibeli, who would be identical to the county governor in Fänrik Stål’s stories; railway and canal builder Nils Ericsson and Samuel Owens who, among other things, built the first steamship in Sweden.
It was not only in Säffle that factories were built. A number of them were built along the course of the canal. The factories created a need for transportation which reached its peak just before the Second World War. In 1939 no less than 290,000 tonnes of goods passed through the lock in Säffle. Nowadays, commercial transport has passed into history. The lock is used by leisure boats sailing along the Säffle canal – or Vikingaleden [the Viking Route] as it is known today. In the olden days, numerous sailing boats and steamships used the Säffle canal. Many such vessels sailed regularly between Arvika and Gothenburg. At the beginning of last century there were also several passenger boats operating between Säffle and Arvika.
Increasing numbers of tourists travelling by boat have discovered the route, which passes through a varied landscape from the Vänern lake to Sweden's “most inland” harbour in Arvika. A boat tour of the Vikingaleden includes both open fjords and small river passages and of course the route lives up to its name. Along the Viking Route you pass many antiquities and burial mounds which bear witness to the fact that this was an important route for the Vikings.
Sven-Erik Dahlström
Säffle kanal
Sjöfartsverket
Vänerns sjötrafikområde
Kanalkontoret
S-661 30 SÄFFLE
Tel:
+46 (0)533 100 10
Tel:
+46 (0)520 47 22 00
Website:
Vikingaleden
Säffle kommun
S-661 80 SÄFFLE
Tel:
+46 (0)533 68 10 10
Fax:
+46 (0)533 416 89
E-mail:
Website:
| Built in: | 1837 |
| Length of the canal: | 80 km, 43.2 NM |
| Number of locks: | 1 |
| Difference in levels: | 0.6 m |
| Number of guest harbours: | 5 guest harbours for leisure craft |
| Maximum dimensions for boats: | Width: 7.5 m; length: 42 m; depth 3 m; height: 16 m |
| Chart: | 134 Vänern |
| Recommended number of days to pass through the canal: | 2-4 days |
