by Przemysław Myszka

At the beginning of the 16th century, Hans Brask, the bishop of Linköping, put forward the idea of bypassing the Sound Dues, a toll on the use of the Øresund, by directly connecting the Baltic and North seas with a canal running through Sweden.

The concept had to wait over three centuries to become a reality, taken up by count Baltzar von Platen (who sadly didn't witness the completion of the entirety of his opus magnum).

Although in 2000 it was chosen as the Swedish Construction of the Millennium, the Göta Canal never fulfilled Brask and von Platen's intentions.

It, however, yielded other fruits, most notably in developing the country's industry and tourism.

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