Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet
Encyclopedia
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
), is located in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. The school was founded in 1647 by Queen Kristina. It was originally called "Göteborgs gymnasium" and later known as "Göteborgs högre latinläroverk" before receiving the name after its benefactress, the noblewoman Margareta Hvitfeldt (1608–1683), who left the larger part of her estate to the school.
The school has approximately 1,800 students, of age 16 through 19.
Currently, the school attracts students from all over Gothenburg; lower to upper class. There are some students that come from other regions in Sweden, as well as a small but significant international student population.
Hvitfeldtska offers several of the national Swedish secondary education programmes, including "Naturvetenskapsprogrammet" (natural sciences), "Samhällsvetenskapsprogrammet" (social sciences), "Hvitfeldtskas Affärsprogrammet" (business), "Estetiska Programmet" (arts), "Handels- och administrationsprogrammet" (management), and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB).
Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet is known for the events that occurred there during the Gothenburg Riots of the EU summit of 2001.
The school is divided into three buildings; one northern (the main building), one western and one southern.