Kungsportsavenyn, commonly known as just Avenyn ("The Avenue", It is the major avenue in the city), is the main street of 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....

, and a smaller counterpart of the Champs-Élysées

Champs-Élysées

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets and one of the most expensive strip of real estate in the world. The name is...

. It was created in the 1860s and 1870s as a result of an international town planning competition. With a total length of about 1000 meters, it stretches from the old moat

Moat

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

 at the edge of the older part of Gothenburg, and ends at the Götaplatsen

Götaplatsen

Götaplatsen is a public square in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the southern end of Kungsportsavenyn , the city's main street...

 square, where the Gothenburg Museum of Art

Gothenburg Museum of Art

The Göteborg Museum of Art at Götaplatsen, Gothenburg, is renowned for its collection of Nordic art from around the close of the 19th century. A must see is the lavishly decorated Fürstenberg Gallery, named after a leading Gothenburg art donor, Pontus Fürstenberg and his wife Göthilda. Among the...

 and several other cultural institutions are located.

At the moat, it connects to the smaller street Östra Hamngatan, and the Avenue takes its it full name after Kungsporten, the "King's Gate" which was located at the point in the fortifications where Östra Hamngatan ends (see Kungsportsplatsen

Kungsportsplatsen

Kungsportsplatsen is a square in the city centre of Gothenburg, Sweden. The square was constructed 1852 and got its name after the King's gate . The gate was the main entrance to the fortified city, which was and still is surrounded by a moat...

). The gate and the rest of the fortifications were demolished in the 19th century and replaced by a park.

Avenyn passes the Stora teatern, the Neo-Renaissance

Neo-Renaissance

Renaissance Revival is an all-encompassing designation that covers many 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Grecian nor Gothic but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes...

theatre and opera building from 1859, and has a major concentration of pubs, discothèques and restaurants.