There are two industrial museums in the municipal district of Ale – the Glassworks Museum and the Museum of Rope Making. The museums focus on the 19th and 20th centuries, providing valuable information and insight into local history. But today’s Ale was an important region for people living here over a thousand years ago. The farmstead that is being built as part of the Ale Viking Age Project, which was started by Ale Municipality with funding support from the European Union, aims to promote interest in the more ancient history of our region.
 
The Glassworks Museum
For more than 100 years, the glassworks in Surte manufactured bottles that were exported to all corners of the world. Initially, the glass was blown by hand, but then machine production was introduced during the First World War. In 1978, the last bottle was manufactured in Surte – an epoch had come to a close. However, interest in the glassworks never died and the museum was inaugurated in 1992.
 
The Glassworks Museum relives an important era in Swedish industrial history, from the craft of glassblowing in the mid 1800s to the closure of a modern industry. As well as the fascinating glasswork displays, the museum also houses a recreated workman’s home from the 1930s. The museum shop sells sweets in a twist of paper. Naturally, a selection of the glassworks’ extensive collection of bottles is on display.
 
The Sand, Soda and Chalk exhibition on display at the Glassworks Museum depicts the life of Alexander Samuelsson. Alexander began his career as a glassblower in Surte and then emigrated to America. He enjoyed great success there and the famous Coca-Cola bottle was registered in 1915 at the patent office in his name. The Glassworks Museum also has a gallery devoted to temporary exhibitions.
Please visit www.glasbruksmuseet.nu to find out more.

The Museum of Rope Making
In the early 1900s, there were about a hundred ropewalks in operation in Sweden. Today, there is just one company in Norrköping that uses the conventional method on a commercial scale. And then there is the Museum of Rope Making in Älvängen, which demonstrates this traditional craft.
 
Rope is made whenever the museum is open. Watching and hearing the ancient belt-driven machines, touching and feeling the fibres, yarns and hawsers and breathing in the smell of tar and natural fibres – all this brings the Museum of Rope Making vividly to life!
 
In the early 1990s, when Carlmarks modernised its rope-making operations, the old ropewalk was threatened with demolition. Thanks to the assiduous work of the Save the Ropewalk Society, the threat of demolition was averted. The Ropewalk was nominated Industrial Monument of the Year in 1995 and was declared a historic building the following year. The museum is now planning to become a centre of knowledge and expertise for rope making in the Nordic countries.
Please visit www.repslagarbanan.se to find out more.
 
Ale Viking Age
To date, the Äskekärr ship is the only preserved Viking ship in Sweden. It was discovered in 1933 and is now on public display at the City Museum in Gothenburg. Another ship was investigated in 1994. There are many, interesting traces and remains from ancient times along the river Göta älv. Which is why, a few years ago, the municipality of Ale decided to implement a project that would shed more light on the Viking Age in the region.

The Ale Viking Age Project has been partly funded by European Union grants. One of the objectives is to reconstruct a chieftain’s farmstead. Another important aspect of the project is to inform the public about the Viking Age in Ale. The project work has also included the creation of a nature and culture path by the stronghold at Ranneberget. A compilation of ancient remains in the area.