Balder
E13 · Wooden Wonders
E13 · № 69/150
Balder
Liseberg · SE · Intamin Prefabricated Wooden Coaster (Plug & Play)
“Gothenburg gave a football field to timber, and Balder filled it.”
UNOFFICIAL · NOT PARK-ENDORSED
Collect this card free →Also on Wooden Wonders
Fast facts
- Balder is a wooden roller coaster at Liseberg in Gothenburg, Sweden. liseberg.se
- It opened on 12 April 2003 and is operating today. en.wikipedia.org
- Intamin constructed the ride, with timber supplied by Ing.-Holzbau Cordes. liseberg.se
- Balder stands 36 metres tall and runs on 1,070 metres of track. liseberg.se
- Its maximum speed is 90 kilometres per hour. liseberg.se
- The steepest drop is 70 degrees, and the ride has no inversions. en.wikipedia.org
- Its published capacity is 1,200 riders per hour. en.wikipedia.org
The story of Balder
When Liseberg marked its eightieth birthday, Balder arrived as the park’s great new timber undertaking. The ride opened on 12 April 2003, bringing a modern wooden coaster back to a Gothenburg park with a long memory for such grand machinery. leisuremanagement.co.uk· en.wikipedia.org
The city setting shaped the work. Swedish Wood records a plot of 125 by 70 metres, so Intamin’s course was laid over several levels rather than allowed to sprawl. Cordes described a compact site, about the area of a football field, still carrying 1,070 metres of rail. swedishwood.com· cordes-holzbau.de
To the visitor it may appear as a splendid puzzle of pale timber, but the making was exacting. Liseberg says roughly fifty construction workers spent just over a year and a half assembling Balder, using 190,000 running metres of timber and 140 tonnes of bolts and connectors. liseberg.se
The reception was swift. Cordes reported more than 1.1 million passengers in Balder’s first season, and the 2003 Internet Wooden Tracked Roller Coaster Poll placed it first among wooden coasters, sending word of Liseberg’s new landmark well beyond Sweden. cordes-holzbau.de· ushsho.com
Sources
- liseberg.se Acceptable source
- en.wikipedia.org Acceptable source
- leisuremanagement.co.uk Acceptable source
- swedishwood.com Acceptable source
- cordes-holzbau.de Acceptable source
- liseberg.se Acceptable source
- ushsho.com Acceptable source
This background is AI-drafted from public sources and human-reviewed before publishing — approved 20 August 2026.