Gamla stan
Gamla stan | |
|---|---|
| Nickname: The Town between the Bridges | |
| Country | Sweden |
| City | Stockholm |
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Gamla stan (Swedish: [ˈɡâmːla ˈstɑːn], "The Old Town"), until 1980 officially Staden mellan broarna ("The Town between the Bridges"), is the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Gamla stan consists primarily of the island Stadsholmen. Officially, but not colloquially, Gamla stan includes the surrounding islets Riddarholmen, Helgeandsholmen and Strömsborg. It has a population of approximately 3,000.
Gamla Stan has played a prominent role in the history of Swedish architecture, with many of Sweden's most renowned architects shaping the area; these include figures such as Nicodemus Tessin and Carl Hårleman, who worked on the Stockholm Palace, still located in the area.
Other notable buildings in the old town include Tessin's own palace, the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building, Bonde Palace (seat of the Swedish Supreme Court) and the important House of Nobility; the last of these buildings hosted the parliament for many years.
Overview
The town dates back to the 13th century, and consists of medieval alleyways, cobbled streets, and archaic architecture. North German architecture has had a strong influence in the Old Town's construction.
As well as being home to the
The restaurant
From the mid-19th century to the early-mid 20th century Gamla stan was considered a
While the archaeology of the 370 properties in Gamla stan remains poorly documented, recent inventories done by volunteers have shown many buildings previously dated to the 17th and 18th centuries, can be up to 300 years older.[1]
History
Origins of the names "Stockholm" and "Gamla Stan"
The name "Stockholm" originally referred to Gamla Stan only, but as the city has expanded, the name now also refers to several suburban areas that are included in the metro region. "Stockholm" means "log island" in Swedish. The previous capital of Sweden was located in Sigtuna. A thousand years ago Sigtuna had problems with armed gangs attacking the city. The situation became untenable and there was a need to find a new location for the capital. According to legend, the leaders in Sigtuna took a log, hollowed it out, filled it with gold, and set it afloat. Several days later it landed at the island where Gamla Stan is located today.[2] This is where they decided to found the new capital of Sweden. The island of Stockholm had the advantage that it was an island, easy to defend from armed gangs that could be thought to want to attack the city. It also had the advantage that it was situated just at the inlet of Lake Mälaren, which was very important in trade to and from the Baltic. There is a sculpture symbolizing the old log at Stadshuset (City Hall).
Until the mid-19th century Gamla Stan was referred to as själva staden ("the city itself"), since the areas surrounding it were still mostly rural in character. They were referred to as malmarna ("the ridges"). However, from the mid-19th century onwards it started to be called staden mellan broarna ("the city between the bridges") or staden inom broarna ("the city within the bridges"), a name that remained official until 1980, and from 1934 also included the islets
Prehistory
Stockholm derives its mythological origin from a dwelling place called Agnefit. As the second element fit means 'moist
Middle Ages and Vasa era
The original wall-enclosed city only encompassed the central elevated area of the present old town located between the two long streets —
The center of the medieval city was probably just a fairground south of the town hall and the only church in the village. The market place, originally smaller than the present and enlarged following a fire in the early 15th century, was eventually surrounded by permanent buildings and evolved into the present public square
As the city gates were patently the weakest point in all medieval fortifications, the fewer the better was the obvious rule. In medieval Stockholm, presumably three or four narrow gates opened the wall: Through the eastern wall a single gate allowed Köpmangatan to pass down to the shore, while the others, all leading to Västerlånggatan, were located where today are Storkyrkobrinken ("Slope of the Great Church"), Kåkbrinken ("Slope of the [Ramshackle] House"), and Tyska Brinken ("German Slope"). Surrounding the Royal Palace was an open area called Sanden ("The Sand"), intentionally kept free for defensive reasons and including the present location of Slottsbacken ("Palace Slope"), south of the palace, and Högvaktsterrassen ("Terrace of the Main Guard"), west of it. Within the city, the artery roads were stipulated to be eight ell wide (aln, e.g. barely five meters) to allow horse-drawn vehicles to pass, while no rules restricted the width of cross-streets. As the city started to get overcrowded in the 14th century, new buildings were built on the shores outside the city wall, and gradually land fillings between the bridges along the shores gave room for sheds and storehouses forming the elongated blocks separated by narrow alleys which are today characteristic for the old town. Within the old city center, larger blocks were partitioned into smaller ones, which resulted in several narrow streets such as Trädgårdsgatan ("Garden Street") and Kindstugatan ("Box on the Ear Street", historical, corrupted).[5][7]
In average, the medieval streets are found some three meters below the present streets. Archaeological excavations have shown the oldest streets were covered with wood, the oldest being the three layers of wooden pavings found under the northern end of Västerlånggatan from around 1250–1300. During the later part of the 14th century, the streets started to get paved in stone, and as the archaeological deposits above them are composed of thin layers of filth containing few findings, street cleansing was apparently improved during this era. Waste and garbage was often simply poured out into the alleys, occasionally through apertures used exclusively for the purpose. Though a few assumed medieval subterranean wooden tubes and vaulted underground chambers have been found, relatively few traces remain in Stockholm of the sort of sophisticated system of sewers found in for example Visby and Bergen, so most likely the sloping alleys simply had to do the job. Many public notices were in vain devoted to restrain the habit of littering the surrounding waters and restricting the number of animals kept within the city walls, and not until the end of the Middle Ages were gutters ordered to be cleaned twice a week and the placement of bogs forbidden next to neighbours and thoroughfares. Latrines were gathered on central locations known as flugmöten ("fly meetings") where the number of insects darkened the sky well into the 19th century.[5]
The present alleys only give a vague glimpse of the appearance of the medieval city where the gables of the building were facing the streets and contained window bays for offering goods of sale; where filth, the bumpy paving and hand-drawn vehicles made walking circumstantial; and where odours and scents from dung, food, fishes, leather, furnaces, and seasonal spices mingled. During nights (and certainly during the long winters) the city was completely dark, save for exceptional fire watchers and nocturnal ramblers who used torches to find their bearing. Neither were there any street signs guiding foreigners as no streets were officially named, instead referred to as "the thoroughfare running from the outer southern gate and up to the cross and the chapel" or constantly renamed after the most prominent person settled in an exposed part of the alley. Indeed, historical records contain many examples of obscure references to locations in the city, close to impossible to pin down as some streets have been renamed dozens of times, often carrying the same or a similar name as other streets before physically ceasing to exist.[5]
17th century
Engraving from Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna
In
A map of Stadsholmen dated 1626 presents a proposal for two streets roughly equivalent to the southern stretches of today's
On the eastern side of the island, the obsolete medieval wall was gradually demolished, and before the end of the century completely replaced by a row of private palaces, the so-called Skeppsbroraden, the "Row of
See also
References
- ^ Per Luthander (2005-05-11). "Hus i Gamla stan 300 år äldre än man trott" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Archived from the original on 2007-10-01. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
- ^ Namnet Stockholm: Vad betyder egentligen namnet Stockholm och hur uppkom det? Det är omtvistat och flera förslag finns.
- ISBN 91-7031-042-4.
- ^ ISBN 91-85267-21-X.
- ^ ISBN 91-974091-1-1.
- ^
Béatrice Glase, Gösta Glase (1988). "Västra Stadsholmen". Gamla stan med Slottet och Riddarholmen (in Swedish) (3rd ed.). Stockholm: Bokfrölaget Trevi. p. 76. ISBN 91-7160-823-0.
- ^
Rune Lindgren (1992). "Hur och när bildades Stockholm?". Gamla stan förr och nu (in Swedish). Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren. pp. 6, 17. ISBN 91-29-61671-9.
- ^ ISBN 91-522-1810-4.
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