Västerlånggatan ("the Western Long Street") is a street in Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Stretching southward between the squares Mynttorget and Järntorget, it follows the course of the city's now demolished 13th-century defensive wall.
The blocks along the street are elongated but only a few meters in width; those on the eastern side oriented lengthwise, and those on the western crosswise. Only four blocks thus forms the eastern side of the street while some 20 are lined-up along the western side. Most (but not all) of the front doors of the buildings are located either on the quiet Prästgatan, the parallel street passing along the eastern side, or in one of the numerous alleys on the street's western side. The intact façades of the northernmost blocks are hiding the semi-detached offices of the Riksdag. To the south of those are the remaining numerous and very narrow blocks and alleys which before the great fire of 1625 occupied the entire western side of the street.
Origin of the name Today renowned as one of Gamla Stan's most picturesque and busy tourist magnets, Västerlånggatan was for many centuries one of the major streets of Stockholm together with Österlånggatan, both of which ran outside the city walls. During the 15th century, they were both called Allmänningsgatan ("The Common Street") or Långa gatan ("The long street"), occasionally in combination, like Allmenninx longe gathen or longe Almenninx gathen in 1514, and/or with a suffix such as västan till ("to the west") appended. The current name was officially established in 1885.
History Originally the street was little more than a pathway passing just outside the city's western wall and following the shoreline, as the gently meandering street still reminds us. It did however connect the northern city gate, Norrbro, with the southern, Söderbro, and it was thus the main route between Uppland, the province north of the city, and Södermanland, south of the city.
During the 15th century, the street became the paved artery road it still is today, with dwellings and shops on either side. During the Middle Ages and the Vasa era, the southern part of the street formed part of the district centred on Järntorget, at the time the most prominent quarters in the city inhabited by influential merchants such as Mårten Trotzig, Mårten Leuhusen and Erik Larsson von der Linde. Along the rest of the street craftsmen had their small workshops, and the northernmost section, stretching between Mynttorget and Storkyrkobrinken, was called Stadssmedjegatan ("City's Smith's Street"), because the blacksmiths who were confined outside the city because of the danger of fire had their headquarters there. During the 17th century this section was instead inhabited by goldsmiths and accordingly climbed the ranks.
From the middle of the 19th century, the commercial centre of Stockholm was transplanted north of the old town that gradually started to transform into a slum district. Västerlånggatan however escaped this fate, as it was connected to Drottninggatan by the bridge Riksbron in 1907, and the shops along the street were updated. The medieval street façades were transformed in accordance to the taste of the day; plaster ornaments and cast iron colonettes mail-ordered from Germany replaced the medieval fronts, resulting in the present large shop windows usually displaying the well-preserved interiors from the later part of that century while concealing the often still intact medieval cores of the buildings.
Many of the boutiques founded during the 19th and early 20th century, were still around until the late 1970s; the northern section packed with hotels, while the remaining street was renowned for its milliner's shops including up to 30 coat shops. Today, the street is also home to some of Stockholm's more exclusive shops, including Bottega Veneta, Dior, Gucci, Max Mara, Louis Vuitton, Georg Jensen, Mulberry, Cerruti, Chanel, Moncler, Prada, Tiffany & Co. and Versace. There are also several well-known restaurants, cafes and bars in the area, with one notable international restaurant being TGI Fridays.
Notwithstanding, Swedes and tourists alike still love to mingle among the boutiques, the medieval gables and the later additions, the street thus preserving its old ways — still offering its musicians to Stockholmers hurrying to work in the morning; blustering pub-crawlers still vexing stoic dwellers, and the old forged iron signs continuing to ignore the neon signs still tempting passers-by with all sorts of gadgets. Gone are, however, the filth, funeral processions, and prostitution in the area brilliantly described by the troubadour Carl Michael Bellman.
A walk north to south
Mynttorget-Storkyrkobrinken
On Number 1–5 is Demokrativerkstaden ("Democracy Workshop"), a pedagogical role-playing environment operated by the Riksdag offering young school children the chance to act as MPs for a few hours.
Salviigränd, named after Johan Adler Salvius (1590–1652), the Swedish main negotiator during the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, used to stretch down to the water. On the left corner (Number 1) is a suite of rooms featuring a neoclassical interior from 1795 restored to its original state, sumptuously furnished and richly decorated with friezes and medallions.
On Number 6 was until recently the bookstore Hemlins bokhandel. It was founded in 1864 and taken over by Emil Hemlin in the 1880s. From the late 18th century and well into modern times, the neighbourhood used to be the quarters of the 'printed word', the part of the city where both the books and their consumers were located, and were people from other parts of the country would come to find and talk about the latest novels.
Above street level and behind the intact front, Number 7–17 are the semi-detached offices of the Riksdag. On number 7 are Roman letters displaying the year 1888 when the Neo-Renaissance sgraffito façade was created. On number 13 above the windows on the first floor, are the heads of Victor Emanuel II, Garibaldi and Cavour, obviously added by someone favourably disposed towards the Italian unification. The entire block is hiding the northern end of Prästgatan, one of the few blind ends of the old town, which was historically known as Helvetesgränd ("Alley of Hell"), either because the city executioner resided in the area or because the entire neighbourhood is located north of the cathedral (e.g. in Norse folklore associated with the "Kingdom of the Dead").
On the opposite side, Number 8–14, is another block occupied by the offices of the Riksdag. The intact front hide the semi-detached interior where a few clerks are sitting next to fresco paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries and sculpted beams featuring animals. The three small vaults and their respective street signs — Klockgjutargränd, Kolmätargränd, Stenbastugränd — gives a hint of what the neighbourhood used to be before WW2 when the circular courtyard, Brantingtorget, was created and the three alleys stretched much further west.
Just east of the crossing between Storkyrkobrinken and Västerlånggatan, the main northern city gate used to stand during the Middle Ages. At the time a narrow alley, the street was widened during the 1650s in order to create a more stately connection between the Royal Palace and the palaces on Riddarholmen.
Storkyrkobrinken-Kåkbrinken
On Number 16 is the gilded raven of Apoteket Korpen ("The Raven pharmacy") founded in 1674 and located on Stortorget during 250 years. It was one of the few and one of the oldest pharmacies in Stockholm, a city with all to few doctors and frequently ravaged by epidemics, flues, and plague, pestilences thought to be cured using frogs, snakes, human fat, and pulverized mummies. Today there is a preserved interior from 1924, and the pharmacy only offers factory-made medicine, except for the Christmas mustard made after its own recipe.
The café Gråmunken on Number 18 is a well-established café, since several generations renowned for the medieval vaults in the basement. While a gravel ridge composes most of the soil in the surrounding area, the block behind the café is built on solid rock located above sea level during the Viking Age, and hopefully future excavations will be able to further document the earliest history of the area. Archaeological excavations in the street just outside Number 18 have unveiled several layers of earlier street levels, with traces of paved streets found a metre below the present pavement. North of Number 18 is Stora Gråmunkegränd ("Great Grayfriars Alley"), which used to lead from the Greyfriars islet (Riddarholmen) to the defensive tower on the east side of Västerlånggatan. South of the café is Helga Lekamens Gränd ("Alley of the Holy Body [of Christ]"), named after an influential guild existent from the 15th century to the Reformation (1520s). Between these two alleys is a barred alley.
Behind the café and its rainbow flag on Number 19 is the story of one of the oldest shops in the world: The ironmonger's shop of C J Bergman founded in 1654, established on this address in 1712, and taken over by Bergman in 1842. When discontinued in the early 1980s, it was the last institution of the many blacksmiths' shops and workshops once occupying the entire neighbourhood and offering horseshoes, swords, guns, pots, and nails. The roof of the building is a Säteritak — a Swedish-style mansion roof introduced in the 17th century and featuring a so-called Italian, a low storey dividing the roof into a lower and an upper part and usually containing either rooms for servants or a promenade floor with a panoramic view over the city.
The Art Nouveau glazed façade on Number 22 is from 1907 and the building, slightly less than five metres wide, is arguably the narrowest hotel in town. However inviting, the building safeguards stories of both local and national heroes: During the 18th century a number of taverns succeeded each other's on the address, one of which was the "Deft & Done" (Flink & Färdig), named after the inscription on one of the emergency coins of King Charles XII, and owned a by Catharina Burman, a woman renowned for "intoxication, oaths, scolding, and curses". A hundred years prior to this two printers resided in the block; one was Arnold Helsing, the other his journeyman Ignatius Meuer, who immigrated to Stockholm from Thuringia, Germany, in 1610 and 21 years old took over the printing house. Before Ignatius died 83 years old, the nine presses in his workshop had produced the Ordinari Post-Tijdender, the oldest newspaper in the world, and the Bible of Charles X in Swedish. Ignatius and the son of the former printer eventually gave their names to the two alley flanking the hotel: Ignatiigränd and Göran Hälsinges Gränd, the latter is otherwise mostly remembered through the lyrics of the troubadour Carl Michael Bellman who describes the alley as renowned for its prostitutes.Lord Nelson Hotel