Västerlånggatan 45 stockholm
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 occupied the entire western side of the street.
Västerlånggatan 45
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. The current name was officially established in 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.
KILGREN - Västerlånggatan 45, Stockholm, Sweden - Yelp
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 , 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 s; the northern section packed with hotels, while the remaining street was renowned for its milliner 's shops including up to 30 coat shops. During the later half of the 20th century however, the scene started to change, increasing rents forcing many old shops to shut down or relocate, the oldest after more than years in business, subsequently replaced by more or less fitting successors marketing tourist-oriented gewgaws.
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.
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 — , the Swedish main negotiator during the Peace of Westphalia in , used to stretch down to the water. On the left corner Number 1 is a suite of rooms featuring a neoclassical interior from 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 and taken over by Emil Hemlin in the s. 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.
Västerlånggatan, 45
On number 7 are Roman letters displaying the year 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. 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 s in order to create a more stately connection between the Royal Palace and the palaces on Riddarholmen. On Number 16 is the gilded raven of Apoteket Korpen "The Raven pharmacy" founded in and located on Stortorget during 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. The café Gråmunken on Number 18 is a well-established café, since several generations renowned for the medieval vaults in the basement.