Stortorget
The exception being the Stock Exchange Building taking up the northern side of the square and concealing the Cathedral and the Royal Palace.
Designed by Erik Palmstedt and built 1773–1776, it replaced the town hall that had occupied the lot for several hundreds years before and subsequently been relocated first to the Bonde Palace and then to the present Court House in 1915.
The plan of the building, French Rococo in style, is a trapezium, the rounded corner of which greatly widened the flanking alleys.
The building is today the headquarters of the Stockholm´s City Mission, an independent Christian charity devoted to support homeless and exposed citizens with food, accommodation, and education, also running advisory bureaus and others elsewhere in the old town.
[11] Until the mid-15th century, the south side of the square was lined with wooden shops, in the spacious basements of which peasants kept their provisions and prepared meals.
During the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, the Dutch merchant Abraham Cabiljau, one of the founders and first mayors of Gothenburg, lived in the building.
[12] The French wig maker Jean Bedoire bought the building in 1682 and, just like his son and namesake who gave his name to the alley Bedoirsgränd, made a fortune in trading wine, salt, and iron.
It was founded as a youth centre by the priest Gabriel Grefberg in 1931 when Gamla stan was mostly a slum, and the number of activities quickly grew to include elderly, mothers, scouts, workers, and many other groups.
[13] The cannonball in the corner of Skomakargatan, according to popular legend, dates back to the Stockholm Bloodbath in 1520, when it was fired at the Danish king Christian Tyrant.
Along with some wooden tubes found near Kornhamnstorg, it is one of the few indications contradicting the traditional view of medieval Stockholm as a repulsive place where filth and refuse filled the streets.
[18] The block on Number 14–16 is named after Æsculapius, the son of Apollo and the demigod of medicine, which reflects the presence of the "Raven Pharmacy" (Apoteket Korpen) at this address for more than 300 years.
While still present on Västerlånggatan just a few blocks away, the pharmacy was originally settled on Stortorget in 1638 when the court pharmacist Philip Schmidt offered not only medicine at this address, but also assorted sweets and mulled wine.
Just above the deepest layer, coins from the reigns of Magnus Ladulås and Birger Magnusson were found, together with ceramic sherds from the same eras.
[2][21] In the middle of the square was the pillory called Kåken ("The [Ramshackle] House", see Kåkbrinken), first mentioned in connection to the so-called "Käpplinge murders" (Käpplingemorden) in the first half of the 15th century.
The story is that a group German burghers who trapped a large number of prominent citizens in a hovel on Blasieholmen (then called Käpplinge) and burned them in.
[22] Originally, the pillory was placed atop a bricked prison, where the despised executioner kept those sentenced before shackling and whipping them, or even cutting their ears off, depending on the nature of the crimes.
Archbishop Gustav Trolle, dethroned and imprisoned by the regent Sten Sture the Elder, who died during the siege, wanted to obtain a redress.
Therefore, during the coronation of the Danish king, the prominent guests were confronted with the bill of indictment of the archbishop and subsequently condemned for blasphemy.
The Danish king, satisfied with having pacified Sweden, returned to Denmark in December, drowning a few monks during the trip and ignoring the dawning insurrection in Dalarna.
A committee, formed in 1892, in vain urged the council to counteract unemployment and alleviate distress by initiating roadworks and taking other measures.
Future Prime Minister Hjalmar Branting got involved in a dispute before the crowd threatened to intrude the Stock Exchange Build from Trångsund.
