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Brantingtorget ( Swedish: "Square of Branting") is the
courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...
of the Chancery House annex (''Kanslihusannexet''), acting as one of the public squares in Gamla stan, the old town in central
Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...
,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
.


History

The square is named after the country's first democratically elected Prime Minister
Hjalmar Branting Karl Hjalmar Branting (; 23 November 1860 – 24 February 1925) was a Swedish politician who was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) from 1907 until his death in 1925, and three times Prime Minister of Sweden. When Branting cam ...
(1860–1925). It was designed together with the surrounding building by the architect Artur von Schmalensee (1900–1972) and built in 1945–1950. It is connected to surrounding streets by several passages, of which some are the remains of alleys once criss-crossing the block – Klockgjutargränd, Kolmätargränd, and Stenbastugränd. The dramatic contrast between the narrow alleys and the relatively large round open space they hide, is astonishingly harmonic, the result of a compromise between the will of antiquaries wanting to preserve the medieval architecture and that of the department wanting to displace what it regarded as slum in disrepair. The post-WW2
classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthet ...
of the place excited a mode of indignation among other contemporary architects, claiming modern democracy had dressed itself up in a disguise. Centred on the square is the bronze sculpture ''Morgon'' from 1962 by Ivar Johnsson (1885-1970).


See also

* List of streets and squares in Gamla stan


References

Squares in Stockholm {{Stockholm-geo-stub