Skomakargatan (

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

: "The Shoemaker Street") is a

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...

Gamla stan Gamla stan (, "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 ...

, the old town of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

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 country located on ...

, Stretching between the square

Stortorget Stortorget (, "the Grand Square") is a public square in Gamla Stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is the oldest square in Stockholm, the historical centre on which the medieval urban conglomeration gradually came into being. To ...

and the streets

Kindstugatan Kindstugatan is a street in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. Stretching west from Brända Tomten to become Tyska Brinken in its western end, it is crossed by Svartmangatan and Skomakargatan. Origin of the name The oldest ...

and

Tyska Brinken Tyska Brinken ( sv, The German Slope) is a street in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. Extending Kindstugatan past the German Church down to the square Mälartorget, it is crossed by Skomakargatan, Prästgatan, Västerl ...

, it forms a parallel street to Prästgatan and

Svartmangatan Svartmangatan ( sv, (literally)) "Black Man Street") is a street in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Stretching south-east from the central square Stortorget to Södra Benickebrinken and Norra Benickebrinken leading to the eastern ...

. Together with

Köpmangatan Köpmangatan (Swedish: "The Merchant Street") is a street in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. A parallel street to Trädgårdsgatan, it stretches from the central square Stortorget to Köpmantorget, intercepted by Trädgårdstv ...

, Skomakargatan is the oldest preserved street name in Gamla stan. In 1337 it is referred to as (in Latin) ''in vico sutorum'' ("on the street of the shoemakers"), and the street remained the established quarters for the trade until the early 18th century. The royal weaving mill was located on the street in the 16th century, as were two

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

lounges (''gillehus'') dedicated to St Olof (

Saint Olav Olaf II Haraldsson ( – 29 July 1030), later known as Saint Olaf (and traditionally as St. Olave), was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the title '' Rex Per ...

) and Helga Lekamen (The Holy Body of Christ). (See also

Helga Lekamens Gränd Helga Lekamens Gränd (Swedish: "Alley of the Holy Body") is an alley in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. Connecting Västerlånggatan to Stora Nygatan, it forms a parallel street to Stora Gråmunkegränd and Göran Häls ...

.) Before Tyska kyrkan (the German Church) was built in the early 17th century, the street south of Skomakargatan was called ''Skomakarebrinken'' ("The Shoemakers Slope") or, in reference to the local

city gate A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway. Uses City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods ...

, ''Skomakarporten'' ("Shoemaker's Gate"). Skomakargatan is also one of the main sceneries in the story of ''The Member of Parliament and the Beautiful Dalecarlian Girl'', a story about a young woman, Pilt Carin Ersdotter (1814–1885), who came to Stockholm from

Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland Värmland () also known a ...

to work as a milkmaid, and quickly became famous for her beauty. A count Rudolph fell madly in love with her, and she was regularly invited to parties otherwise only attended by wealthy people. At one occasion the police even interrogated her because she blocked the street with her beauty, however freeing her over the charges because "beauty is not a crime". She resisted all admirers in the capital to return to her fiancé in Dalarna, and became the subject for many songs and tales long after her departure. (The entire original novel is available as a

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

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References

External links

Stockholmskällan - Historical photos

hitta.se - location map
Streets in Stockholm {{Stockholm-road-stub