page_title: Österlånggatan
section_title: Köpmanbrinken – Benickebrinken
hierarchical_section_title: Österlånggatan / A walk north to south / Köpmanbrinken – Benickebrinken
caption_attribution_description: 39, w:Österlånggatan, Gamla stan, Stockholm.
context_page_description: Österlånggatan is a street in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Stretching southward from Slottsbacken to Järntorget, it forms a parallel street to Baggensgatan and Skeppsbron. Major sights include the statue of Saint George and the Dragon on Köpmanbrinken and the restaurant Den Gyldene Freden on number 51, established in 1722 and mentioned in Guinness Book of Records as one of the oldest with an unaltered interior.
context_section_description: The middle section of the street contains numerous alleys stretching east while the block on the opposite side forms a continuous block, the extent of which is caused by the medieval city wall which stretched behind the block, along the fronts facing Baggensgatan.
  While the sandstone on the ground level of number 19 is 18th century in style, it was unveiled in the 1960s, the building however received much of its present appearance in 1876.  During the following decades, the proprietors then started to add and relocate the doors of the building, sealing one door to replace a window with a new door, ten years later reverting the arrangement – in many aspects typical for the faith of the buildings in the old town.  The building was occupied by the tavern Riga during the 17th and 18th century, and during 60 years from 1917 by a sail loft.  South of Number 19 is Skottgränd, an alley named after the Scotsmen who settled here in the 17th century, supposedly to own their living either as merchants or warriors.  On Number 2 was the tavern Bacchus in the early 18th century, Number 6 was a storage as the still operational derrick show, and over the door of Number 3 is the inscription NON DOMUS DOMINUM SED DOMINUS DOMUM, roughly: 'A dominion doesn't make a lord, but a lord makes a domesticity'.  One of the two shuttered windows on the southern side has iron detailing 17th century in style, but both of them are from 1873 when the façade of Number 21 was completed together with its portal feature featuring sculptural leaf garland and ductile wooden decorations.  Next to the vault leading to Stora Hoparegränd (a name derived from hooper, the profession of making barrels; English: cooper) is just enough space for the narrow front door of Number 23; the portal of which is 18th century in style but was added to the building probably in the mid-19th century, a few decades before the shop door got flanked by its fluted wooden pilasters.
  The imposing old building on the opposite side, Number 14, featuring an oriel, a Renaissance frieze, and a Baroque portal was built in 1888 to the design of Isak Gustaf Clason, an architect known for the uninhibited use of historical styles from various epochs for different commissions – the 'Nordic Renaissance' of the Nordic Museum on Djurgården is arguably the best example.  The façade, unaltered except for the pediments over the doors removed in 1966, was inspired by the buildings of the old town, and the eclectic pioneering style of the architect is regarded as a first decisive step away from the well-established manners of the 19th century to rebuild old structures using the cast iron constructions introduced throughout the city during this time (see Riddarholmskyrkan).  The façade is full of quotations from various historical periods, together humbly adapting to the heterogeneous environment, while the large stone vaults are adjusting the relation between the street and the interior.
  The façades of Number 25-27 are insidiously similar in appearance.  The first have been repeatedly rebuilt – old doors removed, windows enlarged, the plain plastered surface added in the early 20th century, and the concrete portal in the 1970s – while the rough-cast façade and stone portal of the other is overall 18th century in character and largely unaltered since 1757.  Not much different is Number 16 on the opposite side of the street, the four cast iron pilasters and the fair-faced plaster of which is unaltered since 1889, while there was originally a depressed rounded arch over the double sliding doors of the front door.
  Between Drakens Gränd and the vault of Ferkens Gränd (named after the German word for pig, Ferkel) is Number 29-31; the stone pilasters, double doors, and simple profiled borders of the former are from 1850, while the latter is much unaltered since it was enlarged in 1834, as with many other building the shop windows have been enlarged during the 19th and 20th centuries.  Much due to the shutters and plain stone portals of Number 18 on the opposite side, this façade have kept its simple character sin
caption: Number 39.
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