page_title: Västerlånggatan
section_title: Storkyrkobrinken-Kåkbrinken
hierarchical_section_title: Västerlånggatan / A walk north to south / Storkyrkobrinken-Kåkbrinken
caption_attribution_description: w:Västerlånggatan, w:Gamla stan, Stockholm
context_page_description: Västerlånggatan is a street in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. 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 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 1625 occupied the entire western side of the street.
context_section_description: On Number 16 is the gilded raven of Apoteket Korpen ("The Raven pharmacy") founded in 1674 and located on Stortorget during 250 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. Today there is a preserved interior from 1924, and the pharmacy only offers factory-made medicine, except for the Christmas mustard made after its own recipe.
  The café Gråmunken on Number 18 is a well-established café, since several generations renowned for the medieval vaults in the basement.  While a gravel ridge composes most of the soil in the surrounding area, the block behind the café is built on solid rock located above sea level during the Viking Age, and hopefully future excavations will be able to further document the earliest history of the area.  Archaeological excavations in the street just outside Number 18 have unveiled several layers of earlier street levels, with traces of paved streets found a metre below the present pavement.  North of Number 18 is Stora Gråmunkegränd ("Great Grayfriars Alley"), which used to lead from the Greyfriars islet (Riddarholmen) to the defensive tower on the east side of Västerlånggatan.  South of the café is Helga Lekamens Gränd ("Alley of the Holy Body [of Christ]"), named after an influential guild existent from the 15th century to the Reformation (1520s). Between these two alleys is a barred alley.
  Behind the café and its rainbow flag on Number 19 is the story of one of the oldest shops in the world: The ironmonger's shop of C J Bergman founded in 1654, established on this address in 1712, and taken over by Bergman in 1842. When discontinued in the early 1980s, it was the last institution of the many blacksmiths' shops and workshops once occupying the entire neighbourhood and offering horseshoes, swords, guns, pots, and nails. The roof of the building is a Säteritak — a Swedish-style mansion roof introduced in the 17th century and featuring a so-called Italian, a low storey dividing the roof into a lower and an upper part and usually containing either rooms for servants or a promenade floor with a panoramic view over the city.
  The Art Nouveau glazed façade on Number 22 is from 1907 and the building, slightly less than five metres wide, is arguably the narrowest hotel in town.  However inviting, the building safeguards stories of both local and national heroes: During the 18th century a number of taverns succeeded each other's on the address, one of which was the "Deft & Done" (Flink & Färdig), named after the inscription on one of the emergency coins of King Charles XII, and owned a by Catharina Burman, a woman renowned for "intoxication, oaths, scolding, and curses".  A hundred years prior to this two printers resided in the block; one was Arnold Helsing, the other his journeyman Ignatius Meuer, who immigrated to Stockholm from Thuringia, Germany, in 1610 and 21 years old took over the printing house.  Before Ignatius died 83 years old, the nine presses in his workshop had produced the Ordinari Post-Tijdender, the oldest newspaper in the world, and the Bible of Charles X in Swedish.  Ignatius and the son of the former printer eventually gave their names to the two alley flanking the hotel: Ignatiigränd and Göran Hälsinges Gränd, the latter is otherwise mostly remembered through the lyrics of the troubadour Carl Michael Bellman who describes the alley as renowned for its prostitutes.
  On Number 24 and 24 A are two friezes accompanied by a legend — A ship got stuck in a lull but was miraculously saved by a beautiful lady who brought the captain down to her palace under the waves. In return for favourable winds she had the captain promise to deliver a letter to a Mr. Måns on Västerlånggatan immediately on his return.  Back in Stockholm, however, the captain forgot his promise and choose to unship his goods before delivering the letter.  When he finally went to deliver it, he was told the only Mr. Måns in
caption: The gilded bird of the Raven Pharmacy.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "250", "Image YResolution": "250", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "ArcSoft PhotoStudio", "Image DateTime": "2016:01:21 15:11:22", "Image ExifOffset": "154", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "308", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10395", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100"}