page_title: Västerlånggatan
section_title: Mynttorget-Storkyrkobrinken
hierarchical_section_title: Västerlånggatan / A walk north to south / Mynttorget-Storkyrkobrinken
caption_attribution_description: w:Stenbastugränd, 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 1–5 is Demokrativerkstaden ("Democracy Workshop"), a pedagogical roll-playing environment operated by the Riksdag offering young school children the chance to act as MPs for a few hours.
  Salviigränd, named after Johan Adler Salvius (1590–1652), the Swedish main negotiator during the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, used to stretch down to the water.  On the left corner (Number 1) is a suite of rooms featuring a neoclassical interior from 1795 restored to its original state, sumptuously furnished and richly decorated with friezes and medallions.
  On Number 6 was until recently the bookstore Hemlins bokhandel. It was founded in 1864 and taken over by Emil Hemlin in the 1880s.  From the late 18th century and well into modern times, the neighbourhood used to be the quarters of the 'printed word', the part of the city where both the books and their consumers were located, and were people from other parts of the country would come to find and talk about the latest novels.
  Above street level and behind the intact front, Number 7–17 are the semi-detached offices of the Riksdag.  On number 7 are Roman letters displaying the year 1888 when the Neo-Renaissance sgraffito façade was created.  On number 13 above the windows on the first floor, are the heads of Victor Emanuel II, Garibaldi and Cavour, obviously added by someone favourably disposed towards the Italian unification.  The entire block is hiding the northern end of Prästgatan, one of the few blind ends of the old town, which was historically known as Helvetesgränd ("Alley of Hell"), either because the city executioner resided in the area or because the entire neighbourhood is located north of the cathedral (e.g. in Norse folklore associated with the "Kingdom of the Dead").
  On the opposite side, Number 8–14, is another block occupied by the offices of the Riksdag. The intact front hide the semi-detached interior where a few clerks are sitting next to fresco paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries and sculpted beams featuring animals.  The three small vaults and their respective street signs — Klockgjutargränd, Kolmätargränd, Stenbastugränd — gives a hint of what the neighbourhood used to be before WW2 when the circular courtyard, Brantingtorget, was created and the three alleys stretched much further west.
  Just east of the crossing between Storkyrkobrinken and Västerlånggatan, the main northern city gate used to stand during the Middle Ages. At the time a narrow alley, the street was widened during the 1650s in order to create a more stately connection between the Royal Palace and the palaces on Riddarholmen.
caption: Stenbastugränd
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