För 1890-talet revs tillstugorna och platsen ordnades med inhägnad gräsmatta, träd och buskar. Under

## Summary

The open circus was created when Stockholm was given a new urban plan at the end of the nineteenth century. The hillocky Ladugårdslandet, with its shanties, potato patches, and kaleyards, was then transformed into the prosperous stone city of Östermalm. Newly laid out streets radiated from this star-like square.

From 1640 the tollbooths of Ladugårdslandet stood in the centre of the present Karlaplan, beside a court gamekeeper's residence called Djursborg. The area outside the toll perimeter was known as the Ultimate Darkness.

In the 1890s the tollbooths were demolished and the place was put in order, with a fenced lawn, trees, and

bushes. During the First World War people were allowed to grow vegetables on the lawn.

In 1930 Karlaplan was redesigned with a large sunken basin and a huge water pillar as a landmark for strollers in the esplanades of Karlavägen and Narvavägen.

In May 1901 August Strindberg and his new wife, the young actress Harriet Bosse, moved into a newly built property in Karlaplan. Here Strindberg wrote works including The Thunderstorm and The Ghost Sonata. The building was demolished despite vehement protests in 1969 and replaced with the brown-tiled building on the other side of Karlaplan.