Prästgatan

Prästgatan (Swedish: "The Priest's Street") is a street in Gamla stan, the old town in central , Sweden, stretching from a cul-de-sac west of the to the street Österlånggatan in the southern corner of the old town. Prästgatan forms a parallel street to Västerlånggatan, , Skomakargatan, and Svartmangatan. It is intercepted by Storkyrkobrinken, Ankargränd, Spektens Gränd, Solgränd, Kåkbrinken, Tyska Brinken, Tyska Stallplan, Mårten Trotzigs Gränd, and Norra Benickebrinken

Prästegathen (1586)

The street was given its name in reference to the residences of three chaplains and a bell-ringer built there during the 16th century, the four small buildings were demolished in 1708 to give room to the parsonage still present. As the parsons othe ("Tyska kyrkan") were housed near the street, the southern part of it was called Tyska Prästgatan ("The German Priest's Street") from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century while the northern part was called Svenska Prästgatan ("The Swedish Priest's Street"). The name revision of 1885, resulted in the name Prästgatan being used for the street's northern and southern extensions as well.

Before this, the part north of the street Storkyrkobrinken was known as Helvetesgränd ("Alley of Hell"), just like the surrounding area north and west of the cathedral Storkyrkan was being referred to as Helvetet (Hell), a name subject to scholarly disputes. Professor Nils Ahnlund (1889–1957), interpreted it as referring to the area north of a church in popular beliefs being known as "latus plagæ damnatæ" ("the northern side of the damned") and therefore a place of disgrace suitable for suicides and criminals, a theory only corroborated by the location of the city executioner in the area. This theory was however questioned by the historian Lizzie Carlsson, in several essays instead concluding Helvetet during the Middle Ages was used all over Sweden for farmyards as well as other structures with a northern location. A theory, she argues, confirmed by the fact that the "kingdom of the dead" in norse folklore is located to the north. While the presence of more distinguished residences in the Helvetet neighbourhood can be explained by the overcrowded conditions within the city walls, the name during medieval times didn't have the pejorative meaning it has today, thus making the hypothesis credible.

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