Västerlånggatan

Västerlånggatan (The Western Long Street) is a street in Gamla stan, the old town of , Sweden. Stretching southward between the squares Mynttorget and , 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.

Today renowned as one of Gamla stan's most picturesque and busy tourist magnets, Västerlånggatan was for many centuries one of the major streets of Stockholm together with Österlånggatan, both of which ran outside the city walls. During the 15th century, they were both called Allmänningsgatan ("The Common Street") or Långa gatan ("The long street"), occasionally in combination, like Allmenninx longe gathen or longe Almenninx gathen in 1514, and/or with a suffix such as västan till ("to the west") appended. The current name was officially established in 1885.

Originally the street was little more than a pathway passing just outside the city's western wall and following the shoreline, as the gently meandering street still reminds us. It was however connecting the northern city gate, Norrbro, with the southern, Söderbro, and it was thus the main route between Uppland, the province north of the city, and Södermanland, south of the city.

During the 15th century, the street became the paved artery road it still is today, line-up with dwellings and shops on either side. During the Middle Ages and Vasa era, the southern part of the street formed part of the district centred on , at the time the most prominent quarters in the city inhabited by influential merchants such as Mårten Trotzig, Mårten Leuhusen and Erik Larsson von der Linde. Along the rest of the street craftsmen had their small workshops, and the northernmost section, stretching between Mynttorget and Storkyrkobrinken, was called Stadssmedjegatan ("City's Smith's Street"), because the blacksmiths who were confined outside the city because of the danger of fire had their headquarters there. During the 17h century this section was instead inhabited by goldsmiths and accordingly climbed the ranks.

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Wikipedia