Köpmanbrinken

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Northern slope of Köpmanbrinken in March 2007.

Köpmanbrinken (Swedish: "Merchant's Slope") is a street composed of two slopes, in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. Both slopes connects the street Österlånggatan west up to the small Köpmantorget and the street Köpmangatan.

Since the foundation of the city the slopes reflects the original inclination treadled by the city's first inhabitants.^[1]

Seemingly inexplicable, the northern slope was referred to as Fiskestrandsbrinken ("Fishing Shore Slope") during the Middle Ages, a mystery however dissolved by the fact the area east of the slopes, between the alleys Nygränd and Brunnsgränd, use to be the city's main fishing market Fiskaretorget until 1520. The statue of St George and his princess is replica from 1912 of the medieval original in the cathedral Storkyrkan.^[2]

On the narrow space along the slopes' eastern sides, where the statue of Saint George and the Dragon is found today, was until 1829 an entire block called Acteon demolished following a collapse that year. The slopes were made less steep in the process following the collapse. During the 19th century, the slopes were regarded as two individual streets, separated by the square Köpmantorget; the two subsequently established as a single street by an official decision in 1885 and united under the present name.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Béatrice Glase, Gösta Glase (1988). "Inre Stadsholmen", Gamla stan med Slottet och Riddarholmen, 3rd ed. (in Swedish), Stockholm: Bokförlaget Trevi, 49. ISBN 91 7160 823 0.
^ ^a ^b (1992) "Innerstaden: Gamla stan", Stockholms gatunamn, 2nd ed. (in Swedish), Stockholm: Kommittén för Stockholmsforskning, 58-59, 64. ISBN 91-7031-042-4.