Själagårdsgatan

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View of Själagårdsgatan with Brända Tomten in the background.

Själagårdsgatan (Swedish: "The Charitable Institution Street") is a street in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden.

Old names: Siela gardz gatan (1487), Sielegatenn (1593), Siähl gårdz gatan (1688), Siärgårds Gatan (1718)
Parallel streets: Baggensgatan
Crossing streets: Köpmangatan, Brända Tomten, Kindstugatan, Tyska Skolgränd, Tyska Brunnsplan, Svartmangatan

The street is named after a charitable institution (Själagård, "Soul Building/Homestead") built on number 13 in the early 1420s. The institution was founded by a Christian Charitable trust as a home for old and sick, financed by donations (själagåvor, "gifts of the soul"). This sort of Christian institutions disappeared after the Reformation during the second half of the 16th century.^[1] The building was used by the royal printing house were printing pioneer Jürgen Richolff the Younger produced the 1526 translation into Swedish of the New Testament.^[2] The building was then used as a junior secondary school (trivialskola, "commoners school") until the 19th century.^[1]

As the Swedish word Själagård ceased to be used, the street name gradually was interpreted as Skärgårdsgatan ("The Archipelago Street"), which was its official name during the 18th and 19th centuries and still used by older people until the 1960s. The street was officially renamed in 1925.^[1]

The film Den vita katten directed by Hasse Ekman in 1950 was shot on the location.^[3]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c (1992) "Innerstaden: Gamla stan", Stockholms gatunamn, 2nd ed., Stockholm: Kommittén för Stockholmsforskning, 68. ISBN 91-7031-042-4.
^ Boktryckarkonstens pionjärer i Uppsala. Roland Agius (2006-03-21). Retrieved on 2007-02-03.
^ Svensk Filmdatabas : Den vita katten. Svenska Filminstitutet. Retrieved on 2007-02-03.