Stockholm During The Great Power Era - City Plans

City Plans

Focusing on the ridges surrounding the city, Stockholm thus saw its first modern city plan, still discernible on modern maps. The then suburban district of Norrmalm, just north of Stadsholmen, had been made a separate city with its own magistrate in 1602. This effectively made implementing any new city plan impossible as the inhabitants there refused to accept to have their homes demolished. This problem was solved in 1635 when Norrmalm was reunified with Stockholm, probably a necessary step for the planned regulations and another indication the entire development was dependent of the government and not the city itself.

The process was initiated by a fire in a brewery on the lower end of Kåkbrinken on September 1, 1625. The wind caught the flames and destroyed most of the buildings on the south-western part of the island — a fatei shared with many prominent buildings throughout Swedish history, in contrast to the unprecedented and enterprising spirit that followed. No surviving documents tells who made what decision, but certain is the government wanted to see a major face lift, and in a letter related to the fire the following year, the king mentions plans ordered by himself (afritningh och scampelun, vi nådigst hafve göra låtidt). Nevertheless, this resulted in the first regulation of Stadsholmen. West of Västerlånggatan two new boulevard-like streets were created — Stora Nygatan and Lilla Nygatan — and along the eastern waterfront the medieval wall was replaced by a row of prestigious palaces — Skeppsbron.

On Malmarna, the surrounding ridges, the first suburb to catch the focus of Oxenstierna was the western part of Norrmalm. A city plan for the district, most likely developed by Anders Torstensson in early 1637, feature several still preserved structures, including Stoore Konnungz gatun ("Large King's Street", today's Drottninggatan) and Mönstre Platz ("??", today's Hötorget). A second devastating fire in 1640 on the eastern part of Norrmalm provided the excuse for a city plan for that district, and at the same time the rural area east of Norrmalm (Ladugårdslandet, today's Östermalm) was donated to the city. Soon Torstensson presented a unified plan for all three northern suburbs, long after his death realized with only minor changes. One of the problems he failed to deal with was the huge ridge Brunkebergsåsen separating the two parts of Norrmalm, and misfits between the non-aligned streets on either side can be seen on modern maps of the city.

The steep northern shore of Södermalm, the island south of the city, presented insurmountable problems. A map from the early 1640s, presenting the ambitious plans for the northern suburbs, still renders a spontaneous conglomeration of meandering streets converging on the southern city gate, but with proposed artery roads dashed. The outline of a main street stretching north to south across the island (corresponding to today's Götgatan) already existed, and is proposed to be straightened out on the map. A completely new proposal was a second artery street, perpendicular to the former and stretching west across the island (today's Hornsgatan). On another map, probably produced a few years later, blocks parallel to these two wide streets are added with spaces left for two churches (Maria Magdalena kyrka and Katarina kyrka) and their graveyards. In 1641, however, the Over-Governor's Office ordered older structures on Södermalm to be demolished, a project started the following year and carried through mostly in accordance to the original plans so thoroughly that virtually no medieval structures are preserved on the island.

Finally, the island Kungsholmen east of present-day St Eriksgatan was also incorporated into the city by a donation in 1644 stipulating that streets and buildings on the island should follow the existent plan for the district. Like on Södermalm, the varied terrain on Kungsholmen made the task of implementing a city plan featuring straight streets impossible, but several of the still existent artery streets date back to this time, including Fleminggatan, Kungsholmsgatan, and Hantverkargatan.