Bellman’s lottery; Svartmangatan 6 and 9

The man Swedes know so well, although his fame has faded elsewhere is Europe – Bellman, he really was a kind of Shakespeare of Gamla stan, putting the whole place to song in his never-ending cycles of epistles – anyway! He worked at number 9 Svartmangatan, the National lottery for a good numbert of years. It’s said he was at first enthusiastic, then less so – and then he worked less and less and less while his pay steadily increased! He was eventually imprisoned in the Guard’s tower at the castle – for unpaid debts.
Through the arches at number 6 Svartmangatan is a walled inner yard where you may want to grab a bite to eat or a coffee. Today it’s called Mäster Olofsgården, quite often there are matinees, galleries and various amateur entertainments going on in here. The building used to belong to the regent Sten Sture the elder in the late 1400s - though its many royal and noble owners have altered and rebuilt from the foundations many times.

Photo Svarmangatan februari 2007 by Mats Halldin is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0