eighteenth-century Stockholm: wooden houses in Mästar Mikaels gata

with Katarina Kyrka, Stockholm-Söder(-malm);

 

The street is called after Master Mikael Reisuer, the town executioner between 1635 and 1650, who lived in a house in the street. St. Catherine’s Church was severly damaged in 1723, which destroyed several hundred wooden houses. A couple of years later the first building ordinance for Stockholm was issued, decreeing that nothing but stone houses could be built in squares, large streets and harbours. In 1736 wooden houses were totally prohibited. The ordinances were not obeyed. The old wooden houses that now line the street were built a few years after the fire, all of them being completed by 1729. They are good examples of wooden architecture in the districts around the town centre (Gamla Stan) in bygone times. The timber houses are paneled and painted with oil paints on the side facing the street. The corner joints are boxed in with boards painted in a contrasting colour, in order to resemble stone houses. Driveways lead into the yards, where there were often more dwelling houses, woodsheds, privies, stables and sometimes bakeries. Around 1900 these houses were among the most overcrowded slums in St. Catherine’s Parish. They were threatened with demolition until they underwent large-scale renovation in 1979-1980. A small part of eighteenth-century Stockholm was thus preserved for posterity.

Done