You can learn a lot about a culture from the names of its streets and squares. From heros, to events, and significant dates, you often find cultural concepts immortalised in the names the citizens choose to give their roads. This is my next series of posts – the streets and squares of Sweden.
First out – Birger Jarlsgatan, a major road cutting through the center of Stockholm. The word ‘gata’ means street.
But who then was Birger Jarl?
Birger Jarl was a Swedish statesman, and later regent, who played an important role in the consolidation of Sweden. He lived 1210-1266 and is attributed with the foundation of Stockholm. He was a significant character in Sweden’s history.
Not only is he commemorated with his own street, but he also has his own city square, decorated with a bronze statue of the man himself.
Additionally, Sweden’s most well known cenotaph – outdoors at the foot of the tower at Stockholm City Hall – was intended to hold his remains when it was built in 1923. However, the local parish in Vadstena refused to release them. So, the grand sarcophagus has remained empty – unlike the street that bears his name and is one of the busiest in the city.
Birger Jarlsgatan.
Watching the Swedes 