Brantingtorget (Swedish: "Square of Branting") is the courtyard of the Chancery House annex (Kanslihusannexet), acting as one of the public squares in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm.
The square is named after the country's first democratically elected Prime Minister Hjalmar Branting (1860–1925). It was designed together with the surrounding building by the architect Artur von Schmalensee (1900–1972) and built in 1945–1950.
It is connected to surrounding streets by several passages, of which some are the remains of alleys once criss-crossing the block – Klockgjutargrand, Kolmatargrand, and Stenbastugrand.
The dramatic contrast between the narrow alleys and the relatively large round open space they hide, is astonishingly harmonic, the result of a compromise between the will of antiquaries wanting to preserve the medieval architecture and that of the department wanting to displace what it regarded as slum in disrepair.
The post-WW2 classicism of the place excited a mode of indignation among other contemporary architects, claiming modern democracy had dressed itself up in a disguise.
Centred on the square is the bronze sculpture Morgon from 1962 by Ivar Johnsson (1885-1970).
The street Stora Nygatan
was created as part of a new town plan following the great fire of 1625, and thus probably dates to about 1630. An official attempt to name the street Konungsgatan ("The Kings Street"), a name known from 1637, obviously failed. The southern part of the street dates back to before the fire.
At number two is the Bergstrahl House, originally built in the 1640s by Erik Ryning, member of the regency of Queen Christina, and designed by Simon de la Vallee.
In the 18th century it was owned by Secretary Gottfried Sack who ran a tavern and a brothel there, which was frequented by the troubadour Carl Michael Bellman, the authors and poets Karl Israel Hallman and Olof Kexel. When Sack died in 1774, Hallman delivered an oration to his memory, which became the starting point for the order Par Bricole, a society which is still devoted to cultivating and preserving Swedish cultural heritage, especially that from the 18th century.
The building was thereafter the location for newspapers and social clubs associated with the dawning Swedish democracy. Lately the address has been used by state institutions such as the Supreme Court.
The street's Storkyrkobrinken present name stems from the vicinity to the cathedral Storkyrkan.
In medieval times, Storkyrkobrinken was the main slope leading up to the village church on the top of Stadsholmen. The crossing street Vasterlanggatan was the street passing outside the city wall on the city's western side, and there was a city gate which permitted Storkyrkobrinken to enter the city.
In 1422 Storkyrkobrinken is referred to as sancte nicolauese port ("Gate of Saint Nicholas") while the section outside the city wall (west of Vasterlanggatan) appears as S:t Laurentii grand ("Alley of Saint Lawrence") in 1436 and a name it retained throughout the second half of that century. St Nicholas of Myra (-350), patron saint of merchants and seamen, had a statue in the street to which people would offer before shipping expeditions, and a chaplain in the 1670s explains both the church, the street, and city were named after the saint until the 1570s, notwithstanding the statue was destroyed earlier that century.
A century later it was named after the school (skolstuga literally translates into "School cottage") built in the street in 1431. In 1520 it is thus called Scolestue backen ("School Cottage Slope") and in 1571 the section west of Vasterlanggatan is named skolstuffue grenden ("School Cottage Alley"). During the 16th century it appears as Kyrkobrinken ("Church Slope") in 1596 and as S. Niclaes Brinck ("St Nicholas Slope") in 1597.
During the so-called era of the Swedish Empire, attempts were made to rename various structures in the present old town to give them names more to the taste of the ambitions of the era. Storkyrkobrinken thus appears as Slottsgatan ("Palace Street") in 1637 (it also connects the Royal Palace to the western waterfront), while other names, such as Riddargatan ("Knight's Street") and Riddarhusgatan ("Knight's House Street"), were used during the 17th century to associate the street with the prestigious Riddarhuset.
In 1650, however, it appears as Store kyrke brincken ("Big Church Slope") and the following year even as Svenska Kyrkobrinken ("Swedish Church Slope") in order to distinguish it from Tyska Brinken ("German Slope") which still leads up to the German Church.
Lastly it appears as Scholstugu gr[and] ("School Cottage Alley") in 1733, before being named Storkyrko Brinken ("Big Church Slope") in 1771.