The thirty-six steps
A steep descent between high walls.
Mastad — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Øyvind Holmstad — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Frankie Fouganthin — CC BY-SA 4.0 · AleWi — CC BY-SA 4.0
Between Vasterlanggatan and Prastgatan at the island's southern end, near Jarntorget square. The upper entrance is easy to walk past and looks like a gap between two buildings — look for the stone plaque set into the wall, the only marker identifying it from the main street.
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Marten Trotzigs Grand is Stockholm's narrowest street: just ninety centimetres at its tightest, less than the span of two outstretched arms. It descends thirty-six stone steps between high walls in the heart of Gamla Stan, from the upper street down to the lower lane facing the water. Its name comes from a German merchant who emigrated to Stockholm in the sixteenth century and owned properties on both sides of the passage. The alley was effectively closed in the eighteenth century and stayed sealed for some two hundred years before reopening in 1945 — which is why it looks unusually well preserved compared with lanes that went through successive restorations. In practice it is a quick photo stop and nothing more: two minutes to walk down and shoot. Crowding is a genuine problem in summer, since the width does not let two people pass each other easily, so the best times are early morning or after nine in the evening when it empties completely.
A steep descent between high walls.
The only time it is genuinely empty.
Marten Trotzigs grand, 111 29 Stockholm