About Kaffekoppen

Café Kaffekoppen is a cozy café with lovely food and cold and hot drinks in a unique building at Stortorget 20 i the heart of Gamla stan (Old town) in Stockholm, just a stone’s throw from the Royal Palace.

Stortorget 20, Gamla Stan, Stockholm

... built in the 16th century

The entrance level is a sour atmosphere and the tables are tight and the fog on the window testifies to a well-attended hook. The choklad cake, the pies, the carrot cake and all the other delicacies on the menu taste homemade.

If it is crowded upstairs, you are welcome to explore the café's unique basement vault below!

Kaffekoppen is located in the Schantzska house, a red house built on top of a medieval brick cellar. The house was built in 1648 during Queen Kristina's reign, 20 years after the ship Vasa's sinking in Tegelviksbukten (Tegelvik Bay), and is named after the builder, Johan Eberbard von Schantz. During a redevelopment in the 1650s, the 92 gray stones in the façade facing Stortorget came into place. They total exactly the same number of people who were killed in Stockholm's massacre in 1520 and is said to represent all those killed.

Inside Kaffekoppen

Historical landmark

Gamla Stan

History

The history of the old town stretches all the way back to the 12th century when there was a royal barrage on the site, where all boats heading towards the many trading places in the Mälardalen eventually had to be reloaded due to the elevation of the land. When the location grew in importance, the city of Stockholm was founded in the 1250s on Stadsholmen, which later became konwn as Gamla Stan. Until the 16th century, many fires had ravaged the city and it was then decided that all houses in the Old Town must be built of stone.

The medieval path from the ships to market

You can find Kaffekoppen by following the street called Kåkbrinken, which leads from the subway station to Stortorget. The street was originally a medieval path between the houses to roll cargo from the boats up to the trading post at the square. The word "kåk" means " of shame" because it was at Stortorget that all criminals received their punishment.

Medieval brick cellar

Kaffekoppen is located in the Schantz house, a red house built on top of a medieval brick cellar. The house was built in 1648 during the reign of Queen Kristina, 20 years after the sinking of the ship Wasa in Tegelvik Bay, and is named after the builder, Johan Eberbard von Schantz. It is a so-called gable house, of the German-Dutch type, in "Nordic Renaissance style". Typical of Dutch gabled houses in particular is that they are very elongated and narrow because taxes were paid according to the width of the facade. The gable is a so-called stair gable with decorative anchor finials and sculpture details.

Kaffekoppen's portal with the ornaments

The door to Kaffekoppen, the portal with the ornaments, was created by the German stonemason Johan Wendelstam. It is made of limestone and decorated with reclining Roman warriors. Wendelstam came to Sweden in 1641 and became a companion of the guild master Jost Henne. When Henne died, Wendelstam married his widow and thus became guildmaster himself.

The Schantzska house, built in the 16th century

The Schantz house originates from the Swedish heyday. The 30-year war had made Sweden a European power despite only 1.5 million inhabitants. The wars against Denmark and Poland had developed favorably for Sweden. New areas had been conquered in north central Europe. In 1645, Gotland, Halland, Jämtland and Härjedalen become Swedish provinces. Schantz moved to Sweden after the war and served as secretary to King Karl X Gustav. With peace in Roskilde in 1658, ten years after the establishment of the house, Skåne, Halland and Bohuslän also became Swedish when Karl X Gustav marched with his army from Poland into Jutland, over the ice at Lillebält, and surprised the Danes outside Copenhagen. Schantz died in 1665 and is buried in Jacob's Church in Stockholm.

Stones walled in around the windows

There is a myth about the Schantz house which is about the gray stones that are walled in around the windows to remember the 82 people who were beheaded at the Stockholm massacre in 1520 when the Danish king Cristian II beheaded the Swedish nobility in Stortorget. Actually, there are 94 stones here.

The house was restored in 1905 when a common staircase was added and renovated in 1992. The house to the right of the Schantzska house has medieval masonry on three floors.

Terrace photo by Brian Sparks