Klara (

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

: Klarakvarteren or the Klara quarters) is a part of lower

Norrmalm Norrmalm is a city district in Stockholm, Sweden. History Norrmalm is part of the larger borough of Norrmalm (''Norrmalms stadsdelsområde''). The southern part of the district, Lower Norrmalm (''Nedre Norrmalm''), also known as City, cons ...

in the central part of Stockholm. It has its name from

Klara Church The Church of Saint Clare or Klara Church ( sv, Klara kyrka) is a church in central Stockholm. Since 1989, the Swedish Evangelical Mission is responsible for its activities. The Church of Saint Clare is located on Klara Västra Kyrkogata in the ...

. Today the name, though not often used in daily speech, has become synonymous with the old city that once occupied lower Norrmalm.

"The Klara Bohemians"

In the 1800s and early 1900s, the Klara area was characterized by old, cheap housing and many small shops and workshops. It was known for being home to several Swedish newspapers, bars, and cheap hotels, and was consequently also an area frequented by writers, journalists, and poets. "The Klara Bohemians" was a name given to an amorphous group of writers and poets in the 1930s and 1940s, who lived in the area or lingered at its bars and cafés, hoping to sell articles or poems to newspaper editors. The most well-known of the Klara Bohemians, poet

Nils Ferlin Nils Ferlin (11 December 1898 - 21 October 1961) was a Swedish poet and lyricist.''A History of Swedish Literature'' by Ingemar Algulin, (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 1989) pp. 247-248. Biography Nils Ferlin was born in Karlstad, Värmland, w ...

, is today depicted in statue form close to the church, lighting a cigarette.

Renewal of Klara

During the 1950s and 1960s Klara went through an extensive

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

project. The area's old, small-scale, irregular, and often run-down homes and shops were torn down and replaced by major roads and large, modern office blocs. The Klara demolitions have subsequently come to be viewed as a particularly notorious example of the large-scale urban redevelopment projects that erased many pre-modern city centers in mid-century Sweden.

Notable buildings in Klara

Arvfurstens palats Arvfurstens palats (Palace of the Hereditary Prince) is a palace located at Gustav Adolfs Torg in central Stockholm. Designed by Erik Palmstedt, the palace was originally the private residence of Princess Sophia Albertina. It was built 1783-1794 ...

* Sagerska Palatset * Klara kyrka *

Kulturhuset House of Culture (Swedish: Kulturhuset) is a cultural center situated to the south of Sergels torg in central Stockholm, Sweden. The House of Culture has been described as a symbol for Stockholm as well as of the growth of modernism in Sweden. ...

Sergels torg Sergels torg ("Sergel's Square") is a major public square in Stockholm, Sweden, constructed in the 1960s and named after 18th-century sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel, whose workshop was once located north of the square. Overview Sergels torg ha ...

References

Geography of Stockholm {{Stockholm-geo-stub

"The Klara Bohemians"

Renewal of Klara

Notable buildings in Klara

See also

References