Medborgarplatsen (literally ''Citizen's Square'') is a large

city square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rel ...

located near the center of the island of

Södermalm Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is the southern district of Stockholm City Centre. Overview The Södermalm district covers the island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''), which, however, is not fully separated from th ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The square is often colloquially referred to as "''Medis''".

Description

The development of the citizen site was due to the railway's progress and the construction of Stockholm Södra station in the late 1850s. Near the square is a

Medborgarplatsen metro station Medborgarplatsen, formerly known as Södra Bantorget, is a station on the Green line (Stockholm metro), Green line of the Stockholm metro. It is situated near to the Medborgarplatsen square in the district of Södermalm in central Stockholm, and l ...

. The station was opened as an underground

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

station in 1933, and was converted for the new metro system in 1950 as one of the first stations on the network. The original exits did not open onto the square, but to the nearby street Folkungagatan. An entrance was opened on to

Björns trädgård Björns trädgård is a park on Södermalm in Stockholm, Sweden. The park is located by the major street Götgatan, opposite Medborgarplatsen. History The park is a green place for the citizens of Stockholm, and contain a playground for ch ...

on November 29, 1995. The square has become a common place for demonstrations. On

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

, the Left Party usually start their parade from there, and are accompanied by other smaller leftist and communist parties as they walk to

Kungsträdgården Kungsträdgården (Swedish language, Swedish for "King's Garden") is a park in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is colloquially known as ''Kungsan''. The park's central location and its outdoor cafés makes it one of the most popular hangouts ...

. In 2001,

Hammarby Fotboll Hammarby Fotboll, more commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish professional association football, football club from Stockholm founded in 1915. The club is based at 3Arena (Stockholm), 3 Are ...

celebrated its first victory in the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

in front of about 35,000 supporters in the square. Medborgarplatsen has a small ice-skating rink which is turned into a terrace with benches in the summer. On one corner of the square there is a substantial public library, and diagonally across on another corner the 17th century Lillienhoff Palace. Medborgarplatsen is also where

Anna Lindh Ylva Anna Maria Lindh (19 June 1957 – 11 September 2003) was a Swedish politician and lawyer. A member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, she served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1998 until her death. She was also a Member of the ...

, the

Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs The Minister for Foreign Affairs () is the foreign minister of Sweden and the head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Sweden), Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The current Minister for Foreign Affairs is Maria Malmer Stenergard of the Moderate P ...

, held her last public speech before she was assassinated on September 10, 2003. In 2004, a memorial monument to Anna Lindh was erected at the square.

References

{{coord, 59.315, N, 18.072, E, display=title, source:nlwiki Squares in Stockholm no:Medborgarplatsen tunnelbanestasjon