Kalmar's Grand Square is an unusually intact piece of Baroque urban planning, designed as part of the same 17th-century rebuilding project that produced the cathedral. The square is large, paved, and lined with period buildings including the old town hall — a white Baroque facade that anchors the southern end opposite the cathedral.
It is an active city centre rather than a museum piece: cafés and restaurants fill the surrounding buildings, and the square hosts markets and events in summer. But the overall sense of scale and proportion is still that of the 1600s, which is rare in a Swedish town that has been continuously inhabited and updated ever since.
Worth visiting in the morning when the light comes from the east and the cathedral facade is well-lit, or in the early evening when the cafés fill up.