Stortorget is the oldest square in Stockholm, a small and almost perfectly photogenic space surrounded by brightly painted gabled houses dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Nobel Prize Museum occupies the former Stock Exchange on the north side. Restaurants and cafés spill out onto the square in summer.
The square is at the heart of Gamla Stan and is usually busy with tourists, but early morning or late evening it recovers some quiet. The coloured facades — red, orange, yellow — were a trend in the 18th century when Swedish nobles painted their houses in colours associated with Italian palaces.