Stortorget is the heart of Ystad: a small cobblestoned square ringed by half-timbered and Baroque buildings, with St Mary's Church on its eastern side. The Saturday market still fills the square. The town hall (Rådhuset) on the south side dates from the 1840s. Several of the surrounding cafés put tables out in summer; the Hotel Continental, claiming to be Sweden's oldest hotel (1829), occupies the north side.
This is the natural starting point for a walk through the old town — head south for the Hamngatan shopping street, north for the Greyfriars Abbey, or simply pick any of the lanes leading off the square.