Our buildings
Nobis Hotel is located in two magnificent late 19th-century buildings, both representing the finest of Stockholm's bourgeois stone city that emerged in the latter half of the 1800s, at the outset of Sweden's astonishing industrial revolution.
The southern structure was built in 1884-86, designed by architect Oskar Ericsson, originally as a private residence for industrial magnate Walter Hirsch. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the building's ground floor housed several legendary restaurants. It was later turned into a bank palace. In 1973, the building was dramatically thrust in the limelight of world news, when a bank robber took four people hostage in a drama that stretched out for six days, "The Norrmalmstorg Drama". It is from these dramatic events that the expression "The Stockholm Syndrome" originates, relating to the complex relationship that can develop between a hostage taker and his hostages. In recent years, this building has accommodated one of Sweden's leading legal firms. The Acne fashion label's flagship store is located on the ground floor level.
The Northern structure was erected in 1890-93, designed by architect Johan Laurentz, who also designed several famous buildings along the Strandvägen seafront esplanade and elsewhere in Stockholm. Originally, the premises housed apartments for affluent Stockholmers, including one with 22 rooms, plus servants' quarters. This building, too, was later turned into a banking palace, then into the headquarters of one of Sweden's leading legal firms. The Marimekko fashion and design label's flagship store is located on the ground floor level.
Both edifices in which our hotel is built are fine examples of the supreme quality, richly decorated architecture that distinguished Stockholm's emerging stone city in the late 19th century. The buildings have been revamped and modified several times over the years. In 1971, the two buildings were joined through the third floor. Large parts of the original interiors remain intact and are protected for their esthetic and cultural values by the Swedish National Heritage Board. When constructing our hotel, we have carefully restored these interiors to their original splendor, with a beautiful patina. The lavish, late 19th-century charm of the buildings, contrasting with the sharp, contemporary new interiors designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune, will shape the unique character of the interiors in Nobis Hotel.
Norrmalmstorg history
Up until the mid 19th century, Norrmalmstorg square was known as "Packhustorget" ("The Packing House Square"), a rough and smelly place next to a swamp, named Katthavet ("The Cat Sea"), where fishermen came to sell their daily catch and where criminals and other unfortunates were punished in public. Around the mid century, the Katthavet swamp was filled in and the adjacent Berzelii Park created. In the new city plan of 1866, designed by Albert Lindhagen, "The Haussmann of Stockholm", the square was renamed Norrmalmstorg and turned into Stockholm's most elegant and representative focal point, forming a grandiose axis together with the power shopping boulevard Hamngatan, which branches off Norrmalmstorg, nearby Nybroplan, in front of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, and the splendid Strandvägen seafront esplanade, Stockholm's most prestigious address.
Grouped around Norrmalmstorg are Stockholm's most famous and historic shops, hotels, restaurants, theaters, auction houses, museums, galleries, business headquarters and cultural attractions. In the classic Swedish version of Monopoly, Norrmalmstorg is the most expensive spot (and you know what happens when you build a hotel on that spot...)
