Editing History of Stockholm (section)

== Early Vasa era ==
{{main|Stockholm during the early Vasa era}}
[[Image:Stockholm-from-north-1570-braun-hogenberg-civitates-orbis-terrarum.jpg|thumb|250px|Panoramic view showing the northern city gate with fortifications.<br />Copperplate by [[Frans Hogenberg]] around 1570–80.]]
[[Image:Stockholm-from-south-1570-braun-hogenberg-civitates-orbis-terrarum.jpg|thumb|250px|The southern city gate with parts of the eastern harbour called ''Koggabron'' ("[[Cog (ship)|Cog]] Harbour").<br />Copperplate by [[Frans Hogenberg]].]]
{{See also|Historical fires of Stockholm}}
After [[Gustav I of Sweden|Gustav Vasa's]] siege of Stockholm, he restored the [[Stad (Sweden)|privileges of the city]] which was beneficiary to the burghers of the city.  The king maintained his control over the city by controlling the elections of aldermen and magistrates. By the mid-century, the numbers of officials increased in order to make the management of the city more professional and to ensure the state-controlled trade.  Stockholm thus lost much of the independence it had had during the Middle Ages and became politically and financially bound to the state.<ref name="Nilsson-64-66">Nilsson, pp 64–66</ref>  During the reign of his sons (1561–1611), the city council remained escorted by a royal representative and both magistrates and aldermen were appointed by the king.<ref name="Nilsson-80-82">Nilsson, pp 80–82</ref>

Gustav Vasa invited the clergyman [[Olaus Petri]] (1493–1552) to become the city secretary of Stockholm.  With the two side by side, the new ideas of the [[Protestant Reformation]] could be quickly implemented, and sermons in the church were held in Swedish starting in 1525 and Latin was abolished in 1530.  A consequence of this development was a need for separate churches for the numerous German and [[Sweden Finns|Finnish-speaking]] citizens and during the 1530 the still-existent [[German Church, Stockholm|German]] and [[Finnish Church, Stockholm|Finnish parishes]] were created.  The king was, however, not favourably disposed to older chapels and churches in the city, and he ordered churches and monasteries on the ridges surrounding the city to be demolished, together with the numerous charitable institutions.<ref name="Nilsson-66-68">Nilsson, pp 66–68</ref>

[[Image:Karta över Stockholm på 1500-talet.png|thumb|250px|left|Map of Stockholm in 1547]]
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[[Image:Birger Jarls torn.jpg|thumb|The lower walls of [[Birger Jarls torn]] are the only surviving part of the medieval defensive structures.]]
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Because Stockholm had a city wall, it was exempted from the tax paid by other Swedish cities.  During the reign of Gustav Vasa the city's fortifications were reinforced and in the [[Stockholm Archipelago]], [[Vaxholm]] was created to guard the inlet from the Baltic.  While the medieval structure of Stockholm remained mostly unaltered during the 16th century, the city's social and economic importance grew to the extent that no king could permit the city to determine its own faith – the most important export item being [[bar iron]] and the most important destination [[Lübeck]].<ref name="Nilsson-68-72">Nilsson, pp 68–72</ref>  During the reign of Vasa's sons, trade led many Swedes to settle in the city, but the trade and the capital needed to control it was largely in the hands of the king and German merchants from Lübeck and Danzig.  Throughout the era, Sweden could hardly claim the level of government and bureaucracy requisite to a capital in the modern sense, but Stockholm was the kingdom's strongest bastion and the king's main residence.  As Eric XIV's pretensions were on par with those of Renaissance princes on the continent, he afforded himself the largest court his finances could possibly support, and the royal castle was thus the biggest employer in the city.<ref name="Nilsson-80-82" />

Around 1560–80, most of the citizens, some 8.000 people, still lived on [[Stadsholmen]].  This central island was at this time densely settled and the city was now expanding on the ridges surrounding the city.  Stockholm had no private palaces at this time and the only larger buildings were the castle, the church, and the former [[Franciscan|Greyfriars]] monastery on [[Riddarholmen]].  The surrounding ridges, unable to boast a single [[Timber framing|timber framed]] building, were mostly used for activities that either required a lot of space, produced odours, or could cause fire.  Even though some burghers had secondary residences outside the city, the population living on the ridges, perhaps a quarter of the city's population, were mostly poor, including the royal personnel occupying the ridges north of the city.<ref name="Nilsson-80-82" />