Until the year 1863 was Mönsterås a borough ruled by Kalmar. The north and the south approaches of Storgatan had customhouses, which collected toll from everyone who passed. During that time, the money from the customhouses went to merchants in Kalmar. The money was a very important revenue for them.
The north tollgate was placed around the present "Vävboden"
The South Gate was placed by the milestone outside "Pizzeria Rhodos"
By the customhouses it were often fights, especially at the South Gate outside "Pizzeria Rhodos "
The fights were mostly concerning farmers who came from the inner parts of Småland and didn’t make it trough the gates in time before they were closed.
The toll guards were very accurate about closing the gates at the exact time.
The farmers had to stay outside on the ground and wait until the next morning when the gates were reopened.
Then, the farmers tried to sneak in when the gates were closed, because of this the tollguards sent out extra guards to catch the farmers already on the roads before they got to the gates so they couldn’t sneak in anymore.
Now, the farmers complained on that they had to pay toll, both on the road and at gates.
Trials were often held about those toll-problems.
A third tollgate was placed on the two small island "Gubben and Kärringen" This tollgate was used to take toll from the incoming ships
On the 18th - 19th -century it were many different trade- and marketshops along the northern parts of Storgatan (as many as 108)
Those trade- and marketshops were owned by merchants from Kalmar. Consequently, all the revenue went to Kalmar.
During the later periods of the 19th century were many of those shops demolished. Mainly because people wanted to make space for new and "real" buildings, but also because it was believed that the shops were hiding-places for Gypsies, and criminals. It was also suspicions about that the marketshops sold illicitly distilled snaps. However, not all of the marketshops were demolished. Instead they were moved to other locations. (Among others, "Fruktan" and "Byx-shop".
In 1870 people complained about that the marketshops which were placed near "Modéerska huset" because they disturbed and blocked the view for those who lived around the marketplace.
After the complains, six of the marketshops were demolished and a new opening to the marketplace were created.
The marketplace of Mönsterås has many different names: "Mönsterås Torg, Klockarebacken, Kyrkbacken, Markandsplatsen, Mönsterås gamla torg" and "Stortorget" as it also is named descends from the 17th -century when it was brought up by merchants from Kalmar after that Mönsterås had been totally burned down. The marketplace was brought at the same time, as Mönsterås became a borough ruled by Kalmar.
On the current marketplace it have been markets since the 17th century. Before then all the markettrade was done on "Sjötorget", which laid down by the waterline, which before went much higher than today, even up to the houses along Storgatan. On "sjötorget" it has been markets since the 14th – 15th century. In that time it was very common that all market and trading was done in the harbours quietly to escape the toll and sell illegal goods. When Gustav Vasa became the king of Sweden he did everything to stop these markets. This because of that you couldn’t guard what was being sold and get toll on the goods who was sold.
The gravel coating on the marketplace is the only of its kind in the whole Sweden. Whether Mönsterås will spare this type of coating we don’t know yet. They who live around the marketplace are complaining among other things that dust which is scratching up by the cars, which are making the windows, dirty of the dust. In the 18th century people used salt to prevent the dust. The marketplace has always been the public gathering- and amusement place in Mönsterås where children used to play ball made with homemade balls filled with cork and the adults played croquet.
The green pump, which descends from 1870 on the marketplace, has two waterdrafts, a lower for buckets and a higher for Mönsterås firespurt. By the pump people used to talk with each other when they were fetching water.
In the same building as the current "Utlandsboden" it was a barber. It has also earlier been a saleplace for meat.
The oldest school and poorhouse has once been placed on the marketplace.
Where it today is a fabricaffair on the marketplace it has earlier been a Methodist church.
Where "Lilla Bageriet" today lies was it earlier two gablehouses.
The people who lived and worked on the marketplace were mostly artisans and apprentices. On the evenings when those were free from work it was often fights between them with their own artisans tools. To watch or even to participate was very popular among the citizens of Mönsterås.
Our mainstreet Storgatan descends from the middle age and has always been the mainstreet for the borough of Mönsterås.
However, the borough that we had on the 19th century wasn’t so big as today.
The oldest building along Storgatan is "Modéerska huset" at the north part of Storgatan. The house has been there in more than 200 years.
The richer people in Mönsterås lived in the northern part of the borough. The poor workers lived in the southern parts of the borough.
How it was and how it looked in the beginning of the 19th century you know pretty much about thank to two travellers from Germany. According to their notes the people of Mönsterås were very seriously and obstinate.
A frequent detail from the travellers was that they thought that the women’s were beautiful and well dressed. Rather strange notes from the travellers were that the men had blue trousers of "dräll". It was more usual that the men had knee trousers on this time. An explanation to this was that many of the men were fishers, sailors and some of them were soldiers.
The women had fair dresses and the hair like a ball. Another strange detail was that the travellers saw that the women carried everything on their heads, just as in Africa.
The travellers describe the houses as very beautifully. They were also deeply impressed over that the houses had beautiful gardens, which weren’t so common in Sweden on the 19th century.
A Danish traveller also tells about the detail of the women’s appearances. He was also deeply impressed by our beautiful church.
The Danish traveller mentions that the streets of Mönsterås were very clean, the houses were red-painted and that some of the houses had two floors. Another unusual thing about the houses were that they had curtains and flowers in the windows, which weren’t so common by this time.
A great connoisseur of Mönsterås was Eric Nelsson who wrote that in his childhood people couldn’t walk on Storgatan without their fine clothes on.
However, if you walked on "Sjögatan" you could have any clothes.
All those things together show that Mönsterås was blossoming in the beginning of the 19th century.
On the 18th century wasn’t there any "Sjögatan", instead the harbour went all the way along the houses on Storgatan.
There was only one downingstreet, "Trädgårdsgatan" from Storgatan to the harbour.
By the "Trädgårdsgatan" it was the most beautiful gardens in Mönsterås, e.g. "Cedegrenska Trädgården" in English style. Still today you can see traces of this garden in the shape of trees and grows. Another beautiful garden was by "Harryssons".
In the same building as "Harryssons" it was a Danish deputyconsulate where Danish sailors could get help with different things.
Those quarters where formerly owned by the church. The area could also have been used as some kind of cemetery.
The restaurant "Hvita Hästen" was before really two houses. The closest to the church was the Old Inn and the other one was a hotel.
There you could buy snaps, beer and small beer. Before that, it was in the present building of "Patriks Herrmode" and the oldest hotel of Mönsterås. In the same house on the bottom floor it was a snapspub with the name "Tumkrogen" and on the upper floor a pleasant hotel.One of the many pigs on Storgatan was scratched by a wolf (six wolves, actually).
A wolfhunter was hired to kill the wolfs.The first library was in the vestry of the church where you could borrow books from only one bookcase with approximately 100 books. This bookcase is still left today. To borrow a book in this time it cost 0,4 swedish crowns/week.
The library was later moved to "Walls färg". Once again the library was moved to the local of the old "Tingshuset" where it has been since around 1980.
Also one of the very first schools in Mönsterås were in "Walls Färg"
The locals where Jehovah’s witnesses are today, there has formerly been a hospital, a municipality house and now a policeoffice.
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Group 2 2000