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Mind Your Step Illusion By Erik Johansson, Sergel's Square, Stockholm, Sweden
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This plaza is partly overbuilt by a roundabout centred on a glass obelisk and by the concrete decks of three major streets.
North of this traffic junction is a considerably smaller open space overlooked by the high-rise façade of the fifth Hötorget Building from where the avenue Sveavägen extends north.
The site south of the square is taken up by the cultural centre Kulturhuset, which also harbours the Stockholm City Theatre and hides the Bank of Sweden headquarters facing the square Brunkebergstorg behind. Klarabergsgatan leads west past the department store Åhléns City and Klara Church to Klarabergsviadukten and Kungsholmen. Hamngatan leads east under Malmskillnadsgatan to Kungsträdgården, Norrmalmstorg, and Strandvägen. Together with the underground mall east of the pedestrian plaza and the T-Centralen metro station and other continuous underpasses west thereof, Sergels torg forms part of a continuous underground structure almost a kilometre in length.
Since its creation, Sergels torg has been much criticized for giving priority to cars at the cost of pedestrians. It has, among some quarters, become the main target for criticism of the much debated demolition of the central city district of Klara during the 1950s and 1960s. Nevertheless, it is not dissimilar to but larger than the public space in front of Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and much like its French counterpart remains the most popular space in Stockholm for meeting friends, for political demonstrations, for a wide range of events, and for drug-dealers. This includes the fountain, in which people celebrate every major victory by a Swedish sports team.
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