The square appears in historical records in 1866 and came into being in the mid-19th century as a by-product when a new harbour was created by land filling. It was originally used to unload agricultural products delivered to the city from around the Lake Mälaren region.[1]
The location was historically known as Flugmötet ("Flies' Meeting") because all latrines produced in the city were emptied behind a wooden paling here before being rowed away by worn-out old women, often former inmates seeking solace in the bottle, during nights. The waste products were brought to a plant on Kungsholmen where it was transformed into a gunpowder component. Though the latrine heap was discontinued during the 1840s, and this latter name never was made explicitly official, it appears in a guidebook in 1844, and was proposed as an official name in 1921.[1][2]
On the square is the bronze sculpture on a granite base: Familjen ("The Family") by Pye Engström from 1972–1973. The individual figures – a mother, a father, and a child – can be moved and rotated along tracks in the base. The sculpture is an enlarged copy of a piece first exhibited in the 1960s.[3][4]
^ ab"Innerstaden: Gamla stan". Stockholms gatunamn (in Swedish) (2nd ed.). Stockholm: Kommittén för Stockholmsforskning. 1992. pp. 62–63. ISBN91-7031-042-4.
