Page 6 - Hotel Tunnel's 100 Years of History

For a long time, Tunnel's cellar has also counted a considerable number
of rural residents and farmers among its guests, forming a strong, natural and healthy aspect among the otherwise usual group of guests of craftsmen and business people of all kinds, artists, office workers etc. The inn interior and the old beer and wine cellar traditions provide a natural attraction, and what contributes even more to the frequency is the convenient location in the heart of the city with the pulsating street life around it and its proximity to the rail and port communications.
This cellar, whose origins go back as far as the time of the foundation of St. Peter's Church in 1319, can thus boast of a 700-year-old history and as "an old timer" or oldest in the village tell of its own and others' fate and a num- ber of strange events that have been of more or less significant importance in the city's and country's fate. A lot happens in 700 years, and if these ancient cellars could speak a language fully understandable to our modern ears, we could write a real fairy tale book, interesting and fun but also very serious, where everything concerns the characteristics of different people and different eras, both good and bad. But alas, that is not the case, and we have to content ourselves with the stories that have been passed down to us and the impressions that these ancient cellars make on us today.
On the well-located corner of the city's main street, "Adelgatan," a wealthy merchant, at the same time as the foundation of Petrikyrkan, purchased a large plot of land whose facades now make up 28 and 29.5 meters of the current Adel- and Kansligatorna, and built a stone house divided into four commercial spaces with a cellar also divided into four vaulted sections. Each space had its own stairway facing the street and its own roof and attic, giving the building the impression, at first glance, of being four separate houses. The builder was from Lübeck and, after many years of trade in Mal- mö, settled in the new city community where, after Matts Kuttilmundsson lead an enthusiastic building activity was taking place in the eastern part
of "Adelgatan" alongside the church and government buildings, the latter on the current property of the National Bank. It was a new era that was emerging, with speculation and building. The Lübeckers had gained a foot- hold in the city, trading and exchanging goods, and doing business during herring and wheat markets. Stone commercial spaces were being built one after the other along the main waterfront street. The Lübeck builder, who was skilled in both trade and construction, understood how to make a profit from this new opportunity, and his building became one of the most prominent on the street.
6