Page 7 - Hotel Tunnel's 100 Years of History

On the prominent corner of the city's main street, "Athelgade," a wealthy cloth merchant built a stone building with four separate commercial units, along with a cellar divided into four vaulted sections, at the same time as the construction of the Petri church in the early 14th century. The buil- ding, which gave the impression of being four separate houses due to each unit having its own entrance, stairs, and roof, was a symbol of the mer- chant's taste and concern for the safe storage of his valuable cloth goods. Due to the low level of the surrounding streets, the cellar had to be built high above ground level to ensure protection from moisture for the easily perishable goods stored there. As a result, the entire cellar was at a conside- rable height above street level, and the four commercial units, also made of substantial brick construction and with a stairwell facing the street, came to be known as "Höye klädeboder" or "the high cloth stalls." Next to the high cloth houses was a garden or possibly a store, owned by the pastor of St. Petri, Johan Dringelberg, in the early 16th century, and then a highly-si- tuated cloth store, also considered to be part of the "Hoye klredebother" and owned by the cloth merchant Michell Hwe. This store and the adjacent garden had an annual rent of 2 1/2 marks and 5 skillings, or 1 lodig mark, paid to the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary in St. Petri church during the Catholic period, and from the early 16th century, 1 lodig mark paid as an annual rent to the St. Laurentii church in Lund. Additionally, 12 marks in land tax were paid to the altar of the Bosjo monastery from the high cloth store during the Catholic period, and from the early 16th century, to an un- named altar in St. Petri church
The high clothing stores, which all consisted of two rooms, an outer one being the actual store and an inner one being a living or residential room, were exclusively clothing stores during the 1300s and 1400s, where prima- rily imported clothing or textile goods from the Netherlands, Germany and England were stored for sale. Of the stores, the westernmost, located on the corner, was the main and largest, as it included the entire basement, and the three other stores located to the east of it were originally rented out to other merchants for use mainly during the fall market, when trade was free and turnover was significant and highly profitable. The interior of the main store with a large basement was modeled after German design. In the Ger- man trading cities, merchants typically did not have open stores, but rather stored their goods in basements. However, in Malmo, as well as in Skanor and Falsterbo, during the peak times of the important fall markets, the practice of setting up temporary open stores became a custom that, in the long run, led to the later established practice of permanent store trading, which was conducted from the street-facing windows of the stores establis- hed in the properties. For the main of the high clothing stores in Malmo, the principle of storage and the timing in the stores combined indicated a large-scale cloth trade.
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