I visited St. Gallen for the first time back when I had no idea that I would one day move to Switzerland. Even then, I was captivated by the winding streets of the historic center, the medieval houses with colorful half-timbering, and the majestic cathedral, whose Baroque style is a complete exception in Switzerland.
During my visit, I only had time to admire the frescoes in the cathedral – it wasn’t until this spring that my friend Šárka, who knows all the sights of this old town like the back of her hand, took me on a thorough tour of the entire abbey complex. If I was already amazed back then, this time my jaw really dropped when I entered the library’s historic hall, which holds more than 170,000 volumes. But first things first…
St. Gallen
The city lies in rolling countryside between the peaks of the Appenzell Alps and Lake Constance. Its history is closely linked to the religious community that arose around the “cult” of an Irish monk named Gallus, who built a hermitage here. His successor, Otmar, built a monastic community and a school for scribes and translators around Gallus’ original cell. The most tremendous pride and attraction of St. Gallen is its magnificent Baroque abbey, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
How to get to St. Gallen
St. Gallen is located in the northeastern corner of Switzerland, a short distance from the A1 motorway exit. If you plan to explore the city center, park at Cityparking Bahnhof (Lagerstrasse, 9000 St. Gallen).
The St. Gallen Hauptbahnhof train station is a few minutes’ walk from the historic center and Stiftsbezirk. Direct trains run from both Bern (2 hours 20 minutes) and Zurich (about 1 hour).
By the way, when you get off at the station and walk through the exit hall, you can’t help but notice an interesting installation. It is a so-called binary clock. It is a light installation in the shape of circles, crosses, and squares, which shows the time in binary code instead of classic hands. As I found out, the top row (circles “O”) indicates hours, the middle row (“X”) shows minutes, and the bottom row (“□”) means seconds. Each symbol corresponds to a value (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32). Add up the values of the lit symbols to get the time.
St. Gallen Cathedral (Stiftskirche)
This Baroque cathedral, with its two characteristic towers, was completed in 1767 according to the designs of the architect Peter Thumb. It is accessible via the entrance on Gallusstrasse. Admission is free. The interior of the cathedral consists of a huge basilica with a wide nave and a central dome. The ceilings are decorated with magnificent frescoes by Josef Wannenmacher. The entire impressive interior is richly, even kitschily decorated, exactly as was customary in the Baroque period. Richly carved confessionals and a pulpit, a main altar lined with marble columns with gold trim… your eyes simply won’t know where to look first.
Stiftsbibliothek: 170,000 books and one mummy
The abbey library, one of the oldest libraries in Europe, is located in the same complex of buildings as the cathedral. It was founded in the 9th century by Abbot Gozbert and now contains over 170,000 books.
There is an entrance fee, known as a Kombiticket, which includes admission to the library, the vaulted cellars, and the exhibition hall (archive). Adults pay CHF 18, students CHF 12. For families, there is a “Familien Rätselspass” for CHF 25. In the hallway in front of the ticket office and souvenir shop, you will find lockers where you can store your belongings.
Before entering the library, you must put on felt slippers so that the soles of your shoes do not damage the parquet floor. Then you can enter the library, which is a collection of rare and unique manuscripts and medieval books.
Here, too, you will find ceiling frescoes by Josef Wannenmacher. In addition, the rich Baroque interior is overlaid with Rococo elements. The books are placed on shelves lining all the walls from floor to ceiling. Interestingly, there are more Irish manuscripts in St. Gallen than in Dublin itself. At the back of the library is an ancient Egyptian mummy dating from 700 BC, which was given as a gift to the mayor of St. Gallen at the beginning of the 19th century. Not knowing what to do with it, he donated it to the library, where it remains to this day (out of respect, photography is not allowed).
The highlight for any cartography fan is a globe from 1576 that depicts the ideas of the time about the Earth and the universe. This globe is a replica of the original, which was created after the so-called “kulturgüterstreit” (1996–2006) between Zurich and St. Gallen.
The Baroque library is not only beautiful to look at – it is part of a larger convent building that once included a school, hospital, and monastery archive. Today, it is shared by the library and a secondary school.
Monastery vaulted cellars (Gewölbekeller)
After visiting the library, go down two floors to the monastery vaulted cellars, where more treasures await you. The cellars display not only originals, but also digitally enhanced exhibits, such as interactive book models and historical panels. This is a fascinating contrast – a multimedia exhibition in a medieval cellar.
In addition to the remains of the original masonry, there is also the so-called Evangelium Longum, a 9th-century book commissioned by Charlemagne during his coronation in Rome (800 AD). The Evangelium is of immense value not only because of its content, but also because it is carved from one piece of ivory.
Another fascinating exhibit is a model of the cathedral from 1751, made of wood and plaster, which was made by one of the monks. The model is composed of 11 parts, which could be dismantled and displayed, and served similarly to today’s 3D visualizations to communicate the building’s design.
Stiftsarchiv
After a delicious lunch (see below), Šárka and I visited the archive. It belongs to the monastery complex and contains documents from the 8th century through the monastery’s dissolution in 1805. It is one of the oldest and best-preserved archives north of the Alps.
Its main attraction is the St. Galler Klosterplan, or monastery plan, which was created in 825. It measures approximately 112 × 77.5 cm and is painted on five pieces of parchment sewn together. However, it is not a plan of the monastery in St. Gallen, as the name might suggest, but shows an ideal model of a Benedictine monastery: a plan of the buildings, church, farm buildings, monks’ houses, workshops, stables, gardens, and all operational areas—including the specific organization of the entire complex. First, you will see a short multimedia presentation about how monasteries used to operate, and then — for about 10–15 seconds — the original parchment will be taken out so that you can see it. The reason is simple: protection — parchment and ink are very sensitive to light.
Where to go for food or dessert
As I mentioned earlier, to avoid overwhelming ourselves with history all at once, we popped out for lunch at Wirtschaft zur Alten Post. An interesting feature of restaurants in the heart of St. Gallen is that they are located on the upper floors of ancient townhouses. This one, for example, dated back to 1552. And for dessert, we went to another traditional local restaurant – Bäumli.
Summary
Be sure to set aside a whole day for your tour of St. Gallen. In addition to the library, cathedral, and archival treasures, when the weather is nice, you can take the local Mühleggbahn cable car to the Drei Weieren lakes, which offer beautiful views of the city—and in summer, you can even go swimming there. If the weather is not so good, head to the Textile Museum, which showcases the famous tradition of local embroidery and fabric production. By the way, did you know that until 1913, embroidery was Switzerland’s largest export industry and St. Gallen alone supplied half of the world’s production of embroidered textiles?
