St. Gallen

Around 612 AD, the Irish monk Gallus fell ill and was left behind near Arbon on Lake Constance while his companion Saint Columbanus crossed the Alps into Italy. Once recovered, Gallus retreated into the wild Steinach valley and established a hermitage. According to the beloved 9th-century account, when Gallus sat by his campfire one night, a wild bear emerged from the forest. Rather than fleeing, Gallus commanded the bear to fetch wood for the fire; the bear obeyed, and in return Gallus gave it a loaf of bread. The bear appears on the city's coat of arms to this day.

The Stiftsbibliothek (Abbey Library) of St. Gallen is one of the oldest monastic libraries in the world. Above the ornate Baroque portal, carved in 1781 by Franz Anton Dirr, is the Greek inscription PSYCHES IATREION, meaning 'Healing Place of the Soul', echoing an inscription at the ancient library of Ramesses II in Thebes. The magnificent Rococo hall was designed by Peter Thumb and built between 1758 and 1767. The collection holds nearly 170,000 volumes, including 2,100 manuscripts dating from the 8th to 15th centuries.

The Plan of Saint Gall (c. 820--830) is the only surviving major architectural drawing from the roughly 700-year period between the fall of Rome and the 13th century. Drawn in red and brown ink on five parchments sewn together (113 x 78 cm), it depicts an ideal Benedictine monastery with church, workshops, brewery, infirmary, stables, and a building for bloodletting, designed to house 110 monks, 115 lay visitors, and 150 workers. Dedicated to Abbot Gozbert, it was never actually built. It is catalogued as Codex Sangallensis 1092.

St. Gallen's textile tradition stretches back to the Middle Ages. Around 1850, embroidery replaced cotton as the dominant industry, fuelled by the invention of hand-embroidery machines. A ball gown made with needlepoint lace is said to have belonged to Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. Around 1910, embroidery was the largest export branch of the Swiss economy, accounting for 18% of total Swiss export value, and more than 50% of world embroidery production came from St. Gallen. World War I brought catastrophic collapse, with exports falling from 5,899 tonnes in 1913 to just 640 tonnes in 1935.

St. Gallen's Altstadt (Old Town) is famous for its 111 beautifully preserved Erker (oriel windows), ornate bay windows projecting from upper-floor facades. These elaborately carved and brightly painted oriels were status symbols of wealthy textile merchants, built during a construction boom between 1650 and 1720. Many bear individual names: the Kamel-Erker, the Pelikan-Erker, the Schwanen-Erker, and the poetically named Allbier zum blauen Himmel. The finest examples are concentrated on Spisergasse, Marktgasse, Kugelgasse, and Schmiedgasse.

Notker Balbulus ('the Stammerer', c. 840--912) was a Benedictine monk, composer, poet, and librarian at the Abbey of St. Gall. He authored the Liber Hymnorum, an important collection of early musical sequences, and the Gesta Karoli Magni, an early biography of Charlemagne. He helped make St. Gall one of the most important centres of early medieval music. Educated alongside Tuotilo and Ratpert, all three were composers who made the abbey a beacon of Carolingian and Ottonian culture.

The St. Galler Bratwurst is a culinary institution, with its recipe first recorded in the 1438 statutes of the Butchers' Guild (Metzgerzunft). Made from veal (50%+), bacon, spices, and fresh milk, it holds PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status. The cardinal rule is 'Ohne Senf!' (without mustard) -- requesting mustard with a St. Galler Bratwurst is considered a serious cultural faux pas. Locals insist the sausage's delicate flavour needs no masking.

The OLMA (Schweizer Messe fuer Landwirtschaft und Ernaehrung) is Switzerland's largest public fair, held annually in October in St. Gallen since 1943, growing from an agricultural exhibition first held in 1941 during wartime supply shortages. It draws 370,000 to 390,000 visitors per year. The star attraction since 1997 has been the Saeulirennen (pig race), where trained female pigs race toward a feeding trough before 3,000 cheering spectators.