Each story is rooted in real local history and landmarks
A child discovers the ancient Henau document and must deliver 30 barrels of beer to the abbey. Travelling through 1,200 years of Wil’s history along the way, from Rotbald’s farm to the prince-abbot’s palace, each barrel unlocks another chapter of this remarkable town.
Exploring the Hof zu Wil, a child finds a hidden staircase inside the 12th-century tower with its four-metre-thick walls. Each floor reveals a different era — prince-abbots deciding matters of life and death, Renaissance murals coming alive, and the last abbot fleeing the French in 1798.
In 1647, during the Thirty Years’ War, a child drummer at the Hof zu Wil must rally the Swiss cantons to sign the defence pact that will secure Swiss neutrality for centuries to come. Beating the drum through the Gothic halls, they witness the birth of a nation’s defining principle.
A child locked in the old Schnetztor gate tower overnight discovers the ghosts of medieval travellers, Habsburg soldiers from the 1292 siege, and Appenzeller rebels who all once passed through this gate — each with a story that shaped the town beyond the walls.
When Abbot Ulrich Rösch’s Lenten fish pond runs dry, a child must find a way to fill the Stadtweier before the fast begins. Befriending the fish, ducks, and swans along the way, they learn that caring for a community means thinking of everyone’s needs.
During the Toggenburgerkrieg of 1712, a child living in Wil must protect the town’s treasures as Zurich and Bern cannons thunder against the walls. Told from both sides of the confessional divide, the story shows how neighbours became enemies — and how peace was eventually rebuilt.
When Dominican nuns arrive in Wil in 1607, fleeing the Reformation in St. Gallen, a local child helps them build their new home. Discovering the ancient illuminated manuscripts the sisters carried across mountains, the child learns that knowledge, once written down, can survive any storm.
A child races a friend up the Wiler Turm’s two intertwining spiral staircases — 189 steps each. At every landing, a window reveals a different era of Wil’s history stretching out below, from the prince-abbots’ Hof to the Toggenburg hills beyond.
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