St. Gallen, Switzerland: Exploring the Legendary City of a Holy Saint

Founded around 612 BC by a monk who was finding his way through the river Steinach, St. gallen or Gallus built a hermitage and through the centuries became a well-developed and beautiful city. The seventh largest city in Switzerland, St. Gallen is located in the north-east part in a valley which is at least 700 meters above sea level. It is also situated between the Appenzell Alps and Lake Constance. Considered as one of the highest cities in Switzerland, a quite heavy snowfall can be experienced during winter. Also, the city sits atop an uneven territory in which all buildings and architectures should be built on piles so as not to be destroyed easily.

One of the main attractions of St. Gallen is the Abbey Library. It is the world’s oldest and richest monastic library. It houses one of the most wide-ranging collections of early medieval records and books. The library is protecting and preserving a rare 9th century manuscript known as the Plan of St. Gall. It is the sole surviving key architectural representation or drawing from the period of the Fall of the Roman Empire and the 13th century. The plan is actually a design for the building of an ideal monastery. Although the plan was never realized and built, it was named as it is because it is currently in the preservation in the abbey where it still remains up to now. The library is home to at least 160,000 books in which some are over a thousand years old and that 2,200 books are yet handwritten.

The Convent of St. Gall was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in1983. And aside from the well-known abbey, there are a lot of interesting sights and sounds one can savor in St. Gallen. Museums as well as orchestras can be very well found and heard respectively. The Historical and Ethnography museum houses ethnographical collections from different parts of the globe. The Art Museum has paintings and sculptures dating back to the 19th and 20th century.

Education in St. Gallen is given a very high priority. Considering that it is recognized world-wide due to its ancient collection of documents as well as its beautiful heritage, it gives high value in education and aims to put it on the top list of priorities in development and progress. The University of St. Gallen boasts of a very high standard in education which is recognized as the best business and management school in German-speaking Europe. Also, the Institut auf dem Rosenberg, an elite and popular boarding school is drawing attention from students from different countries.

Hotels in St.Gallen

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