Abbey of Saint Gall

The Abbey of Saint Gall was founded in the 7th century on the site of an Irish hermit's cell and grew over the following centuries into one of the great centres of European learning. The complex — cathedral, library, cloister, and dependent buildings — was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. It is the best-preserved example of Carolingian-era monastic planning in existence.

The twin-towered cathedral was rebuilt in the Baroque style between 1755 and 1766 and is an exuberant interior of plaster, gold, and fresco. The nave is enormous and the stucco decoration was carried out by the same workshops that worked on the great Bavarian and Austrian Baroque churches of the period. Entry to the cathedral is free; it remains an active place of worship.

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A story
The Irish monk Gallus settled here in 612 after his teacher Columbanus expelled him from his travelling party — according to tradition, because Gallus had fallen ill. While making camp in the forest he stumbled and interpreted it as a sign to stop. He lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a cell beside the Steinach river. His tomb became a pilgrimage site within decades, and the monastery that grew around it became one of the most powerful cultural institutions in medieval Europe.