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80 EUROPE St. Gallen Monastery

The Benedictine abbey in St. Galien, established in 720, was
one of the most important monasteries in Europe, as well
as being a leading center for the arts, letters, and sciences.
S~'GALLEN MONASTERY
ZuriCh • A priceless library was gathered and monks came from far
fRANC l
e8Cill'n
and wide to copy manuscripts, many of which still exist.
SWITZERLAND
Only the crypt remains of the Romanesque church and
monastery built in the 9th century. The present Baroque
cathedral and abbey, by architects Peter Thumb and
ITALY
Johann Michael Beer, were completed in 1766 and feature
exquisite Rococo decorations (Rococo Style, see pJ2).

THE C RYPT
Several calamitous fires destroyed much o f
the Romanesque Episcopal church erected ST. GALL
in 830--37 on the s ite where the Cathedral
According to the Gallus-Vita (835)
of S t Gall now stands. The only part of the
by Walahfrid S trabo, the Abbey
building to have survived the ravages of time of St Otmar was founded on the
is the 9th- 1Oth century crypt which became site where a monk named Gallus
an integral part of the Baroque cathedral (c 560- 650)--later canonized as
The bishops of S t Gall have long found their St. Gall- built a hermit's shelter
final resting pi ace here-a tradition that has for himself in 612.
continued to the present day. Among those
buried in the cathedral are Abbot Otmar,
founder of the abbey, who, ten years after his
death in 769, was 1nterred 1n St Otmar's Crypt
beneath what is now the west gallery, and
Bishq:> Otmar Mader, who ded 1n 2003

THE ABBEY UBRARY
Built in the second half of the 18th century,
the al:bey hbrary 1s ridiy deccrated wth
ceiling frescoes, Intricate stuccowork, wood-
carving, and 1ntarsia The two-story reading
room, containing walnut and cherry bookcases
reaching to the ceiling, is especially impressive.
Around 1 30,000 leather-bound volumes and
2, 000 manuscripts are housed here. T hese
include s uch bibliophilic treasures as a copy
of the S ong of the Nibelungen a nd Codex
Abrogans (790), a dictionary of synonyms
believed to be one of the oldest existing
written documents 1 n German. The best-
known item in the collection is the St. Gallener
Klosterplan, showing the layout of an ideal
Benedictine monastery. Copied from an earlier
manuscript by monks in the early 9th century,
ttis document IS thought to have been the
blueprint for the St Galien Monastery

BAROQUE S TYLE
Baroque was the predommant style fcr much ~ High Altar -----=~...------=::~4-.:,.,rr-~-fiF,.,.(d-
of the 17th and early 18th centunes Whereas The painting of the
Assumption of the V~rgin
in Italy, the golden age of Baroque was the
on the high altar is by
high Baroque of 1630--80, Germany saw a Francesco Romanelli. Dating
flourishing of late Baroque well beyond 1700. from 1645, it was later
T he hallmarks of Baroque architecture are its heavily retouched.
preference for dynamic, curvaceous forms ~ Thrones
and broken gables; 1ts Gesamtkunstvverk, Two thrones by Franz Joseph
Anton Feuchtmayer, decorated with
or fus ion of the arts to create an exuberant
paintings by Franz J oseph S talzer.
whole; and its liberal use of ornamenta tion stand in the choir stalls.
and sculpture.