Switzerland7-Northeastern Switzerland - John Covey - University of ...

278
NORTHEASTERN SWITZERLAND ST GALLEN
at numbers 33 and 31 and the town hall,
number 29. There are more on Mariabergstrasse.
Out on the lake is the 1920s Badhütte
(Bathing Hut), attached to land by
a little covered bridge, which is a pleasant
place for a drink.
Walk right from the train station to
fi nd the main hotels or, for an exceptional
escape, book into the magnifi cent fantasy
palace Schloss Wartegg (%071 858 62 62;
http://wartegg.ch; Rorschacherberg; s Sfr145-155,
Sfr220-270; p), a 10-minute drive from central
Rorschach on the hillside above town.
This 16th-century former royal Austrian
castle is set in leafy grounds with towering
sequoias and Lake Constance views.
Organic regional produce is served at
breakfast.
ST GALLEN & APPENZELL
CANTONS
The cultural high point of a journey around
the extreme northeast of the country is a
visit to St Gallen’s legendary abbey, with its
extraordinary rococo library. To explore the
surrounding canton of St Gallen is to dive
into a deeply Germanic, rural world.
The Appenzellers are the butt of many
a cruel joke by their fellow Swiss, a little
like Tasmanians in Australia or Newfoundlanders
in Canada. As Swiss Germans say,
Appenzellers hätte ä langi Laitig (have a
very long cable): it takes a while after you
tug for them to get the message.
Such devotion to rural tradition has an
upside. Locals go to great lengths to preserve
their heritage and this green, hilly region is
sprinkled with beautiful, timeless villages.
Both cantons are criss-crossed by endless
hiking, cycling and mountain-biking trails.
St Gallen
POP 72,700 / ELEV 670M
St Gallen’s history as the ‘writing room of
Europe’ is evident in its principal attraction
today: the sublime rococo library of its huge
Catholic abbey, which rises gracefully above
a fountain-dotted courtyard.
Local lore has it that St Gallen began
with a bush, a bear and an Irish monk who
should have watched where he was going.
In AD 612, the tale goes, itinerant Gallus
fell into a briar and considered the stumble
a calling from God. After a fortuitous
encounter with a bear, in which he persuaded
it to bring him a log, take some
bread in return and leave him in peace,
he used the log to begin building the
hermitage that would one day morph into
St Gallen’s cathedral.
1 Sights
Multilingual guided tours of the Old Town
(Sfr20 per person) kick off at the tourist
offi ce at 2pm Monday to Saturday from May
to October.
Stiftsbibliothek LIBRARY
(www.stiftsbibliothek.ch; Klosterhof 6d; adult/child
Sfr10/7; h10am-5pm Mon-Sat, to 4pm Sun) St
Gallen’s 16th-century library is one of the
world’s oldest and the fi nest example of
rococo architecture in Switzerland. Along
with the rest of the monastery complex
surrounding it, the library forms a Unesco
World Heritage Site.
Filled with priceless books and manuscripts
painstakingly handwritten by monks
during the Middle Ages, it’s a dimly lit
confection of ceiling frescos, stucco, cherubs
and parquetry. Only 30,000 of the total
150,000 volumes are in the library at any
one time, and only a handful in display
cases, arranged into special exhibitions. If
there’s a tour guide in the library at the time,
you might see the monks’ fi ling system,
hidden in the wall panels.
Kids are enthralled by the 2700-year-old
mummifi ed corpse in the far right corner.
Dom CATHEDRAL
(Klosterhof; h9am-6pm Mon, Tue, Thu & Fri, 10am-
6pm Wed, 9am-4pm Sat, noon-5.30pm Sun) The
twin-towered cathedral is only slightly less
ornate than the library, with dark and stormy
frescos and aqua-green stucco embellishments.
Oddly, entry is by two modest doors
on the north fl ank – there is no door in the
main facade, which is actually the cathedral’s
apse! Concerts are sometimes held – consult
www.kirchenmusik.ch. The cathedral is
closed during services.
St Laurenzen-Kirche CHURCH
(Zeughausgasse; h9.30-11.30am & 2-4pm Mon,
9.30am-6pm Tue-Fri, to 4pm Sat) St Gallen’s
cathedral gets all the attention, but this
Protestant neo-Gothic church is also beautiful,
with its mosaic-tiled roof, delicate fl oral
frescos and star-studded ceiling resembling
a night sky. Climb the tower (adult/child
Sfr5/2.50; h10am & 3pm) for views over the
town’s terracotta rooftops and spires.