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

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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.
Textilmuseum MUSEUM (www.textilmuseum.ch; Vadianstrasse 2; adult/child Sfr14/free; h10am-5pm Fri-Wed, to 8pm Thu) St Gallen has long been an important hub of the Swiss textile industry, and this is the most interesting of the town’s several museums. Butterfl ies dance across the purple walls of the museum’s lounge bar, a fashionable coff ee spot. FStadtlounge LANDMARK (City Lounge; Schreinerstrasse; h24hr) Quite astonishingly, part of historic St Gallen is covered by a rubberised red tennis-court coating, with in-situ outdoor-furniture-like chairs, sofas, tables and even a car. This zany art installation project by Pipilotti Rist and Carlos Martínez is intended as an ‘outdoor living room’. z Festivals & Events Open Air St Gallen MUSIC (www.openairsg.ch) Music festival hosting big-name rock and pop acts in early July. St Galler Festspiele OPERA (www.stgaller-festspiele.ch, in German) Two-week outdoor opera season (from about 20 June to the end of the fi rst week of July), held in the square behind the cathedral. 279 ST NORTHEASTERN GALLEN & APPENZELL SWITZERLAND CANTONS FESTIVALS ST GALLEN FESTIVALS & EVENTS & EVENTS
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