St. Gallen, Switzerland

Come Gallen-vanting with me through the city

When traveling to Switzerland, I think St. Gallen is a place to stop by if you’re interested in the arts and culture.

Located in the northeast of the country, the city is home to a UNESCO world heritage site, the Abbey of St. Gall, which is the main highlight of the place.

Normally, the locals would say, “There’s nothing much up there.” But that wasn’t the case for me. In fact, I felt like I didn’t have enough time. I only spent half a day there, and I want to share my experience and insight on the places I visited. My adventures began at the Abbey of St. Gall.

The Abbey was built on the site where an Irish monk, St. Gallus, had established his cell to live a hermitic life.

This hermitage had turned into a monastery, a place for monks to learn, pray, and carry out their religious duties, but it was dissolved and became a heritage site in 1983.

The Abbey's premises are vast, but only three parts are open to the public: the Abbey Library and the Vaulted Cellar, the Exhibition space, and the Cathedral.

The tickets to all of these are only CHF 12.- (about £10.60) for students but if you have the Swiss Travel Pass like I did, it would be totally free!

I went to the library first because I was most excited by it, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The moment I stepped into the library, I felt like I was being transported to the 18th century. The contrast between the library and the outside of the Abbey is stark because while the Abbey is simple and plain, the library is ornate.

It has Baroque architecture throughout, from the pillars to the lighting to the paintings. It was absolutely stunning; the walls were shelves lined with old books, and the high ceilings were painted with religious scenes.

The library houses thousands of old manuscripts of translations, prayers, and instructions for living in the monastery; some of these are also displayed in the library.

I found these really interesting because the handwriting was beautiful and so consistent that I don’t think anyone these days would have the patience to write (that includes myself).

The library is just a small room, and I finished browsing it in 30 minutes, moving on to the Vaulted Cellar, which is just below the Abbey.

The Vaulted Cellar was just as interesting as the library. It held key artifacts and used multimedia to convey its cultural history to visitors.

I thought it was creative of them to combine the past with present technologies because just reading information tends to become dull, so this was an easier way to digest information.

The exhibition also uses this technique to display ways of life in the monastery sense. It shows a short film about the life of a fictional monk; when I first watched it, I truly thought it was about a real monk because the way they portray life is very detail-oriented with a hint of humor.

I noticed that even the children would pay attention.

The Abbey Cathedral was the last place that I visited. At first, I didn’t know if I could enter it or not because I didn’t see anyone near the doors, but alas, I saw a girl come out of it and decided to go.

Upon entering it, my jaw literally dropped because it was so magnificent; it was also in the Baroque style, with painted ceilings, but unlike the dark library, which was done thoroughly in this one style, the Cathedral was mixed with Rococo architecture, emulating a bright and colorful interior.

No words could describe how grand it looked. It was so extravagant that praying was hard for me because I kept getting distracted by some new details.

It was worth the visit, and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Switzerland.

By this point, I was starting to get hungry, and my aunt told me that Bratwurst (a type of sausage) was famous in St. Gallen. This was good because I had been craving one for the past few days and had found the perfect place to get one.

Gemperli is a small corner shop that sells bratwurst and poke bowls for a reasonable price.

One way you can tell if the food is excellent and original is through the customers; I noticed a lot of locals eating there, so I knew I could trust the place for a good lunch.

I ordered the regular bratwurst, a sausage served with a bread roll. It only cost me CHF 8.- (£7), and it was the best 8 francs I spent because the sausage is warm and juicy with its natural saltiness. When paired with the bread roll, it balances the flavors out, so you won’t be thirsty after eating it.  

As I ate my bratwurst and walked around town, I saw many little shops peppering the streets selling trinkets, books, and other small things.

It made it enjoyable to stroll around.

Once I finished my bratwurst, I headed to the Kunstmuseum (art museum) to take a look at their local art.

But just before you arrive at the museum, a modernistic Concert Hall Stands out from the traditional buildings.

Unfortunately, because of time, I didn’t go in to take a look.(I am not even sure if you can enter, but it’s always worth a try).

Upon entering the art museum, I noticed that, unlike London, which has old paintings, this museum houses modern contemporary art.

The ticket was free again for me because of my Swiss Travel Pass, but if you don’t have one, the ticket is CHF 12 per entry.

They have their own collection on the first floor which is filled with contemporary art juxtaposed with traditional paintings. It is a small collection but an interesting one nonetheless.

But I want to talk about one of the exhibitions there—Experimental Ecology: Art x Science in Dialogue.

It is about how art can be an educational means of raising awareness of the rapid environmental change around us.

It was a small interactive exhibition, but I think it’s worth the visit because you can see collaborations of interesting works between artists and scientists that you never thought possible.

I’ll give you an example: Switzerland is famous for cheese, and what better way to display this than by taking it to the next level.

A biologist and artist had collaborated to make cheese out of microbes. Taking samples of microbes from different parts of the human body (Swiss celebrities’ ones at that), they’ve created cheese with different tastes and smells.

It sounds disgusting, but it was intended to raise awareness of the role of bacteria in our lives and illustrate the potential of synthetic biology to utilize co-existence and mixed cultures.

They left a block of cheese out for you to have a whiff, and I can tell you it was horrible, but I suppose most cheese smells like that, and that was the point of it.

There were many other works just as interesting as this, but I won’t spoil it for you, so you’ll just have to see for yourself, but only if you visit there before 24 November 2024.

This concludes my expedition in St. Gallen because I had to catch the train to another town.

However, if you have more time, you can also visit the Textile Museum since St. Gallen was once a world-renowned textile capital.

This quaint little city has captured my heart with the old town filled with colorful traditional Swiss buildings, cobblestone streets, and their art and culture.

Written by Althea Scully