The outstanding item to see in St Gallen is the Abbey Library as per the associated image. The library can be traced back to the time of the Irish monk Gallus, who set up the first community of monks in St Gallen in 612. The library shows the part that monasteries played in the development of Western culture, especially during the Dark Ages.
A few of the books date back to 700 and the subject matter of some of them is surprising. In a book from Northern Italy from around 800, a women was advised that in order not to become pregnant, she should tie onto herself a weasel’s testicle in a donkey skin. Another book from Mainz(?) from the 11th Century does refer to sex between women.
When you’re in the library, visitors must place their feet – still with their outdoor shoes on – inside large slippers, so all the visitors help polish the floor. As you skate around admiring the books and the decoration, be sure to look at the replica globes on display and see how accurate the cartographers of 400 – 600 years ago were. The only glaring mistake I saw was that one globe had the Ethiopian islands off the west coast of Africa, though they were occupying a similar location to that of Cabo Verde.
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