Nestled in a narrow pre-Alpine valley, just a stone’s throw from the Lake Constance, it is the capital of the canton of the same name and a noteworthy industrial, cultural, and conference hub.
The old town is delightful: enclosed like a nutshell around the imposing complex of the Cathedral dedicated to Saint Gall and the famous Abbey Library (which houses over one hundred thousand volumes, manuscripts, illuminated codices, and incunabula, dating from the 8th to 11th centuries), it exudes medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque reminiscences.
Staying in San Gallen, even briefly, is surely a privilege, an opportunity to become acquainted with the beautiful houses with stone or carved wooden bay windows, called here Erker; with textile shops where skilled hands create fantastic lace and embroidery; with carillon workshops and, more generally, with a welcoming atmosphere, academic yet lively and rather provincial at the same time. The monumental stops not to miss, besides the mentioned Klosterhof complex and Cathedral Square, are the nearby Gallusplatz and Gallustrasse, lined with splendid Baroque bourgeois houses, the Reformed church of St. Laurenzen, the grid of medieval streets and buildings revolving around Marktgasse and the Bohl, the large area adjacent to the market square where the Waaghaus, seat of the town council, and the Hotel Hecht, the oldest hotel, are located; and the Textilmuseum, at Vadianstrasse 2, which tells the story of the renowned local textile tradition.
