Basilica Of St. Gall / Abbey Library Of St. Gall

The abbey precinct of St. Gallen is the historic core of the city, and its centrepiece is the cathedral, formerly the abbey church, whose two slender towers rise above the old town. The church was built in the mid-eighteenth century as the last great monument of a monastery that had stood on the site since the early Middle Ages. Its exterior is restrained, but the interior is a joyous burst of late Baroque and Rococo: a huge rotunda under a painted dome, a long nave covered with ceiling frescoes, stucco in soft colours and a carved choir screen of dark wood. Visitors usually stop just inside the entrance to take in the scale and the light.

The story of the abbey begins with Gallus, an Irish monk who came to the region around the year 612 with Columbanus and remained here as a hermit. A monastery grew up after his death, and by the ninth century it was a major centre of learning, with a school, a scriptorium and a library that attracted scholars from across Europe. A famous ninth-century parchment plan of an ideal monastery, drawn here, survives in the collection and shows how a monastic community was meant to be arranged. The abbey remained an independent principality of the church for centuries and was dissolved only in the early nineteenth century, when the cantonal authorities took over its property. The precinct was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1983.

The library is the other great attraction, housed in a hall next to the cathedral. Its Baroque interior and its collection of early manuscripts are described in a separate entry, but the ticket also gives access to exhibition rooms that present the abbey's history. Among the curiosities is an Egyptian mummy named Shepenese, who has been in the abbey's collection since the early nineteenth century. She was a woman of ancient Thebes, and her coffin and mummy are about 2,700 years old, an unexpected exhibit in a Swiss monastery.

Around the abbey district, historic merchants' houses, courtyards and narrow lanes make the old town a good place to wander. The Gallusplatz and the surrounding streets are within easy reach.

Check the current opening hours and ticket arrangements before you visit, as they vary with the season and with church services and events. The cathedral is a place of worship, so dress and behave respectfully.