29 November 2009 until 7 November 2010

For opening times from 29 November 2009 please click here.

The Carolingian abbey plan dating from around 820 which is kept at the Abbey Library of St. Gall is not only a unique record of architectural history, but also a rich source of information for researchers in other fields, such as botany and medicine. No history of these two subjects would be complete without considering the abbey plan, where three gardens (for herbs, vegetables and trees) and a large area for medicinal plants have been drawn in, accompanied by a series of explanatory annotations. Equally important for botanists is the garden poem "Hortulus" ("Liber de cultura hortorum") by the scholar Walahfrid Strabo of Reichenau (who died in 849), which describes 23 different medicinal herbs in verse form. The poem was dedicated to Abbot Grimald of St. Gall (who ruled from 841 to 872), and the oldest transcript of the text was kept at the Abbey Library of St. Gall until shortly after 1600. (Today it is housed in the Vatican Library in Rome).

The Abbey Library possesses a remarkable collection of medical manuscripts dating from the Early Middle Ages with descriptions of the uses of various medicinal plants and their effectiveness against all kinds of diseases, as well as herbal recipes for cures. In this exhibition, two showcases are devoted to handwritten and printed herbals as well as medical literature from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Unfortunately, very little remains of the beautiful gardens, typical of the Baroque period, that once embellished the precincts of the former Abbey of St. Gall. In the north-east corner of the abbey precinct a "prince's garden" was laid out in several stages between 1648 and 1690. This was the garden of the prince-abbots: a charming Baroque ornamental garden with running water, little paths and a grotto. To the east of the library, surrounded by the cloisters, was the convent garden, complete with a greenhouse for exotic plants. The "recreation garden" to the west of the library was a place where the monks could relax after the toils of their daily routine. Lastly, the "round convent garden" stood in the inner courtyard, with the stone fish fountain at its centre. At this spot today, in front of the Gallus Chapel, you will find a flower garden with a fountain in the centre. In 1768, it became necessary to move the "prince's garden" one kilometre to the east, towards St. Fiden, due to the construction of a new palace (with a throne room for the prince-abbot). This garden, too, has since disappeared. In three of the showcases there are texts and illustrations which remind us of the gardens of the former abbey.

A richly illustrated catalogue of the exhibition is available (in German only).

Click here for the flyer of the exhibition.