St. Gallen, Read Up

Above the door to the St. Gallen Abby library is a quote in Greek that says it all, “this place is a pharmacy for the soul”. The library is stunning in design and has one of the world’s best collections of books dating back to the 700 hundreds. Even today you can use your passport as a library card to read through the collection. The ancient books are very much like the Book of Kells in Dublin.

That would make sense as St. Gallen’s founder was an itinerant Irish monk named Gallus. The story goes that he headed into the wilderness to find a wild and dangerous place. He stumbled into a thorn bush and was approached by a huge bear that apparently communicated with him. He was convinced that God wanted him to stay and a small chapel was built. For centuries afterwards the abbey of St. Gallen was the Barnes & Nobles of Middle Age Europe.