Exhibition

Permanent Exhibition

The miracle of transmission. The Plan of St Gall and Early Medieval Europe

The archives and the library of the Abbey of St Gall conserve a unique heritage from the Early Middle Ages. Original records from the beginning of the 8th century shed light on the monastic community near the tomb of Saint Gall and its rise to the status of an imperial abbey. Resources from the entire region of Lake Constance secured the subsistence of more than a hundred monks.

The Plan of St Gall sketches an exemplary Carolingian monastery around 825.

Theme of the annual exhibition

Victus et vestitus – Food and clothing

In the early Middle Ages, many people bequeathed their possessions to the monastery of St Gall in order to be provided for by it for life. With the deed formula victus et vestitus, they requested the same amount of “food and clothing” in their old age as the monks were entitled to.

The human need for a dignified life in old age and illness gives rise to different forms of social security in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. In addition to the family and the monastery, hospitals have played an important role since the later Middle Ages.

Curators of the annual exhibition 2023

Stiftsarchiv St.Gallen
Peter Erhart, Jakob Kuratli Hüeblin, Kathrin Moeschlin