St Gallen - the Abbey Library, Switzerland
Dimensions : 9.95m x 28.4m
No photography allowed.

Built in 1758 - one of the most beautiful Roccoco interior in Switzerland - in timber! With stucco work & ceiling frescoes. Warm & creaky. Houses an authentic mummy with double sarcophagus of sycamore wood at the back - given to the library in 1824. The mummy is from upper Egypt - 700 B.C.

For me, the highlight is the facsimile plan of the St Gall monastery - about AO size, in red ink. The original is with the library too, but obviously not displayed. You have to wear slippers over your shoes!

The library is probably the top 2 floors of a 4-storey wing attached to the church. In the St Gall plan, the same position was marked for beer & wine cellar. But the cloister/square layout is observed, except now, the court is a paved 8-a-side soccer 'pitch' with no trees - or a bare minimum from what I recall.

The cathedral itself is Baroque also, a far departure from the St Gall model, where 2 towers are placed at the apse(east? ) side instead of the west porch. The towers are curved with Baroque gutso even as the surfaces struggle to host flat-faced clocks. The orders are classical with ionic at the bottom, corinthian at the second tier and composite at the top. The cupolas are onion shaped, probably due to influence from Greek orthodoxy, could also be their sense of movement.

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As I write this, at the end of a 15-day trip - my longest. I ought to note that this pen I just purchased, is an absolute pleasure.

Its bought today, at St Gallen, for abt S$100 - as a birthday present for myself. It's made in Hawaii, the salesgirl said. An "ACME" pen, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's window design & inscribed with his signature. Bought 2 moleskin notebooks today too.

Chup...... St Gallen (Switzerland) 29 Oct 2005