Welcome to this short walking tour through my home city of St.Gallen!
Today, we will see the city in a very special way: We will be taking a look inside its structures.
Here we are right in the centre, in an old bridge from the 18th century.
It was used to travel to the Appenzellerland.
Right next to it is the BT bridge, which was the tallest railway bridge in Europe at the time it was built.
It connects St.Gallen with Herisau
and is one of the landmarks in Sittertobel, which also happens to be where the OpenAir St.Gallen festival is held.
What characterises us as people of St.Gallen?
A couple of years ago, I would have said it was a collective depression since the collapse of the textile industry in the interwar years.
But that is no longer true.
Today, we are characterised by our strongly pragmatic attitude,
our inclination towards efficiency,
and our desire to make more of ourselves than people would credit us with.
There is a tendency to underestimate the people of St.Gallen.
Here we are in the Steinachtobel.
The Steinach flows through the interior of St.Gallen.
Legend has it that Saint Gall fell into a thorn bush here, where the river runs down from the mountain, in the year 612.
A bear brought him food and wood, and he began building his hermitage.
We are now getting onto the St.Gallen metro,
called the Mühleggbahn.
It connects the city with the locality of St.Georgen.
I will tell you another story on the journey.
There is a legend attached to the tunnel that we are about to go through.
It is not quite as old as the legend of Saint Gall,
but I still find it fascinating.
Known as the “king of escapees”, the St.Gallen criminal Walter Stürm escaped from prison eight times during his “career”.
He is said to have once hidden from the police in this tunnel.
Walter Stürm was popular among the public
because, after a hold-up, he sometimes apologised to his victims for frightening them.
He once escaped and wrote:
“Gone looking for Easter eggs”.
This made Walter Stürm famous across Switzerland –
although the police never shared the sentiment.
In the last few years, St.Gallen has changed in an extremely positive way.
The city has modernised.
We have always had a strong cultural scene
that is very wide with no specific focus.
Certain highlights have emerged in recent times, like the “Roter Platz” (or “Red Square”), which is marvellous from an architectural point of view.
The internationally respected conceptual artist Roman Signer has lived in St.Gallen for many years.
He was bothered by the fact that the Steinach flows invisibly through the city.
In this piece, he shows how the river disappears and then reappears at the other end of the city.
For me, there are two historic places:
One is the city itself with the abbey, Saint Gall and its history.
The other is a place that has a very powerful personal connection for me: The “Flade” secondary school.
Secondary school is where students start going through puberty, and where they begin to develop an awareness of themselves. The two places are close geographically.
We are now standing at Gallusplatz,
one of the most attractive locations in St.Gallen with its half-timbered buildings, and with the abbey and the “Flade” in the background.
This is where I went to school, as did my father and later our son.
It is a school for boys only – and a wonderful family tradition.
We will now enter the abbey, climb the tower and look at what is inside.
An ordinary resident of St. Gallen wouldn’t have been able to come here.
We are inside one of the abbey’s towers.
This is the clock mechanism that operates the 11 clocks installed in the abbey.
The clock mechanism was built in the 18th century.
Today, it is still preserved as it was originally designed.
It is completely mechanical, with no electronics. Any repairs have to be done manually by mechanics.
You can still hear time eating away in this place…
There are modern elements to the city that are fascinating from an artistic perspective.
On the one hand, there have been efforts to introduce the architecture of Calatrava in the city in a functional way.
On the other, there is the art of St.Gallen native Pipilotti Rist: the “Roter Platz” with its curious cloud lights.
And there is a lively slam poetry scene.
We are proud that St.Gallen is one of the centres of slam poetry in Switzerland.
There is also a very modern approach to restoring public spaces using old materials.
The old train depot has been turned into a combination of a cinema, theatre and restaurant.
An old sports hall, the “Grabenhalle”, is now a meeting place with concerts for young people.
The former Palace cinema is home to an alternative cultural scene that plays its part in shaping the atmosphere in the city.
Up until the First World War, St.Gallen was a stronghold of the textile industry.
The people wove materials, produced embroidery and traded around the world.
There was even a direct rail link to Paris – with no stop in Zurich.
We still flirt with this idea today.
As well as the industry, which remains successful, there are other symbols of the “good old days”.
One example is the “Tröckneturm” tower.
This was used to dry textiles after they had been dyed in the “Sittertal” dye works.
Mit dem Rundgang haben wir versucht,
On this walking tour, we have tried to present the buildings and points of interest in a different way; from the inside.
This is how we should see St.Gallen overall:
It is not enough to observe St.Gallen from the outside.
If you do, then it merely looks like it is sandwiched between two hills.
You need to experience St.Gallen as a place with an extraordinary spiritual heritage.
The city has great vibrancy, plus a healthy mix of frugality
and a will to grow, innovate and create.
In Eastern Switzerland, we have low unemployment,
world-leading innovative companies, and a strong creative scene with textiles, the software industry and engineering.
I see St.Gallen as a centre of these developments.
It is not the sole driver,
but it is an important hub around which the rest can develop.