I have already written about my stay in the children's village Pestaloci.Pestaloci is located near the small Swiss town of St. Gallen. On the last day of our stay we went to St. Gallen together with the students and our hosts. Our hosts told us the history of the city itself, so let me tell you some of it.
The founder of the city was basically the Irish monk Gallus, who in 612 settled in a hut on the river Steinach. 100 years after his death, an abbey was built on the site of the hut and named after a monk - the abbey of St. Gallen
In 954, a fortress wall was built around the abbey to protect it from the Saracens, and the city began to grow around those walls under the control of the monastery. In 1311, St. Gallen became a free imperial city, and forty years later guilds led by a guild guild gained control of the civilian government. In 1415 they bought freedom for the city from German King Sigismund. In the middle of the 15th century, the city joined the Swiss Confederation.
Our kind hosts walked us through the city, showed us many of its sights, and then took care of our students, and gave us mentors tickets to one of the oldest and most beautiful libraries in the world, which left a huge impression on me, a lover of books and reading. I believe that such an impression leaves on everyone who sees it because it is really magnificent.
Rector's Abbey St. Gallen in Switzerland is a religious complex founded by Saint Otmar in 719. The abbey was built with a library in its structure, because it followed the rule of St. Benedict, which prescribes as mandatory - the study of literature. The abbey has grown and developed over the centuries, and with it its library. Over the centuries, it has suffered several occupations, changed several owners, been devastated and renovated. It got its final look in the 18th century, when it was renovated in a luxurious Baroque style. Valuable manuscripts collected over the centuries, as well as the oldest architectural plan, drawn on parchment after renovation, were moved to a new space, which finally provided an adequate framework for such a valuable literary collection.
Right at the entrance you are greeted with slippers that you have to put on over your shoes because otherwise you cannot enter the library. He also explained to you that painting is forbidden to avoid any possibility of damaging old and rare books, books and manuscripts that are there. All the pictures you see in this article are in the brochure you can buy at the entrance to the library.
When you enter, you are literally out of breath. You will be greeted by a not very large space with a high, richly painted ceiling. Immediately notice the globe which is one of the oldest globes made. You are also greeted by lines of books of rare manuscripts and you really don't know where to start sightseeing and what you want to see the most.
The oldest evidence of the collection in the abbey library dates back to 820. Today, the library contains the most complete collection of early medieval manuscripts in the German-speaking area of Europe, as well as 160,000 books, of which 2,100 are manuscripts. Half of them date from the Middle Ages, and 400 of them are more than 1,000 years old. Unique manuscripts from the 9th century and the first architectural plan on parchment are just some of the literary treasures kept in this 1,200-year-old library.
As one of the interesting things, I would like to point out that this library also contains books in the Serbian language, which were donated to this library by the Milutin Bojic library from Belgrade. The Swiss believe that the preservation of their own language and culture is very important, because only in this way can the preconditions be created for getting to know other cultures and their writers.
If you ever go to St. Gallen, I sincerely recommend that you definitely visit this library, you will not regret it.
Najviše mi ostalo u glavi, da treba copate obuc..to mi se jako dopada. I spominja na one doktore za žene..i tamo treba copate obut..hihi