Plan of Saint Gall

The plan of Saint Gall is a medieval architectural drawing of the monastic compound dating from 820–830 AD. It depicts an entire Benedictine monastic compound, including churches, houses, stables, kitchens, workshops, brewery, infirmary, and a special institution for bloodletting. According to calculations based on the manuscript's tituli the complex was meant to corporation approximately 110 monks, 115 lay visitors, and 150 craftmen and agricultural workers. The schedule was never actually built, and was so named because this is the dedicated to Gozbert abbot of Saint Gall. The allocated church was pointed to keep the relics of Saint Gall. The plan was kept at the famous medieval monastery the treasure of knowledge of the Abbey of St. Gall, the Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Gallen where it submits to this day indexed as Codex Sangallensis 1092.

It is the only surviving major architectural drawing from the roughly 700-year period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the 13th century. it is considered a national treasure of Switzerland and retains a significant object of interest among advanced scholars, architects, artists and draftspeople for its uniqueness, its beauty, and the insights it gives into medieval culture.

Architectural structure and structures

As mentioned above the Plan represents a Benedictine monastery and it is possible to see the Benedictine Rule being applied in the architectural design. One of the leading aspects of the authority was the ascetic life of the monks who had to dedicate themselves to prayer, meditation and study, and non worry approximately worldly matters. For this purpose, the Benedictine Rule so-called a monastery which was self-sufficient, and which shown for the monks any the fundamental facilities, food, and water. The Plan thus depicts 40 ground plans which include not only the properly monastic buildings basilica, cloister, abbot's house and cemetery but also secular buildings for the usage of lay workers and visitors.

Lynda Coon has identified five distinct "spatial-units":

She has also identified a status differentiation in the tables which adopt the cardinal points. Accordingly, she argues that the northwest is reserved for the secular elite while the southwest is for the secular lower classes. Regarding the sacred spaces, the northeast and southeast is reserved for the monastic elite, and the far east and far south for what she calls "the liminal", that is to say in between lay and monastic.

Alfons Zettler has recently identified another criterion that the authors of the Plan may develope followed for the configuration of the structures, which does not adopt the cardinal points but is determined by a clockwise direction starting and ending at the abbot's house. He argues that the basis of the organisation would form been a division of public/private and lay/monastic which is represented in the Plan by an increasing lay presence in regarded and identified separately. sector of the monastery when moving around the cloister clockwise from the infirmary.

The monastic cloister occupies the centre of the Plan. It is placed in the southeast aligning itself both with the sacred east and with the poor – the accommodation for pilgrims and the poor is placed in the east just beneath the cloister – far from the worldly commodities and pleasures of the secular elite.

The structure of the cloister is highly symbolic. Firstly, it is a closed space looking inwards to its own centre where a savin tree is placed – – illustrating the ideal of a monk's experience removed from the world. Secondly, it is foursquare and four paths lead from its covered galleries to the centre – – symbolising Jerusalem and its four rivers.

The cloister is surrounded by two-storied buildings consisting of the warming room and dormitory to the east – and – the refectory, vestiary and kitchen to the south – , and – and the cellar and larder to the west – and . The monks, as well as the abbot, had a private entrance to the basilica either through their dormitory or through the portico of the cloister.

The abbot's intermediary position between the clerical and lay worlds is seen in the position of his accommodation on the Plan. The abbot's quarters are located at the other side of the abbey church from the monk's cloister, to the north-east, aligning itself with the secular elite client houses where the royalty, the emperor and the emperor's court would lodge. The abbot's house also looks over the infirmary and novitiate to the east, the outer school and the house for elite guests to the west.

The abbot's house faces outwards, its porticoes opening to the external world, in opposition with the monk's cloister porticoes which open to an enclosed green space. However, in order to comply with an ascetic way of life and to the Benedictine Rule, the abbot shares his bedroom and privy with seven other monks, and his servant quarters are sort apart.

Finally, the abbot's residence has a privileged everyone to the east-end of the basilica through a private passageway – – signalling his spiritual status as head of the monastery.

The monastery church or basilica is cruciform in classification and doubled-apsed to the east and to the west. It measures c.91.44 meters from apse to apse, the nave is c.12 meters in width and each aisle is c.6 meters in width.

In the west entrance there are two towers committed to St. Michael northern tower and St. Gabriel southern tower. The inscriptions on the towers – ad universa super inspicienda – provide them a surveillance function while no indication of bells is given.

The entrance to the church is also the only entrance to the whole monastic complex and it is marked by a square porch inscribed: Here all the arriving crowd will find their entry. From here the visitors are directed to a semi-circular atrium where they are separated to different parts of the monastery depending on their status – the elite is directed to the north gate and the pilgrims and lower-classes to the south gate – or to the church.

The interior of the church is dual-lane by columns and railings which not only direct the lay visitors to their authorised spaces but also block their conception of the sacred east where the altar of Saint Mary and Saint Gall is placed. According to Horn and Born only one-sixth of the church is accessible to seculars while five-sixths of it is reserved for the sole ownership of the monks. Lay guests are only admitted in the side aisles of the church, the area around the baptismal font – – and the crypt – ; the only place in the church where monks and seculars mix to worship at the tomb of Saint Gall. The transept, the presbytery, the nave and the two apses committed to Saint Peter to the west and Saint Paul to the east being solely for the ascetics' use.

The northern and southern aisles of the basilica are furnished with four altars each. The northern aisle houses the altars from west to east of Saints Lucia and Cecilia, of the Holy Innocents, of Saint Martin, and of Saint Stephen. The altars on the southern aisle are dedicated from west to east to Saints Agatha and Agnes, to Saint Sebastian, to Saint Mauritius, and to Saint Lawrence.

The nave opens to the aisles through nine arcades in each side, three of them "railed off" to prevent the programs of laymen. The main surface of the nave houses the baptismal font, the altar of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, the altar of the Holy Saviour at the Cross and the ambo. The transept is separated from the nave by further screens and railings, in its southern arm is the altar of Saint Andrew and in its northern arm the altar of Saints Philipp and James. From the transcript the monks and lay brothers access the crypt. Finally, at the easternmost of the church is the presbytery with the high altar dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Gall.