St. Gallen Cathedral

Why go

St. Gallen Cathedral is the former abbey church of the Abbey of St Gall in the Abbey District. The Abbey District's cathedral page says it is both the parish church of the Cathedral Parish and the church of the Diocese of St. Gallen, that it stands where the Irish monk Gall built his hermitage in 612, and that the cathedral and the Baroque abbey complex were built in the middle of the 18th century; the diocese's own page says the former abbey church first became the Catholic parish church of the city and, when the diocese was founded, its cathedral. The cathedral page says visiting is not possible during services or on Sunday mornings, that an audio guide is available, and that the cathedral sacristans offer guided tours for groups. The same page says the cathedral and the abbey complex, with the Abbey Library and Abbey Archives, form the core of the UNESCO World Heritage site; this record is the church, not the abolished abbey (Q155699) or the Abbey District.