St. Gallen's Abbey precinct with its magnificent baroque cathedral is a unique historic ensemble. The Abbey library is one of the world's oldest and loveliest libraries.

Back in the 8th century, St. Gallen monastery had an important book collection which quickly grew in size.

The Abbey library, with what is probably Switzerland's finest secular baroque hall, now comprises 170,000 books. 50,000 of them are on show in the baroque hall, which also houses the 2700-year-old Egyptian mummy 'Shepenese'. The centrepiece of the collection consists of 2100 manuscripts, some of which are always on show.

As part of the Abbey precinct, the library was accorded World Cultural Heritage status by UNESCO in 1983.