INTRODUCTION
THE Church of the Plan of St. Gall (figs. 82, 84, 93, and 99) is an aisled cruciform structure with an apse at either
end, an eastern and western paradise, and two detached round towers on its entrance side. Its most remarkable
feature, historically, apart from its length, is the fact that its layout is based on a system of squares that bears
startling resemblance to the so-called square schematism of the German Romanesque. This system is here carried
out with a logic and consistency unparalleled in any of the Carolingian churches actually constructed, with the sole
exception, possibly, of the cathedral and monastery church that Archbishop Hildebold (d. 819) built at Cologne
sometime after the year 800 (figs. 16-18).[1]
The Church measures 300 feet from apse to apse.[2]
Its nave and transept have the same width, 40 feet, and thus
their area of intersection, the crossing, forms a square. The fore choir and two transept arms repeat the dimensions
of the crossing square, and the dimensions of the nave are so arranged as to cover a surface area of exactly four-and-one-half
times the size of the crossing square. The width of the aisles, 20 feet, is half the width of the nave (40 feet);
the interstices between the columns which support the clerestory wall on either side of the nave are spaced at intervals
of 20 feet on center.
The most striking feature to a modern visitor, were he able to enter this church, would be the many screens and
railings which divide the interior into separate areas for worship (figs. 82, 84, 93, and 99). In the time of Constantine
the Great, the Christian house of worship had only one altar, and its nave and aisles were so arranged
architecturally that the entering crowd could move from the entrances to the altar in a straight, continuous movement
that paralleled the columnar rhythm of the arcades supporting its walls (fig. 81). No barriers blocked the path
of those proceeding to the altar until they reached the chancel railing, which screened off the space for the officiating
clergy. By contrast, the Church of the Plan of St. Gall is furnished with seventeen altars (nineteen, if we add the
altars of its towers), but except for a narrow passage in each aisle by which the pilgrims gain access to the tomb of
St. Gall in the crypt, only one-sixth of the entire surface area of the Church is open to laymen (fig. 82): a portion
of the nave of the Church, 40 feet wide and 110 feet long, extending from the second pair of columns to halfway
beyond the seventh pair. The western half of this space is reserved for the performance of baptismal rites; the
eastern half for services held for pilgrims, and for the Monastery's serfs and workmen. All the remaining portions of
the Church—transept, presbytery, the terminal bays of the nave, most of the aisles, and the two apses—are screened
off for exclusive use by the monks and their clergy.
