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II.1.3

TOWERS

Two doors in the outer atrium wall, placed midway
between the outer porch and the two inner porches give
access to two detached circular towers. Their diameter is
30 feet and their closest point lies at a distance of 7½ feet
from the outer atrium wall. Both towers are ascended by
winding stairs, suggested graphically by spirals and verbally
by an inscription in the northern tower (from the hand
of the main scribe) which reads: "Ascent by a spiral
staircase to survey the entire orbit [of the monastery] from
above" (ascensus per c·/·ocleam ad uniuersa super inspicienda).
A title in the southern tower (written by the same hand)
simply states: "another one of the same kind" (alter
similis). The northern tower has in its summit an altar
dedicated to the archangel Michael (in summitate altare sci
Michahelis archangeli), the southern tower, an altar dedicated
to archangel Gabriel (in fastigio altare sci Gabrihelis
archangeli). These last two titles are written by the hand
of the second scribe in such a pale shade of ink that they
are barely legible.[6]

CONNECTION WITH IRELAND?

The purpose of the two detached towers of the Plan of
St. Gall has been the subject of a considerable amount of
controversy. J. R. Rahn suggested a connection with the
round towers of Ireland (fig. 85).[7] But it appears that no
circular towers are known to have existed in Ireland early
enough to have been copied on the Plan of St. Gall.[8] Moreover,
there is nothing else in the architectural layout of the
Plan that would suggest any special ties with Ireland; and
the general trend of the monastic reform movement, to
which the Plan owes its existence, was away from the Irish
tradition rather than toward it.

CALL TOWERS OR FUNERARY LIGHT TOWERS?

Even more tenuous than the suggestion of an Irish
origin for the towers appears to me a theory recently
advanced by Hans Reinhardt,[9] who sketches a developmental
line leading to the towers of St. Gall from the
triumphal columns of Rome through the intermediary
forms of the Mohammedan minaret (fig. 86) and certain
funerary light towers (fig. 87), especially well-attested in
twelfth-century western France. Leaving entirely to one
side the question of the very doubtful connection of all these
disparate architectural entities, it must be stressed that
there is nothing in the Plan itself that would suggest that
the two towers of the Church were used either as call
towers, from which the monks sang their daily vigils and
announced the hours of prayer (in the sense in which this
was done in the Mohammedan ritual), or as light towers on
the top of which a lantern was lit at night in commemoration
of the dead. The author of the Plan is very specific.
The purpose of the towers, he tells us, is "to survey the
entire orbit [of the monastery] from above" (ad uniuersa
super inspicienda); this defines them as places of surveillance
—surveillance in the sense of "watch over approaching
danger." The use of the term uniuersa suggests that the
protective function of the towers was meant to extend
beyond the physical plant of the monastery; and the
patronage of the archangels Michael and Gabriel tends to
strengthen this view. Michael, through his defeat of
Lucifer, became the embodiment of the forces of light
prevailing over the powers of darkness; Gabriel was the
announcer of the human incarnation of the Saviour. Both
angels, through these accomplishments, became in a special
sense the protectors and guardians of the Church. All over
the Western world, St. Michael was venerated in sanctuaries
built on high-lying ground, on mountains, in the
upper stories of the western avant-corps of churches, or in
the steeples of towers. From there he pits himself against
the forces of darkness that rush against the House of the
Lord from the west.[10] On coins and in medieval manuscript
illuminations Rome and Jerusalem, the two terrestrial
counterimages of the City of God, were represented by a
gate flanked by two defending towers.[11] In like manner, on
the Plan of St. Gall, the Church is defended by its two
protective towers against the evil that rushes against it.

BELL TOWERS OR TOWERS OF DEFENSE
AND SURVEILLANCE?

It cannot be stressed with sufficient strength that the
explanatory titles associated with these towers fail to make
any reference to campana, signa, or tintinnabula; and for
that reason they cannot be interpreted as bell towers. On
purely historical grounds this would be a perfectly feasible
assumption. Bells set in motion with ropes, to mark the
various phases of the divine services or other festive events,
are mentioned at various places in the History of the
Franks of Gregory of Tours (d. 593/94). In the course of
the seventh and eighth centuries the evidence in contemporary
sources attesting their existence increases so
markedly that it can safely be assumed that they existed elsewhere.[12]

[ILLUSTRATION]

82. PLAN OF ST. GALL. PLAN OF CHURCH

Shaded areas distinguish parts of the Church accessible to monks,
and to laymen. Approaching by the access road (A) cutting through
the large service yard west of the Church, visiting pilgrims are
received by the Porter in a square porch (B) lying before the
semicircular atrium, and from there are directed through two more
porches (C, D), the poor to the Hospice for Pilgrims and Paupers,
the rich to the House for Distinguished Guests. Two passageways no
more than 7½ feet wide channel entering laymen through the aisles of
the Church, across the transept, to a U-shaped corridor crypt at
the end of which they may kneel before the tomb of St. Gall (E).
Two reserved areas in the nave allow them to hear sermons delivered
from the ambo (F), attend services celebrated at the altar of the
Savior at the Holy Cross (G), and participate in baptismal rites
conducted at the altar of SS John the Evangelist and John the
Baptist (H).

*

The pale red tint                 defines the area of the church proper. This, in
its totality was the province of the monk. Part of it he willingly shared with laymen
so that they also might be touched by mystery and deepened in faith. Those areas of the
church where layman and pilgrim were welcome and to which their movements were
restricted for enjoyment, contemplation, and prayer are indicated in a meandering
vignetted black stipple:

The pattern of circulation began at the Entry Porch, flowed along the aisles of
the church, passed by shrines and nave columns all with carved capitals supporting
arcades and walls above the arcades aglow with the color of painting. Then reaching
the crossing square, the circulation descended by stairs beneath apse and high altar
(dedicated to St. Mary and St. Gall) to the crypt passage where at point of climax,
illuminated by candle light, immersed in vibrant shadow, could be seen the tomb of St.
Gall.

This was moving theater and impressive, even to the sophisticated viewer. In such
a setting the Order of St. Benedict would gather momentum for centuries.

SCALE OF PLAN: 3/10 ORIGINAL SIZE (1:192 × 0.3 = 1:640)

[ILLUSTRATION]

83. PLAN OF ST. GALL

ACCESS ROAD TO CHURCH & MONASTERY GROUNDS

Yet the fact remains that the explanatory titles of
the towers of the Plan of St. Gall do not contain any suggestion
that they were meant to house bells; and there is
some doubt in my mind that any bells suspended in these
towers could have successfully fulfilled their function. The
use of these instruments implies an element of timing
which requires that the brother charged with the task of
ringing them be within sight or hearing of the officiating
priest.[13] Bell ringers stationed in the isolated towers of the
Church of the Plan of St. Gall could have neither seen nor
heard the priest.[14]

THE EIGHT-LOBED ROSETTE:
A STELLAR AND APOTROPAIC SYMBOL

One of the smaller unexplained motifs of the Plan of St.
Gall is the eight-lobed rosette that decorates the area in the
center of the two church towers which corresponds to the
open shaft of its stairs. The same motif appears on the two
poultry houses in connection with a circular "tower-like"
projection.[15] It has been interpreted in various ways, as
"being of no significance,"[16] as "indicating the conical
roof of the building, or its ornamental finial,"[17] and as
representing "the decorative design in the shingles which
cover the roof of the building."[18] None of these explanations
seems convincing. The motif, rather, belongs to an
old and widespread family of stellar symbols, the origins
of which reach back into antiquity. Eight- or six-lobed
rosettes, as symbols of the stellar nature of God, are a
common occurrence in Sumerian, Babylonian, Jewish, and
Roman art (fig. 88). The motif was quickly absorbed into
the Christian cult, as a reference to the celestial nature of
the new god, and subsequently became so closely associated
with the cross of Christ as to be practically interchangeable
with it (figs. 89 and 90).[19] The symbol placed its bearers
under the stellar protection of Christ, and through a
vernacular vulgarization of its original meaning eventually
assumed the role of a charm against lightning and fire, or
against disease affecting the health of livestock. The
symbol appears frequently in monastic medieval tithe
barns (fig. 91),[20] and survives to this very day in the
repertoire of decorative motifs, which are locally referred
to as "hex-signs," on numerous barns in the state of
Pennsylvania, in the United States of America (fig. 92).[21]