University of Virginia Library

THE PLAN AND
ITS BUILDINGS: A PRELIMINARY ORIENTATION

THE PLAN OF ST. GALL is one of the principal
treasures of the library of the former monastery of St. Gall
in Switzerland (Stiftsbibliothek, Ms. 1092) where it has
been since the ninth century. A large sheet of vellum
(30½ × 44 inches; 77 × 112 cm.) sewn together from five
separate pieces, it exhibits on the smooth side the outlines,
drawn in red ink, of all the buildings required for the life
and work of an exemplary Carolingian monastery. The
drawings are annotated by a wealth of explanatory titles
written in brown ink which define the purpose of each
structure, the function of its individual rooms, and the
nature of its furnishings. The style of the script discloses
that the Plan was made in the scriptorium of the monastery
of Reichenau.

In addition to its descriptive legends the Plan is provided
with a dedicatory note or letter of transmittal explaining the
circumstances that led to the creation of the Plan. From this
letter we can infer that the Plan was drawn up at the request
of Abbot Gozbert, who presided over the monastery of
St. Gall from 816 to 836. We are well informed by other
historical sources that Gozbert rebuilt the church of the
monastery of St. Gall during the last six years of his abbacy
(830-836) and appears to have intended to reconstruct the
monastery in its entirety. The Plan obviously was made to
serve as guide in this project.

The author of the Plan, to judge by the tenor of his letter
of transmittal, was a churchman of higher rank than Abbot
Gozbert. His name is not revealed in the letter, but the
fact that the Plan was drawn in the monastery of Reichenau
suggests that it was Haito, bishop of Basel, from 803-823,
and for most of that period (806-823) simultaneously
abbot of the monastery of Reichenau.

The wording of the dedicatory note, plus a variety of
technical details, make it clear that the Plan was not an
original but a copy made by tracing. Nothing is known
about the conditions that gave rise to the prototype plan:
however, the paradigmatic nature of the scheme suggests
that it was a product of the monastic reform that flourished
under the reign of Louis the Pious, and reached its climax
in two synods held in his palace at Aachen in 816 and 817
by the leading bishops and abbots of the empire. The
primary purpose of this reform was to establish universally
binding rules for the spiritual and temporal conduct of
monastic life. The scheme shown on the Plan aimed in the
same manner at the establishment of a guiding rule that
could be followed in the architectural layout of a monastic
settlement.

The Plan of St. Gall reveals that at the time of Louis
the Pious the layout of the buildings required for such a
settlement had already reached its classical medieval form—
a form that it retained with only minor variation to the very
close of the Middle Ages. Not every monastery subsequently
built comprised all the buildings shown on the
Plan, but the Plan contained every building that one could
expect in a prototypic medieval monastery.

The nucleus of this aggregate of dwellings and workshops
is the great monastery Church whose imposing bulk rises
dramatically above that of any other building in the settlement.

It is an aisled basilica with transept, eastern and
western apses, and two detached circular towers. In front
of the Church there is a semicircular atrium with a covered
gallery and porches for the screening of visitors (No. 1, f,
g, h) and behind it, at the eastern end, there is another
open atrium for the use of the novices and the sick. A
double-storied lean-to (No. 1, a) built against the Church
in the corner between the northern transept arm and the
fore choir contains the monks' Scriptorium on the ground
level and the Library above. In the corresponding space on
the southern side of the Church there is a similar annex
(No. 1, b) with the Sacristy on the ground floor, and, above
it, the room for the liturgical vestments. From the Sacristy
a crank-shaped passage leads to an annex for the preparation
of the holy oil and holy bread (No. 2).

Attached to the southern flank of the Church are the
buildings of the monks (Nos. 3-9). These are ranged along
the perimeter of a large cloister yard and are connected
with each other by arcaded galleries. Together they form a
complete enclosure separating the living quarters of the
monks from the areas in which the serfs and the guests are
housed. The east side of the cloister yard is taken up by a
double-storied building (No. 3) that contains on the
ground floor the Monks' Warming Room, and above it,
their Dormitory. A passage on the south end of the
Dormitory leads to the Monks' Privy (No. 4). On ground
level a second passage connects the Warming Room with
the Monks' Laundry and Bathhouse (No. 5). The southern
side of the Cloister is occupied by another double-storied
building (No. 6) that contains on the ground floor the
Monks' Refectory, and above it, their Vestiary. From the
west end of the Refectory a crank-shaped passage leads into
the Monks' Kitchen (No. 8). The south end of the Kitchen
is, in turn, connected by a long passage with the Monks'
Bake and Brew House (No. 9), which lies outside the
claustral compound. On the west side of the Cloister yard
there is a third two-storied building (No. 7), with the
Monks' Cellar on the ground floor and the monastery's
Larder above. Between this building and the Church is the
Monks' Parlor (No. 1, j). It is here that the brothers are
permitted to meet with visiting relatives and friends, and
where the ritual of the washing of the feet is held.

Likewise reserved for monastic use exclusively are the
houses for the novices and the sick. They form two separate
conventual settlements (No. 17), each complete in itself,
one attached to the south, the other to the north side of a
double chapel that lies in the eastern prolongation of the
principal church. Each has a cloister surrounded by a full
complement of living facilities, the layout of which repeats
on a smaller scale the layout of the claustrum of the regular
monks. Two small detached buildings (Nos. 18 and 19)
contain their baths and kitchens.

The House of the Physicians (No. 16) stands north of the
Infirmary. It contains, in addition to the doctor's own
quarters, a ward for those who suffer from acute illness and
a small pharmaceutical storeroom. East of the physician's
house there is a small medicinal herb garden (No. Z) and
west of it the House for Bloodletting and Purging (No. 15).

On the other side of the group of buildings that contain
the Novitiate and the Infirmary there is the Monks'
Cemetery (No. Y), which also serves as an orchard.

To the north of the Church, in a tract of land that is
clearly outside the claustral precinct and forms a transitional
zone between the monastic and the secular world,
there are the Abbot's House (No. 13) and the Outer School
(No. 12). The Abbot's House consists of a principal building,
which is his residence (No. 13), and an annex (No. 14)
with the Abbot's kitchen, cellar, and bath. The Outer
School (No. 12) is the place where secular youths and the
future clerics are housed and trained.

To either side of the western end of the Church, in
suitable proximity to the road that gives access to the
settlement, are the monastery's two principal facilities for
the reception of visitors, viz., to the north the elaborately
furnished House for Distinguished Guests (No. 11),
primarily used for the accommodation of the Emperor and
his court, and to the south the more modest Hospice for
Pilgrims and Paupers (No. 31). Each of these establishments
is provided with its own annex, supplying space for
cooking, baking and brewing (Nos. 10 and 32). The vassals
and knights who travel in the Emperor's following find
accommodations in a building of unusually large dimensions,
located in a large plot of land in the northwestern
corner of the monastery site (No. 34). This building
unfortunately was erased, together with its explanatory
titles, in the twelfth century by a monk who superimposed
upon this area of the Plan the last three paragraphs of the
Life of St. Martin, the bulk of which he had written on the
back of the Plan. Next to this building, on the southern
side of the entrance road is a house for Visiting Servants
from the monastery's outlying estates and for the Servants
Travelling with the Emperor's Court (No. 38). A third
facility for visitors, the Lodging for Visiting Monks, is
installed in a lean-to built against the northern aisle of the
Church, contiguous with the transept (No. 1, c). A
continuation of that lean-to toward the west contains the
Lodging of the Master of the Outer School (No. 1, d) and
the Porter's Lodging (No. 1, e). A similar lean-to built
against the southern aisle of the Church, west of the
Monks' Parlor (No. 1, j), contains the Lodging of

the Master of the Hospice for Pilgrims and Paupers
(No. 1, i).

The remaining tracts of land to the east, south, and west
of the Church and Claustrum are occupied by the houses
for the serfs and servants who are in charge of the monastery's
economic, industrial, and agricultural operations.
South of the Cemetery in the eastern sector of the
monastery is the House of the Gardener (No. 20) and the
Monks' Vegetable Garden (No. X). Still farther south, in
the southernmost portion of this tract, is the House
of the Fowlkeepers (No. 22) and two circular enclosures,
one for chickens (No. 23) and the other for geese (No. 21).
Next to them, moving from east to west, in the large
rectangular tract that lies to the south of the claustral block,
there follow in sequence first, the large monastic Granary
(No. 24) with its cross-shaped threshing floor; next, a
building of even larger dimensions, the Great Collective
Workshop with living quarters for the shoemakers,
saddlers, cutlers, shieldmakers, turners, and curriers (No.
25) and an annex, in which the goldsmiths, blacksmiths,
and fullers are installed (No. 26). Still farther west there
is the Monks' Bake and Brew House (No. 9) and to the
south of this, three smaller square buildings house the
Mill (No. 27), the Mortar (No. 28), and the Drying Kiln
(No. 29). Between the latter and the Hospice for Pilgrims
and Paupers is a large rectangular building containing
workshops and living quarters for the coopers and wheelwrights,
as well as a small granary for the storing and
threshing of the grain used by the brewers (No. 30).
West of this there is an even larger rectangular structure
for the horses and oxen and their keepers (No. 33). What
is left of the large rectangular tract to the west of the
Church is entirely reserved for the care of the monastery's
livestock. It includes a House for Sheep and Shepherds
(No. 35), a House for Goats and Goatherds (No. 36), a
House for Cows and Cowherds (No. 37), a House for
Swine and Swineherds (No. 39), and a House for Brood
Mares and Foals and Their Keepers (No. 40). All of these
houses are carefully fenced off from each other and from
the adjoining sectors of the monastery.

One of the great limitations of the Plan of St. Gall is that
with only a few exceptions it confines itself to rendering the
buildings in linear ground projection. It tells nothing about
the elevation of the buildings and their method of construction.
To settle the problem of their three-dimensional
appearance in visual and constructional terms is one of the
primary goals of this study.

W.H.

[ILLUSTRATION]

STAINED GLASS, MONASTERY OF LORSCH

ix century

Darmstadt Landesmuseum

H. 31cm, w. 28cm

[ILLUSTRATION]

Plan of St. Gall with buildings identified by numbers and keyed to
trilingual index. Building numbers of the Plan correspond to building
numbers referred to in the preceding text and throughout this work.
Illustration of the Plan shown in red is 0.25 times the original. See also,
caption for Plan that accompanies "Catalogue of Explanatory
Titles," Volume III, Appendix I, page 13.

The dotted black outline represents the boundary of the parchment
on which the Plan is drawn. The original parchment has a
dimension of 44 inches between positions marked by asterisks.