University of Virginia Library

H. FIECHTER-ZOLLIKOFER, 1936

Mr. Fiechter-Zollikofer, a Swiss engineer, wrote an article
entitled "Etwas vom St. Galler Klosterplan aus der Zeit
um 820," which was published in the Schweizerische Technische
Zeitschrift,[40] a journal not normally read by the
architectural historian of the Middle Ages. In this article
Fiechter-Zollikofer reproduced not only an over-all reconstruction
of the entire monastery shown on the Plan of St.
Gall, in bird's-eye view (fig. 277), but also a separate reconstruction
of the exterior of the Outer School (fig. 278), the

[ILLUSTRATION]

PLAN OF ST. GALL. OUTER SCHOOL. INTERPRETATION OF OELMANN (1923-4). AUTHORS' DRAWING

274.C WITH ROOFS

Like Rahn (see figs. 266-267) Oelmann interprets the St. Gall
house as a structure of basilican elevation with a large central hall
rising above the roofs of the perpheral rooms and receiving its light
through windows in the clerestory walls.

274.B WITHOUT ROOFS AND WALLS PARTLY REMOVED

In contrast to Rahn (figs. 266-267) Oelmann interprets the squares,
which on the Plan are alternatingly referred to as TESTU (i.e.
lantern) and LOCUS FOCI (i.e. hearth) as freestanding chimneys
rising all the way up to and through the ridge of the house. This
interpretation of TESTU is philologically not convincing.

274.A WITHOUT ROOFS, AND FULL HEIGHT WALLS

The real weakness of Oelmann's interpretation lies in its bases on
purely theoretical considerations, giving no heed to the vernacular
building tradition of the north (not well understood and known in
Oelmann's days) which offers better and more convincing parallels
for the interpretation of the guest and service buildings of the Plan
(see below, pp. 88ff).

Until challenged by student who felt that the guest and service buildings of the Plan should be interpreted in light of the vernacular building
tradition of the north, this interpretation prevailed. But its proponents could not prove that houses of this type existed in Carolingian times.

exterior of the Abbot's House (fig. 254), as well as a number
of perspectives and cuts of the church and the claustral
structures.

Fiechter-Zollikofer was convinced that the traditional
concept of the St. Gall house as a dwelling that received
its light in the Italian manner through windows in its
clerestory walls was incompatible with the climatical conditions
prevailing in transalpine Europe, and that a solution
infinitely better adapted to the rain and snowswept foothills
of the Alps could be found if the St. Gall house were
reconstructed in the light of certain rural timber dwellings
still used in many districts of Switzerland.

Accordingly, he reconstructs the St. Gall house as a
low-roofed, low-walled gable house of logs with corner-timbered
protruding beams (fig. 278). The center room
of this house receives its light through a large tapering
shaft mounted upon the ridge of the roof which could be
opened and closed through an adjustable lid (fig. 279); the
outer rooms were lighted through windows in the peripheral
log walls. Fiechter-Zollikofer's reconstruction is the first
attempt to interpret the guest and service structures of
the Plan of St. Gall in the light of an actually existing
vernacular house type. It is a handsome reconstruction,
but the prototype after which it is modeled, the Alpine
log house, is too closely associated with local conditions to
have been adopted in a master plan that was drawn up for
the whole of the Frankish empire. Log construction depends
on abundant stands of fir trees, such as are available in the
Alps, the Black Forest, and the mountain ranges of Scandinavia;
but in the lowlands this material was lacking.

Moreover, Fiechter-Zollikofer did not enter into any
detailed analysis of the internal layout of these houses. He
did not support his reconstructions with any specific parallels
with comparable structures still in existence, or attempt
to trace this house type to its historical past.