We now head for St Gallen
Some sights and facts
| Km 2 | Flawil – We briefly enter Flawil, first documented in 819, but shortly after we turn off to the right and after about 5.5 km via Landberg reach Burgau. In the heart of Burgau are beautiful historic wooden houses. The little detour through the village is definitely worth it.
We then walk along the „Columbanweg“ (see post sign) to the railway bridge, down the stairs behind the bridge pillar to the Columbans Cave, on the footbridge over the Glatt river, along the river to the dam wall, and up the steep section to the Helfenberg castle ruins. (If we want to avoid going down and up: we cross the bridge right next to the railway line, continue on the Columbanweg, the Burgauerfeldweg, and finally the Helfenbergweg, to join “our” path again at the edge of the forest.) Past the Helfenberg castle ruins, we follow the edge of the forest with a view of Gossau to the crossroads with the beautiful little wayside shrine (somewhat in the bushes). 
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| Km 13 | Gossau. Around 400 BC Celts probably dwelled in this area, and in the 5-7th Century the Alemanni. The place was first mentioned in a document in 824, in which a certain Freddo bestowed his inherited estate in Gossau to the Monastery of St Gallen in return for its permanent maintenance.
The town of Gossau is an important location for businesses in the east of Switzerland. Companies here offer employment to around 10,500 employees, especially in the food industry. (Migros and Coop supermarkets). Castle Oberberg is the oldest maintained residential building in Gossau. In the Middle Ages, the Castle served as a fortified tower on a hill overlooking the town, with a view to the Alps and the Säntis Mountain, the highest mountain in the east of Switzerland (2,502 meters above sea level). |
| Km 23 | 
St. Gallen, today’s destination. The name originates from Gallus (Gall), Columbanus’s companion. The town lies on the small River Steinach, which flows into the Lake of Constance in Arbon. The history of the town begins in 612 with the hermit Gall. A good century after his death, Otmar founded the later-to-become-famous monastery whose heyday lasted for around 300 years thereafter. The town later entered a new economically profitable era with the textile industry. From the 15th Century the town was a flourishing centre for the linen industry. In the 18th Century, the first lace crisis hit the town. However, with the mechanisation of the textile industry, St Gallen took on a leading role again culminating in the second economic upswing in the textile industry. St Gallen is still today renowned for its high-quality lace. This can be viewed in the Textile Museum which is dedicated to the textile industry in the east of Switzerland. Naturally, the town is famous for its Baroque Cathedral and the splendid Abbey Library, which has been added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Sites. The Abbey Library was originally part of the former Benedictine Abbey. Founded in 719, it soon became one of the greatest historical libraries in the world. It is the only great medieval abbey library whose qualitatively excellent inventory has survived relatively intact together from the 8th Century. It possesses 2100 handwritten documents, 1650 inkunabula (up to 1500 printed publications), early prints dating from between 1501 and 1520, and around 160’000 books. |
