The best museums St Gall

Not far from the Ostfriedhof cemetery is the St. Gallen Botanical Garden, a beautiful and well-maintained place. To make the most of its treasures, a visit in spring is recommended. Around 8,000 plants from all over the world are presented to the public here. Divided into several sections, the garden is a place to relax, to meet, but also to learn. Indeed, many exhibitions and guided tours are organized to familiarize visitors.

This is a most unusual museum! The Museum of Beer Bottles in St. Gallen is the first of its kind in Switzerland. Here you will find Christian Bischof's impressive collection of over 3,000 bottles from 260 different breweries. The oldest samples, clay bottles, are over 140 years old. A visit is worthwhile for Swiss beer lovers and the curious.

The im Lagerhaus museum and its foundation have changed their name to Open Art Museum. They were founded in 1988 by a couple of collectors, with the aim of introducing visitors to many local artists from the Swiss naïve and outsider art scene. The exhibitions present different aspects of this " Outsider " art: art that fascinates through its plurality, its extraordinary content and its almost limitless creative richness. The exhibitions will appeal to lovers of contemporary art. There's a cosy little café on the first floor.

Founded in 1886 by the Commercial Corporation, a kind of chamber of commerce, this museum is dedicated to the textile tradition of the city and Eastern Switzerland. The museum manages a collection of 56,000 objects. Donations from wealthy manufacturers enable the museum to exhibit some very fine collections of lace and embroidery. The museum organizes two to three thematic exhibitions a year, complementing the permanent exhibition. It also offers an extensive program of events, educational activities and a gift store.

Founded in 1921 with the collections of the Historical Society of the Canton of St. Gallen, it is the most important museum of the history of civilization in Eastern Switzerland. It consists of a History Museum and an Ethnological Museum. The former houses documents relating to the history of the town and the canton, as well as refurbished period rooms (notably the Prince-Abbot's Room). The second houses the collection brought back from all over by the city's merchants.

This art museum was built in 1877, at the end of the classicist period, to house a collection of art objects assembled by the Art Society founded in 1827. It mainly brings together works from the 19th and 20th centuries. The paintings of the Munich Academy, which had a strong influence on Swiss painters, are widely exhibited. Through successive additions to the collection, the museum has been enriched with works from the German and French schools, and later with works inspired by Alpine life.