Campus Galli

The Plan of Saint Gall, drawn around 820 and kept at the abbey library in Switzerland, is the only surviving architectural drawing from the Carolingian period and was never built. Since 2013 a project near Messkirch has been constructing it for real, using only techniques and tools available in the ninth century: timber felled with axes, stone cut by hand, ropes twisted on site, nails forged in the workshop, no power tools and no modern materials. Progress is deliberately slow and the full build is expected to take decades. Visitors watch craftspeople working and can see partly finished buildings at different stages.

The main sights

• The period methods - construction using only ninth-century tools and materials.
• The Carolingian plan - a drawing from about 820 being built for the first time.
• The workshops - smiths, turners, potters and rope makers working on site.
• The slow progress - buildings at different stages across the site.

When to go

April to October; the site closes for winter. Work happens on weekdays and weekends in season, and what is being built changes from year to year.

Good to know

Progress is genuinely slow, so there is not much finished building to see. The site closes for several winter months. It is muddy in wet weather.

Nearby

Sigmaringen lies east; Lake Constance is south.

Key facts