GALL, St, the capital of the above canton, is situated in an elevated valley on the Steinach, 7 miles S.W. of the lake of Constance. It is a well-built town, surrounded by old walls, but the ditch has been filled up and converted into gardens. Among its public buildings may be noticed the cathedral, formerly the abbey church; an orphan asylum outside the walls; the assembly-rooms; and the townhouse. It has also a Catholic and a Protestant gymnasium, several learned and benevolent societies, natural history collections, a public library, &c. The Catholic gymnasium occupies the abbey buildings, and the abbot's palace is now used for public offices. This is one of the principal manufacturing towns of Switzerland. Its manufactures are chiefly muslins and other cotton goods; and in the town and vicinity are numerous bleaching establishments. This town is said to have taken its rise from a cell founded here in the early part of the seventh century by St Gallus, a monk from Iona. Fifty years after his death was erected, under the auspices of Pepin l'Heristhal, an abbey, which between the eighth and tenth centuries was one of the most celebrated schools in Europe. About the end of the tenth century the abbey buildings were fortified, and subsequently the abbots obtained possession of considerable territory, and became princes of the empire. Early in the fifteenth century Appenzell threw off the yoke of the abbot, and the town of St Gall acquired its independence at the Reformation. The abbey was secularized after the French Revolution, and in 1805 its revenues were sequestered. Pop. (1850) 11,234, chiefly Protestant.