Center of Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage

The religious orders and other ecclesiastical institutions in Switzerland preserve a large part of our cultural heritage. Today’s major social and structural changes lead to questions regarding collection policy, conservation and the dissemination of the cultural heritage. The Centre for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage would like to share its expertise to all Swiss monasteries and ecclesiastical institutions.

We offer advice and support regarding …
– the conservation, the cataloguing and the protection of cultural assets.
– the reorganisation of collections.
– the development of exhibition concepts.
– the provision of qualified personnel and contacts with institutions that deal with cultural heritage.
– the engagement with the history of Swiss monasteries.

Current Projects

Enforcement of the decree on cultural heritage of the Catholic Administration of the Canton of St Gall and the Diocese of St Gall (protection of cultural assets and counseling): Information and Inventory of Catholic cultural heritage

Organisation of conferences (biennial) in collaboration with the Kloster Dalheim Fondation, Museum for monastic culture of the Westphalia-Lippe region (Germany) and the Benedictine abbey Melk (Austria).
Monastic Culture Symposium 2025 on «Zwischen Himmel und Erde – Musik im Kloster» (10 to 13 September 2025 in St Gall).

Further development of the online database Helvetia Sacra (incl. Handbook of Swiss monastic libraries), the Retrodigital platform of the Canton of St Gall (digitisation of municipal publications and documents) and the catalogue of art object collections of the Catholic Administration of the Canton of St Gall and the Diocese of St Gall. 

Organisation of training courses for librarians in monasteries:
– Information sheet 1: Bestandsaufbau & Bücherausscheidungen

Publication list

Contacts

Albert Holenstein
Director
+41 71 227 34 27
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Dr. Ulrike Ganz
Project collaborator
+41 71 227 34 45Turn on Javascript!