The Convent of St Gall was founded in the 8th century by Otmar the Alemann, on the place where the Irish monk Gallus established an hermitage in 612. The convent was a Benedictine monastery until its dissolution in 1805, and its library is one of the oldest in the world. From 1755 to 1768 the monastery church (cathedral) and library were rebuilt in Baroque style.