Haus zum Sternen

History: The builder of the Sternen-Erker, Daniel Kunkler (1658-1727), had five brothers and eight sisters.Around 1700, the brothers not only lived nearby, but also in imposing houses with bay windows: Andreas lived in the “Blauer Himmel”, Laurenz in the “Kugel”, Johannes in the “Regenbogen” and Hans Jacob in the “Handelshaus”.The Kunklers, who came from Tablat, were originally craftsmen and traditionally members of the tailors' guild, which was large and influential in St.Gallen. However, their upscale lifestyle suggests that they probably owed their prosperity more to the canvas trade than to craftsmanship. Nevertheless, they never became members of the “Gesellschaft zum Notenstein”, which represented the merchants. The subsequent owners of the house are not all known; at times it belonged to the Zollikofer and Reutlinger families.In 1805, a man from Ticino named Baretta opened the first St.Gallen coffee house in the Haus zum Sternen with “several German, French and Italian newspapers”. The building later housed Johann Konrad Rehsteiner's Sternenapotheke, which has been located at the Spisertor since 1913. Architecture: The Haus zum Sternen dates back to 1564, but some of its components are older: for example, a roof truss from 1420 was reused during construction - presumably that of the previous house, which is already mentioned in the 1468/70 house register. The bay window is significantly younger than the house: it was built in 1699, at a time when many new bay windows were being built in St.Gallen because the canvas trade was flourishing.The parapet panel with the six-pointed star is even more recent; it is dated 1765. Current use: Spisergasse 19 is part of the Spisermarkt, a shopping arcade opened in 1984, in which several properties between Spisergasse and Löwengasse are combined and also structurally integrated. The owner of the complex is SUVA.Clothing stores have been located in the Haus zum Sternen for several years.