«Zum Granatapfel» 1676 – This is my Saint Gallen

»» Marktgasse 15

The colorful wooden Oriel «Zum Granatapfel» (Pomegranate) is about life and transience. It’s decorated with bizarre grimaces, a lot of fruits, bearded women and broken pomegranates.

The pomegranate is a symbol in many cultures, it should have 613 nuclei, just as much as the old testament. In China, the pomegranate is a sign of fertility and children’s wealth. The bearded women or men with female breasts stand for the phenomenon of double-sex. According to Greek mythology: Hermaphroditus, the two-sexed child of Aphrodite and Hermes (Venus and Mercury) had long been a symbol of androgyny or effeminacy, and was portrayed in Greco-Roman art as a female figure with male genitals. (Zanner-Motiv)