Wildpark Peter und Paul, Wildlife park on Rosenberg hill, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Wildpark Peter und Paul is a wildlife park on Rosenberg hill in St. Gallen, with enclosures up to several hectares for ibexes, chamois, lynx, deer, wild boars, marmots and wildcats. Four artificial rock formations built between 1902 and 1917 by sculptor Urs Eggenschwiler for ibex keeping remain in use after renovations. A visitor centre and a restaurant with terrace are part of the park.
The St. Gallen section of the Swiss hunters' and wildlife protection association acquired the site on the initiative of forester Martin Wild after the old deer enclosure at Jägerstrasse closed in 1890. The park opened on 1 May 1892 with 12 red deer, eight fallow deer, four roe deer, five chamois, eight marmots and two hares, and a managing society was formed two years later. In 1906 three young ibex were smuggled out of King Victor Emmanuel III's Gran Paradiso hunting reserve by poacher Joseph Beyrard of Aymavilles; the first releases followed in 1911 in the Weisstannental.
The park is owned by the Ortsbürgergemeinde St. Gallen, and its name Peter und Paul is not explained in the sources. The four artificial rock formations built between 1902 and 1917 by Zurich sculptor Urs Eggenschwiler for ibex keeping remain in use after several renovations.
The park is open around the clock and all year, with free entry. A visitor centre and a restaurant with a terrace stand on the grounds. The enclosures lie on the Rosenberg hill in the Rotmonten quarter northeast of St. Gallen.
The park's ibex breeding began after King Victor Emmanuel III refused to give young animals from his Gran Paradiso hunting reserve. In 1906 the poacher Joseph Beyrard of Aymavilles smuggled three young ibex into the park; releases began in 1911 in the Weisstannental.
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