Sanctuary? The whole town is a sanctuary. We have monks that used to walk around in their brown full length robes, and now and again you see a few nuns. I have never seen behind the walls, only outside.
This building is the Kloster Namens Jesu, but I do not really know who lives inside as I have never seen anyone enter or leaving. We live in a Roman Catholic Kanton of Switzerland but you get sanctuary no matter what you are.
There is a story from the war days telling when an American plane was shot down and managed to fly on and crash land in a field in one of our neighbouring areas. The pilot was confused where he actually was and the first person he saw was the local postman who was naturally dressed in the Swiss post uniform. The pilot put up his hands and surrendered thinking that he had landed in Germany and was about to be taken prisoner of war by a German soldier. The postman was most confused and probably managed to explain in his somewhat broken english that the pilot had safely landed in Switzerland. He was afterwards probably interned with the other American and allied soldiers in various camps existing in Switzerland until the end of the war. He had found his sanctuary.
And my sanctuary – home of course, where else?
This lady also seems to have found her sanctuary. I pass her every time I take a wheelie into town in my chair. She is always looking in the same direction and the gates are always closed – although once they were open and so I could a photo without the bars, but I did not trust myself to drive in and take a photo from the other side. She should remain a mystery, there must be a reason for it I suppose.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
Great story!
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I asked Mr. Swiss again about the postman story. It happened in the next village and he added that the American airman actually drew his pistol on the postman. Mr. Swiss said his mother knew more about what really happened, but the story made the rounds in the area.
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Wow. :O
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Had no idea they had camps for soldiers in Switzerland..
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Switzerland was neutral during the war but now and again allied soldiers arrived, many in the border towns after being shot down by the Germans or perhaps escaped from Germany. They could not be repatriated to their own countries as there was a war going on, so the Swiss kept them here. There were not prisoners. Mr. Swiss mother remembers the American soldiers giving the kids chewing gum.
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Why could they not be repatriated???
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I am not the expert, but Switzerland was a neutral island in the middle of wartime Europee and the soldiers had to sray in Switzerland until the warvwas iver
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So if they had let them return home it would have been a breach of their neutrlity?
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Perhaps and for those involved it would have been a dangerous undertaking at the time
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We had several monasteries in Israel that we no entry to everyone, 100%. I’m sure someone had to come in and out — at least for food — but I never saw anyone.
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Our monks are quite independent but they have their own vegetable garden. I never see them, but I think they now dress normally
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