What to See in Vaduz, Capital of Liechtenstein
Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, is a dynamic small town nestled near the right bank of the Rhine and overseen by the peak of Mount Gaflei (1485 meters). It has just over 5,000 inhabitants, and its center essentially revolves around two streets: Stadtle and Aulerstrasse, where most of the monuments are concentrated, including the Rathaus, the town hall, which dominates the eponymous square.
Along Stadtle stand the 19th-century Parish Church with its neo-Gothic architecture, the Government Building constructed in the early 1900s, and the Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum, the National History Museum that tells the entire story of the principality from prehistoric times to today, featuring fabulous collections of ancient weapons, coins, ethnographic documents, goldsmith artifacts, sacred art, and various relics.
Not far away, housed in a building called Englenderbau, is the Prince’s Art Gallery, which rotates masterpieces from the National Art Collection and private collections of the Princes, with numerous works by masters from the 16th to the 18th centuries. In another wing, the same building also hosts the Postmuseum des Fürstentums Liechtenstein, where visitors are left amazed by the extensive collections of the Principality’s stamps, organized by themes and subjects.
After exploring these monuments and museums, focus shifts to the Prince’s Castle of Vaduz, an architectural feature that gives Vaduz a fairytale touch: perched on the rock overlooking the town, it displays the lines of a noble residence, the result of profound modifications it underwent between the 16th and 17th centuries, despite its original medieval structure dating back to the 13th century. The princes live there regularly, so it is not open to tourists.
