What to see in Vaduz, capital of Liechtenstein
Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, is a dynamic town, nestled near the right bank of the Rhine and watched over by the summit 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 its homonymous square.
On Stadtle face the 19th-century Parish Church with neo-Gothic architecture, the Government Palace built in the early 1900s, and the Liechtensteinisches Landsmuseum, the National Historical Museum which, from prehistory to today, tells the story of the principality, with its fabulous collections of ancient weapons, coins, ethnographic documents, goldsmith artifacts, sacred art, and various finds.
Not far away, housed in a building called Englenderbau, is the Art Gallery of the Principality, which exhibits masterpieces belonging to the National Art Collection and those from the private collections of the Princes on rotation, with numerous works by masters from the 16th to the 18th century. In another wing, the same building also houses the Postmuseum des Furstentums Liechtenstein, where visitors are left amazed by the very rich collections of the Principality’s stamps, organized by themes and subjects.
After these monuments and museums, there is only the need to focus on the Vaduz Castle of the Princes, an architectural element that gives Vaduz a fairytale touch: perched on the rock overlooking the town, it displays lines of a noble residence, the result of profound modifications made between the 16th and 17th centuries, despite the original medieval structure dating back to the 13th century. The princes usually live there, so it is not open to tourists.
