What to see in Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein
Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, is a dynamic small town, nestled near the right bank of the Rhine and watched over by the peak of Mount Gaflei (1485 meters). It has just over 5,000 inhabitants and its center mainly revolves around two streets: Stadtle and Aulerstrasse, where most of the monuments are concentrated, including the Rathaus, the town hall, which dominates the square of the same name.
On Stadtle there are the 19th-century Parish Church with neo-Gothic architecture, the Government Palace built at the beginning of the 1900s, and the Liechtensteinisches Landsmuseum, the National History Museum which, from prehistory to today, tells the whole 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 Principality Art Gallery, which regularly exhibits masterpieces belonging to the National Art Collection and private collections of the Princes, 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 amazed at the extraordinarily rich collection of the Principality’s stamps, sorted by themes and subjects.
Having seen these monuments and museums, there is nothing left but to focus on the Castles of the Princes of Vaduz, an architectural element that gives Vaduz a fairy-tale touch: perched on the cliff overlooking the town, it displays lines of a noble residence, the result of profound modifications it underwent between the 16th and 17th centuries, despite its original medieval design dating back to the 13th century. The princes live there regularly, so it is not open to tourists.
