The «Grosses Haus», the palace that cost a year's budget

Of all the buildings on Peter-Kaiser-Platz, this is the one I’d take my time over. Not because it’s pretty, though it is in its way, but because of what it meant. In 1903 a country of farmers and winegrowers decided to spend roughly everything the state earned in a year on a home for its administration. The result is still in use and has become the official face of the country.

A palace for a state with nowhere to work

At the start of the 20th century the state’s offices were scattered across several buildings in Vaduz, and the Historical Lexicon describes a genuine shortage of space. Since 1865 the government had been housed in the old lordly tavern of the quarter, and the parliament had its own building on the Städtli. The answer was a new building between the Verweserhaus and St Florin’s church that would bring everything together.

The court architect Gustav Ritter von Neumann of Vienna designed it, and Emil Zollinger of Zurich managed the site. It rose between 1903 and 1905 on piled foundations and opened on 28 December 1905. The government’s website says the cost came to about a year of the state’s income at the time, and that the decision showed real political foresight, because it outclassed anything else being built in the country. Locals call it the «Grosses Haus», the big house.

What you see from the square

The style looks to late Renaissance palaces, with an orderly, formal façade. My favourite detail is on the second floor. Two female figures in mosaic represent Administration on the left and Justice on the right, and above the central windows the great state coat of arms sits on a blue background studded with stars. If you’d like to read that shield quarter by quarter, I explain it in the guide to Liechtenstein’s coat of arms.

For its day it was an advanced building. According to the Lexicon it had the country’s first central heating, an internal telephone system and modern bathrooms. There were works in 1969, 1985-1986 and 1991-1992, and after the last of these it was listed as a monument.

The chamber of the Viennese artists

The heart of the building was the parliamentary chamber. Prince Johann II commissioned its decoration from Viennese artists, the sculptor Josef Beyer and the painters Eduard Gerisch, Rudolf Sagmeister, Maria Schöffmann and Raimund von Stillfried. The Lexicon calls the result traditional in taste, Vienna around 1900 seen from its conservative side. Parliament sat there from 1905 until 2007, when it moved into the brick building next door, the Parliament of Liechtenstein.

Can you go inside?

The government, its staff units and the press and information office work inside. The official sources I’ve read mention no tours of the interior, so I’d treat it as a building to admire from outside. If you want to sit in a debating chamber, the Landtag does offer guided tours, requested by email and held outside its sitting weeks.

Who governs from here

The government is collegiate, with five members proposed by the Landtag and appointed by the Prince for four years, at least two from the Oberland and two from the Unterland. For the 2025-2029 term it’s a coalition of the Vaterländische Union and the Fortschrittliche Bürgerpartei, and Brigitte Haas has been Head of Government since 10 April 2025. How all that fits with the Prince and the referendums is explained in the guide on Liechtenstein’s political system.

Seeing it on your walk around Vaduz

It sits at the southern end of the centre, with St Florin’s Cathedral on one side and the parliament on the other, and the old Verweserhaus, now part of the National Museum of Liechtenstein, in the same row. I’d begin a visit to Vaduz here, while the square is still quiet, before heading up the Städtle.

The square deserves a last look before you go. It’s named after Peter Kaiser, born in Mauren in 1793, who published his «Geschichte des Fürstenthums Liechtenstein» in 1847 and is regarded as the father of the country’s historical writing. The government’s website describes the parliament, the National Archives and this building as a harmonious whole, and I agree, even though a century separates them. Buses stop at Vaduz, Post, in the same district.