Gutenberg Castle, the Liechtenstein castle you can actually visit

You can’t visit Vaduz Castle because the Prince lives there. You can visit Gutenberg, and to me it’s the castle that best matches the Liechtenstein of your imagination, white, turreted and perched on a rock covered in vines. The catch is that it doesn’t open every day and hardly anyone explains it properly. Here’s how I’d plan it.

When is Gutenberg Castle open?

This is the crucial bit. The association that runs it, the Trägerverein Burg Gutenberg, says the castle doesn’t open daily. From 1 May to 31 October it’s used for events and pre-booked visits, and from 1 November to 30 April it’s closed. Booking it for an event is the nearest thing to renting Liechtenstein that I’ve been able to document. During the season, on Sundays, the chapel and rose garden open without a ticket from 10:00 to 17:00.

What you can always see is the Vorburg, the outer bailey. It’s free twelve months a year and stays open even if there’s a wedding or private event in the courtyard. For me that alone justifies the climb, since the tourist board talks of a great view over the country, and you get it even in January.

The guided tour, the only way inside

The interior is only shown with a guide. The association runs a general tour of about 75 minutes through the rooms and grounds, for one to 20 people per guide, in German, English or French, and warns that there are no set dates. The council website asks you to book at least 14 days ahead. I couldn’t read the prices, so I’d ask when booking.

My advice is not to expect a medieval museum. The Historisches Lexikon explains that nothing of the old interior survived, so the architect who rebuilt it decorated the rooms exactly as he pleased. What you see is a century-old romantic idea of a castle, and I find it interesting for precisely that reason. If you find it closed, the LIstory app from the Liechtenstein Trail offers a virtual tour.

A hill lived on for 6,500 years

The best of Gutenberg began long before the castle. According to the Lexikon, the hill, topping out at 526 m, has been inhabited for at least 6,500 years, and the sources disagree on its height, the tourist board saying 70 metres and the Lexikon about 50 above the valley. On its south slope stood a burnt-offering shrine where the Gutenberg votive statuettes were found, nine bronze figures including the so-called Mars of Gutenberg, a stag and a boar. For the country’s archaeology behind glass, head to the National Museum of Liechtenstein.

From the 7th century there was also a cemetery on the summit, with just over 300 graves recorded. And the hill matters for nature, with around 280 plant species in its dry meadows and vineyard terraces on the south side.

From Habsburg stronghold to fairy-tale castle

The medieval castle dates from around 1200, according to Balzers council. From 1314 to 1824 it belonged to the Habsburgs, an outpost facing the Swiss and the people of Graubünden. According to the Swiss chroniclers cited by the Lexikon, its mercenaries’ taunts at the Confederates sparked the Swabian War in 1499, and the castle held out under siege. After 1750 it was abandoned and fell into ruin.

The turning point came in 1905. The Vaduz architect and sculptor Egon Rheinberger bought the ruin and rebuilt it by 1910, following the old walls, and in 1920 he and his wife opened an inn that made the castle a cultural meeting place. It later passed through other hands, including the actress Hermine Kindle de Contreras Torres and her husband, who sold it to the state in 1979. Since 1997 the outer bailey has held the Cavallo, a bronze horse by the Italian artist Mimmo Paladino.

How to get there and what else to see

The association recommends LIEmobil line 11 to Rietstrasse or Mälsner Dorf. By car, take the Trübbach/Balzers exit off the A13 and park by the Gemeindezentrum or the church. The castle can only be reached on foot, via the Egon-Rheinberger-Weg from the Gemeindezentrum or the Burgweg, which is closed to traffic.

I’d pair it with the two chapels in Mäls, a short stroll away, and the rest of Balzers. If ruins are your thing, the country’s other castles are compared in castles in Liechtenstein.