Küefer-Martis-Huus, a 1730 house with water as its theme

Ruggell is the country’s northernmost village and one of its flattest, wedged between the Rhine, the Riet and the Eschnerberg. Few tourists make it this far, and the Küefer-Martis-Huus is a very good reason to, especially if you like art that never makes the guidebooks.

An 18th-century house with life in it

The house went up around 1730 and is listed. The municipality converted it with an aim it still repeats on its website, that the building should be filled with life and become a meeting place with the character of a museum. It opened in September 2002 and has worked that way ever since. The old house holds the museum, largely about water in the widest sense, and the former threshing barn, the Tenne, is used for exhibitions, talks, courses and performances.

I think water was a clever choice. Ruggell lives between the Rhine and the Ruggeller Riet, a fen that is the lowest point in the country, so water here is landscape, history and headache all at once.

The centre doesn’t stay parochial either. Past exhibitions have covered subjects such as Liechtenstein’s Jewish history and how strict the region’s moral codes were not so long ago, and several of its books have been named among the country’s most beautiful. The texts of many exhibitions can be downloaded from its website.

What can you see until spring 2027?

Until 25 October 2026 the show is «… und ich bin auch Malerin!», a retrospective of Maggy Mauritz, and for me it’s reason enough to make the trip. Born in 1941 in Bohemia, she reached Paris in 1963 and joined the Lettrist movement there. From 1966 she was one of the first artists to use spray paint and stencils for compositions of letters and numbers, which makes her an early pioneer of graffiti art. For decades her work sat in the shadow of her husband Roberto Altmann’s, and it has only been rediscovered since 2019. This is her first solo exhibition, curated by Frédéric Acquaviva. Like her husband, she is a citizen of Ruggell.

Her life explains a good deal of the work. After the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans she spent ten years in a refugee camp near Stuttgart, learned shorthand, which later found its way into her paintings, and in 1962 went to London as an au pair, where the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum gave her, the centre says, a decisive push. Her work from 1963 to 1974 was shown in Paris, Vaduz, Berlin and Hamburg.

On 15 October at 19:00 the Ruggell writer Armin Öhri launches a new novel, and on 30 and 31 October the Goldener Spaten returns, the 30th Videograndprix Liechtenstein, the annual festival for amateur film and video makers. From 22 November 2026 to 14 March 2027 comes «Village People», with photographs by Peter Klaunzer.

Hours, price and getting there

It opens on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 14:00 to 17:00, and events keep their own times. The house is very much in local use, with a monthly card afternoon for pensioners, a knitting circle and school visits, and it lends its rooms to other groups, so don’t be surprised to find something going on when you arrive. Neither the centre’s website nor the municipality’s lists an entry price, so I can’t give you one. Groups and schools can book programmes tailored to the current exhibition.

If you’re driving, don’t park at the door, because there’s only one disabled bay. The centre asks visitors to use the car park opposite the Gasthaus Rössle, entered from the roundabout. By bus, several LIEmobil routes link Ruggell with Eschen, Bendern and Schaan.

On foot, it’s the finish of stage 4 of the Liechtenstein Trail, which comes in from Nendeln via Eschen, the church hill at Bendern and the Grossabünt lake.

What else is there in Ruggell?

What I’d do before the house is the Ruggeller Riet, the fen protected since 1978 and shared by Ruggell and Schellenberg, at 430 metres. Siberian irises bloom there in May, the best time, but the walk is worthwhile all year. On its website the municipality styles itself Liechtenstein’s cycling village, and given how flat it is, you can see why.

For the rest of the village there’s my Ruggell guide, and for pairing this centre with others, the museums of Liechtenstein page.