The Peace Chapel in Malbun, a stone thank-you for 1945

Some mountain chapels were built after a plague, an avalanche or a vow. Malbun’s was built because of a war that never came. It’s small, it’s stone and it carries more meaning than it lets on, and it sits on the path most people take to walk up to Sareis. Here’s its story and what to look out for.

A thank-you with a date on it

On 30 August 1939 Liechtenstein declared itself neutral, and, according to the Historisches Lexikon, the moment of greatest danger came in May and June 1940, when German plans against Switzerland included occupying the country. It never happened. In 1950, with the war over, the parish priest of Triesenberg, Engelbert Bucher, pushed for a chapel in Malbun to give thanks for being spared, and it was consecrated in 1951. The Lexikon puts it at 1,627 metres.

It feels very true to this country. Back in March 1940 Prince Franz Joseph II had already placed Liechtenstein under the protection of the Virgin Mary in the chapel at Dux, in Schaan, and a decade later the mountain villagers completed the circle with a church of their own. If that period interests you, I cover it at more length on my page on the Second World War in Liechtenstein.

What to see inside and out

The chapel is the work of Johannes Hugentobler, who drew up the plans and also designed the round window in the choir. It’s built of natural stone, with a single nave, a square-ended choir and a bell gable perched on the ridge of the roof. No frills, and that’s exactly why it fits the valley.

What I’d look for inside is the mosaic in the nave. Hermann Bauch made it from sketches by Josef Seger, and it shows the «Sennen-Ave», the Hail Mary of the alpine herdsmen, alongside the Virgin, Saint Peter and a line of very mountain-minded saints. There’s Theodul, the saint of the first Walser church in the country at Masescha, then Sebastian, Cyprian, Wendelin, Vitus and the Trinity. Read slowly, it’s a portrait of the people who came up here every summer with their cows.

The chapel is dedicated to two patrons of peace, the Virgin Mary and Bruder Klaus, that is, Saint Nicholas of Flüe, the Swiss hermit saint. I like that a post-war chapel in a country without an army put itself under two patrons of peace rather than a warrior saint.

Can you go in?

The chapel belongs to the parish of Triesenberg, but I couldn’t find published opening hours on either the lift company’s site or the tourist board’s. So I won’t promise anything. Assume you’ll only see the outside and, if the door’s open, stepping in for five minutes to see the mosaic and the window.

Getting there and fitting it into your day

It’s in Malbun itself, a stroll from the centre. Three plans go right past it. The first is the walk up to Sareis, which the tourist board describes from the Malbun, Jöraboda bus stop via the chapel to the top station in about an hour, handy if the chairlift isn’t running. The second is the Forscherweg, the children’s explorers’ trail from Malbun to the chapel and the little Sass lake, which takes about two hours. And in winter Bergbahnen Malbun prepares a safe sledging run of around 200 metres for small children right outside the door, free of charge.

When to call in

I’d see it in summer, early in the day, when the path to Sareis is still empty and the meadows around it are in flower. Malbun has been a plant protection area since 1952, according to the Lexikon, so that setting is no accident. Winter has its own charm, with snow up to the door and children sledging past, but the chapel takes a back seat. It’s worth remembering, too, that 1951, the year it was consecrated, was a hard one in the valley, as avalanches destroyed nine huts. Up here the mountain has always had the final say.

One last fact to close the circle

2026 marks 75 years since its consecration, and the valley around it has changed beyond recognition. The Lexikon records 85 hay huts in Malbun in 1880 and 210 buildings by 2008, nearly all of them holiday homes. The chapel is one of the few things left that remind you this was a herdsmen’s meadow before it was a ski resort.