Mauren, the village of seven hills

Mauren has something I like in small places, you can tell people actually live there. It’s the most densely populated municipality in Liechtenstein, with houses scattered over the Eschnerberg’s slope and across seven hills in front of it, yet it still keeps an old centre where church, inn and town hall sit a few steps apart.

A village built from hamlets

The Historisches Lexikon describes Mauren as a cluster of house groups that were once separate and have since grown together. Its heart is Kirchabötle, the church quarter, already inhabited in Roman times and home since the Middle Ages to the church and rectory, and since the 20th century to the town hall and village hall.

To the east, across the Maurer Riet, a wet stretch of flatland at 440 metres crossed by the Esche, lies the hamlet of Schaanwald, right on the border with Feldkirch. I cover it separately on Schaanwald. A third of the municipality is forest, on the Maurerberg, and nearly another third is Riet, so the green feel isn’t just an impression.

The name crops up in 1178 as «Muron». Plenty of people assume it comes from the Latin murus, a wall, and the Lexikon is blunt about it, that explanation isn’t proven.

What lies beneath St Peter and St Paul’s?

The church you see was built in 1842-43 to plans by Laurenz Vogel and consecrated in 1846. It’s neoclassical, with the tower projecting from the front, and inside it was remodelled in 1986-88 as a single work of art in marble, bronze, gold and steel, with Georg Malin’s Carrara marble altar, font and lectern. It keeps a Pietà from 1470/80 and a Gothic crucifix from around 1520.

The interesting part is underneath. Excavations during that same renovation found the foundations of earlier churches and Roman remains, among them a room with a hypocaust belonging to a larger house and, next to it, a building with three apses whose purpose nobody has managed to explain. The first church, small and single-naved, is unlikely to be older than the late 7th century.

Culture in an 1833 inn

A short walk from the church is the Kulturhaus Rössle, an old inn from 1833 with a hall and stage that was the centre of village life for decades. In 2008 the municipality, the heritage office and private backers saved it from the bulldozers, and it’s now a listed cultural venue. It opens for its events and, when an exhibition is on, usually on Friday evenings and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I’d check the programme before heading over.

What I wouldn’t do is go looking for the Museum Mura. The municipality itself explains that the collection, now called SammlungMura, is being reorganised, so I’m not treating it as a visit.

Herbs, birds and smugglers’ paths

The final stage of the Liechtenstein Trail crosses Mauren and it’s the best way to see the place. The tourist board mentions the medicinal and culinary herb garden on the edge of the Weiherring, the leisure area the village opened in 1996, and the Birka bird reserve, with its wetland and playground, run since 1974 by the local ornithological society. From there the trail follows old smugglers’ paths and the historic «Seidenbaumpfad» to the customs post at Schaanwald. Distances and climbs for that closing section are on stage 5 of the Liechtenstein Trail.

Above the village, the Eschnerberg has its historic ridge path, with panels on archaeological sites and castles. I explain it on the Eschnerberg.

Carnival at 14:14

Mauren has its own parade in the carnival calendar published by the tourist board, and the start time says a lot about the local sense of humour. In 2026 it set off on Monday 16 February at 14:14. If you’re around in the season, the full line-up is on Liechtenstein’s carnival.

On the sporting side, Mauren goes hand in hand with Eschen. The two share the Eschen-Mauren sports park from 1975, and Mauren joined other Unterland villages in funding the Eschen indoor pool, opened in 1980.

Getting there

By bus, route 13E links Balzers with Mauren, route 33 climbs to Schellenberg and the N2 night bus comes through on its way to Feldkirch. There are LIEbike stations in both Mauren and Schaanwald. And the local dialect sets Mauren apart too, since along with Eschen it says «Taal» for a part, where the rest of the Unterland says «Tool».