The eleven municipalities of Liechtenstein, one by one

Liechtenstein doesn’t have cities, it has municipalities. Eleven of them, no more, and the constitution names each one. Some are little more than a village and its church, none tops 6,300 people, but each has its own character, and I find they’re the best way to understand the country. Here they are with their villages, their figures and the score I’d give each as a visitor.

Eleven municipalities, two regions

Article 1 of the constitution speaks of a state of two «Landschaften» and eleven municipalities. In the south is the Oberland, the former county of Vaduz, with six, and in the north the Unterland, the old lordship of Schellenberg, with five. The split isn’t an administrative whim. It comes from the two purchases that created the country, in 1699 and 1712, and they’re still the two electoral constituencies today. I tell each half’s story on the Oberland of Liechtenstein and the Unterland of Liechtenstein.

Each municipality has its own council and a surprising degree of independence. Article 4 of the constitution even gives them the right to break away from the state by majority vote. None ever has, but it says a lot about how much local identity matters here. Before going village by village, you may want the big picture first, and that’s what the Liechtenstein travel guide is for.

The six in the south

Vaduz is the capital, with 6,108 residents, the Prince’s castle, the parliament and nearly all the museums. Schaan, adjoining it to the north, has more people, 6,294, and has been the largest by population since 1989. The national figures, with the share of foreign residents, are in Liechtenstein’s population. Triesen and Balzers follow the Rhine southwards, the first with its old centre among the vines and the second at the foot of Gutenberg Castle, with the old quarter of Mäls included.

Triesenberg is the odd one out. It’s the largest, at 29.7 km², and the highest, with its church at 886 m, and it’s spread across Walser hamlets on the Rhine-facing slope, such as Masescha, Rotenboden (Rotaboda) and Wangerberg (Wangerbärg), and across the ridge, where Steg and Malbun sit. Planken, the sixth, is the least populated in the country, with 499 residents on a terrace below the Drei Schwestern.

The five in the north

The Unterland clusters around the Eschnerberg, an isolated hill that touches all five. Eschen is the biggest, with 4,781 residents, and includes the village of Nendeln, where a Roman villa was found. Mauren, with Schaanwald on the border facing Feldkirch, is the most densely populated in the country. Gamprin is one village plus a hamlet, Bendern, home to the parish church and the hill where allegiance was sworn to the Prince in 1699.

Ruggell, the most northerly, calls itself the cycling village and has the country’s lowest point, the Ruggeller Riet, at 430 m. Schellenberg, at 3.6 km², is the smallest by area, and it packs in the ruins of two castles and a rural museum in a house from 1518.

Villages that look like towns

This is where plenty of people get muddled. Malbun, the mountain village in every winter photo, isn’t a municipality, it’s a hamlet belonging to Triesenberg. The same goes for Steg, Nendeln, Schaanwald and Bendern. The official statistics don’t even publish how many people live in each. The table on this page shows which municipality each village with its own page in the guide belongs to.

And there are boundary quirks I love. Vaduz has six exclaves, detached pieces of its territory, including mountain pastures. The Gaflei alp belongs to Vaduz but lies within Triesenberg. And since 1915 Gamprin has owned an alp, Rauz, in Austria’s Vorarlberg.

Where to sleep, municipality by municipality

Hotels aren’t spread the way people are. In summer 2025, according to the Office of Statistics, the Unterland had an average of 9.3 hotels open, Triesenberg with Malbun and Steg 8.0, Vaduz 5.0, Schaan and Planken 4.0, and Balzers and Triesen 3.0. On a first visit I’d stay in Vaduz or Malbun, and how to choose between them is explained on where to stay in Liechtenstein. Either way, one night gets you the free bus pass from many hotels.

Getting between them

LIEmobil buses serve all eleven. There are lines such as the 26, climbing from Schaan to Planken, the 21 from Vaduz to Malbun and the 33 from Mauren to Schellenberg. You pay by card or app, and a day pass for three zones or more costs CHF 9. If you’d rather walk, the Liechtenstein Trail passes through every village over about 75 km.