Schalun, the wild castle in the woods above Vaduz

Nearly everyone heading up towards Vaduz Castle turns round at its walls. I’d keep going. Another hour through the woods brings you to Schalun, a medieval ruin you can actually walk into, on a rocky ridge with the Rhine valley below and far fewer people than in town.

A castle older than Vaduz’s

Schalun stands at 862 m on a rocky ridge between Schaan and Vaduz, inside Vaduz’s boundaries. The Historical Lexicon dates the first building work to the 12th century, with 13th-century alterations to strengthen it, and says it was completely cleared in the 14th century and then destroyed by fire. A knight named Ulrich von Schalun appears in 1237, and the ruin itself is first mentioned in 1616. The Lexicon admits that very little is known about the lords of Schalun.

The name has a nice twist. According to the Lexicon, Schalun probably comes from a Rhaeto-Romance word meaning «great staircase». Its popular name, Wildschloss, the wild castle, suits what you find better, walls standing in the middle of the forest.

Passed from hand to hand, then back to Vaduz

Its string of owners is a curious one. In the early 19th century it belonged to the Prince, then to the municipality of Vaduz, and in 1880 it was bought by the architect Ignaz Bankó, the man who ran the building of St Florin’s Cathedral. His son Julius sold it back to the municipality in 1933. Since then it has been excavated and restored in 1939, 1982-1985 and 1990-1993.

What still stands

The remains are spread over three separate man-made platforms. You entered via the northern platform, guarded by a V-shaped ditch. The upper platform held the castle core with the keep, and that’s where the most impressive walls survive. The western platform is cut off from the rest by another ditch. This isn’t a rebuilt castle like Vaduz or Gutenberg; it’s a genuine ruin, and that’s what I like about it. For comparison, the full round-up is in my guide to castles in Liechtenstein.

It helps me to think about what it overlooked. Vaduz sits on a through route recorded since Roman times, from Lake Constance over the Alps to Italy, and in the Middle Ages the imperial road ran through the village along today’s Städtle. I imagine a ridge like this kept watch over much of that traffic and the valley. When you’re up there, look down and judge for yourself.

The walk up from the Städtle

The tourist board says you reach it from Vaduz in about an hour on a forest track that climbs steadily, with a new viewing platform on the way. The route leaves the Städtle and passes Vaduz Castle, so the two go together. The second stage of the Liechtenstein Trail, which comes down from Triesenberg to the capital, also passes Schalun before dropping down to the castle, if you’d rather arrive from above; it’s covered in Liechtenstein Trail stage 2.

You don’t need mountain kit, but it is proper hillside, and the climb from the valley floor is steady all the way to the top. I’d wear walking shoes, carry water and avoid the hottest part of a summer day, as the track keeps climbing.

A detail below the ruin

In the 1880s a local spinning mill built a pond below Schalun to generate its own electricity, the Spoerry-Weiher, and a municipal power station there went on to supply Vaduz from 1901 to 1927. It’s the kind of story I enjoy, the medieval ruin above and, at its feet, the beginnings of the village’s industry.

I’d do the walk early in the morning, come down for lunch in town and leave the museums for the afternoon. To my mind a clear, dry day is what matters most, because the whole point of the climb is the view over the valley, and on a cloudy day you lose most of it. It’s one of the few outings where Vaduz genuinely feels like a mountain village.

If you’re left wanting more, Liechtenstein has other ruins you can wander just as freely, such as the two Schellenberg castles in the Unterland. And if walking is your thing, Schalun is a good warm-up for more serious routes in the country’s mountains.