The Städtle, the one street that is central Vaduz

Anyone searching for the old town of Vaduz ends up here, and it pays to know what you’ll find. The Städtle isn’t a walled medieval quarter with arcades. It’s a fairly modern pedestrian street with first-rate museums, open-air sculpture and the castle overhead, and it works as the capital’s front room. That’s exactly why I like it, because in an hour you see how the country chooses to present itself.

Centuries underneath, new paving on top

The line of the street is old. The Historical Lexicon traces the imperial road from Lake Constance to Italy through here from the High Middle Ages, and the houses of the Städtli stood in a row along it. What you walk on today is far newer. The idea of clearing cars from the centre goes back to 1962, work began from 1998 and the new pedestrian zone opened on 28 June 2004. There’s been an underground car park beneath it since 2000.

Vehicles only come in to load and unload, Monday to Saturday between 06:00 and 10:00. For the rest of the day the street is yours, and you can tell from the way people settle onto the benches and café terraces.

If you arrive by bus, you’ll be dropped at one end or the other. Vaduz, Post sits by the government quarter and Vaduz, Städtle by the town hall, so I’d get off at Post and walk north, finishing where the Citytrain leaves and the coaches wait. If you’d rather have someone explain it as you go, the options are in guided tours and walking tours in Vaduz.

From Peter-Kaiser-Platz to the town hall

I’d walk it south to north. At the southern end is Peter-Kaiser-Platz, with the government building in Vaduz, the brick parliament and the National Archives, and St Florin’s Cathedral just beyond. Heading north you pass the LandesMuseum in the old Verweserhaus, the Kunstmuseum in its dark cube and the Engländerbau. The street ends on the square in front of Vaduz Town Hall, built in 1932-1933, where coaches drop off and the Citytrain departs.

The tourist board counts six museums within a few hundred metres and calls the stretch the Museum Mile. You don’t need to do them all. My order and the opening times are in the guide to Liechtenstein’s museums. If time is tight, I’d do the Kunstmuseum and pop into the free PostMuseum.

The sculpture and the English lottery building

Sculpture by international artists stands along the street, arranged so that the whole Städtle works as an open-air gallery. The tourist board’s page doesn’t list the works, so I’d simply stroll it reading the plaque on each one.

My favourite building on the Städtle is the Engländerbau. The architect Erwin Hinderer designed it in 1933 for an English-run lottery, the Mutual Club, which folded the following year, hence the name. It’s an early piece of modern architecture, a steel frame clad in travertine and stepped against the castle rock. Inside are the PostMuseum and the Kunstraum Engländerbau, both free.

Can you do it in a wheelchair or with a pushchair?

Yes, and here, unusually for this hilly country, I’d say so without hesitating. The tourist board describes a step-free Städtle Tour suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, with 14 stops marked by plaques carrying QR codes and braille. The pedestrian zone runs traffic-free from the government quarter to the town hall. What does involve a slope is everything above it, such as the castle path or the Mitteldorf vineyards. There’s more in my guide to accessibility in Liechtenstein.

Shopping, eating and when to stroll

The souvenir shops open all year, Sundays and public holidays included, according to the tourist board, which is unusual in a country where ordinary shops close on Sunday. You’ll find everything from local wine to stamps. The Lexicon notes that the first souvenir shop on the Städtli was opened in 1945 by Baron Eduard von Falz-Fein, and that most visitors to Vaduz are day trippers. That sets the rhythm of the street.

That’s why I’d walk it twice. In the morning with the museums, and again late in the day as it empties. For a different kind of lunch, the Kunstmuseum café serves a vegetarian Japanese menu, open Wednesday to Friday from 9:00 to 21:00 and until 18:00 on other days.

In August the street changes character. On the 15th, national day, the public festival gets going on the Städtle at 12:00 and runs into the small hours, while the museums open free until 20:00.