Steg, where the huts circle the meadow in the Samina valley

Come out of the Kulm tunnel on the way to Malbun and the first thing you see is a huge meadow ringed with wooden huts, as if someone had drawn a circle with them. That’s Steg. To me it’s the most original man-made landscape in Liechtenstein, and it deserves more than a glance from the bus window.

Why are the huts at Steg in a ring?

Steg sits at about 1,300 m in the upper Samina valley, where the Valüna, Valorsch and Malbun valleys branch off. It takes its name from the footbridge over the Samina, and the Malbunbach splits it in two, Grosssteg and Kleinsteg. The Historisches Lexikon records it in 1516, although Walser settlers were granted Grosssteg on a hereditary lease as early as 1355.

The ring has a logic to it. Inside is an almost flat hay meadow that each family mowed on its own plot; outside is shared pasture. The huts formed a fence between the two, stored the hay and housed the cattle in autumn until close to Christmas. The interesting bit, according to the Lexikon, is that current research sees it neither as a Romansh legacy nor as a Walser custom, but as the natural result of that way of farming. Grazing rights were recorded as notches on tally sticks called «Beigla».

Best of all, the ring is still there. The oldest hut in Grosssteg has been dated to 1623, and the numbers have barely moved in over a century, from 62 to 77 huts in Grosssteg and from 44 to 43 in Kleinsteg between 1880 and 2000. Planning rules from 1965, 1979 and 2000 protect the layout. The outer pasture is still run as a cooperative, with 150.2 hectares and 210 grazing rights on the Grosssteg alp and 161.9 hectares and 216 rights on Kleinsteg, held by members who, the Lexikon says, are now mostly not farmers.

What I’d see in Steg

I’d start with the chapel of St Wendelin and St Martin, at 1,316 m, which grew out of a small wayside shrine and took its present form in 1906-1907, with a round tower and conical roof designed by Egon Rheinberger. Next to it, at the fork for Kleinsteg, is the Alte Maiensässhütte, a log hut extended with a dairy in 1896 and moved and listed in 2009. It’s shown only on guided visits run by the Walser Museum in Triesenberg, so ask in advance.

Then I’d head down to the reservoir. It was built in 1947-1948 for the Samina power scheme, sits at 1,296 m and covers 3.2 hectares; from here the water tunnels through the mountain to Masescha and drops to Vaduz. The path round it continues along the stream towards Valüna, which I cover on my page about the Samina valley.

From customs post to winter village

Steg has reinvented itself more than once. It had a sawmill driven by a water wheel on the Malbunbach until 1939, and from 1924 to 1972 a customs post for the Swiss border guards patrolling the Austrian frontier in the mountains. Tourism came late, with a spa guesthouse in 1925 and the first holiday home in 1944. What changed everything was the new Gnalp-Steg tunnel, opened on 4 December 1947.

This is also where skiing in the country started. Liechtenstein’s first two ski lifts were put up at Steg in 1950 and 1952. In the 1960s downhill skiing moved to Malbun, and Steg kept cross-country skiing and sledging.

Steg in winter

Steg-Valüna is, according to the club that runs it, the only cross-country skiing area in the country, between 1,310 and 1,450 m, with trails groomed from December to mid-March and a floodlit night loop. I go into detail in my guide to cross-country skiing at Steg. And for children there’s sledging, as the Lexikon notes a natural run on the road down from the Kulm by Sücka since 1963.

Getting there and where to eat

LIEmobil route 21 leaves Vaduz, Post, climbs through Triesenberg, goes through the tunnel and stops at Steg FL, Tunnel and Steg FL, Hotel, in about 25 minutes. It runs on to Steg once an hour. Cash isn’t taken on board.

For food, the tourist board lists the Bergstübli and the Restaurant Seeblick in Steg. For a bed, the statistics office groups Steg and Malbun together as the country’s Alpine hotel area. And if you’re heading for the Pfälzerhütte, the Alpine Club reckons two to three hours from Steg, climbing through Valüna.