St Florin's, the parish church that became a cathedral

Vaduz Cathedral surprises you by being the opposite of most cathedrals. It’s neither huge nor old. It’s a well-built 19th-century stone parish church that history handed the title of cathedral in 1997. I’m more interested in what it says about the country than in its architecture, and there are a couple of things inside worth stopping for.

From the lords’ chapel to the nation’s cathedral

The story starts before the building. Just north of today’s church stood a chapel of St Florin that archaeologists probably date back to the 10th century. It was the lord’s chapel, not the villagers’, and the counts of Werdenberg-Sargans-Vaduz were buried there. Vaduz then belonged to the parish of Schaan, and its people went there to be baptised and buried. As a boy, incidentally, Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, the composer born in Vaduz in 1839, played the organ in that chapel between 1846 and 1851.

When Vaduz became a parish of its own in 1873, it needed something bigger. The present church went up between 1869 and 1873 to plans by the Viennese architect Friedrich von Schmidt, and Prince Johann II paid about 80% of the cost. The old chapel came down between 1872 and 1874. Cathedral status arrived on 2 December 1997, when John Paul II created the Archdiocese of Vaduz for the whole country, until then a deanery of the diocese of Chur. The Historical Lexicon notes that the decision was taken without consulting the government or the parliament, and that it strained religious and political life for years.

What I’d look at inside and out

Outside, the natural stone façade with its spired tower and the double outside staircase, which wraps around two niches holding 1961 bronzes by Hans von Matt. Inside there are three aisles of equal height, rib vaults and, on the south side of the choir, the box for the patron’s family, topped with the Liechtenstein arms.

If I had to choose a single piece, it would be the Gothic entombed Christ from the first half of the 15th century, attributed to Hans von Judenburg and bought in 1956. It’s the oldest thing inside and easy to walk past. The neo-Gothic high altar of 1873, from Josef Leimer’s workshop in Vienna, and the 1965 windows by Martin Häusle round off the visit.

I also like hunting for what came from the old chapel. According to the Lexicon, the carved figures of Saints Peter and Paul, an Apostle John from around 1670 and an enthroned God the Father from around 1650 probably came from there. They’re small pieces linking this 19th-century church to the centuries before, and almost nobody looks at them. If you enjoy church-hopping, I’ve gathered the others in the guide to churches and chapels in Liechtenstein.

The princes’ crypt, open one day a year

In the park south of the cathedral is the princely family’s crypt, built between 1958 and 1960 to plans by Hans Rheinberger. It was needed because after 1945 the family could no longer use its crypt at Wranau, in today’s Czech Republic, which makes more sense once you’ve read the history of the princely house of Liechtenstein. It’s two halls set at an angle under a timber ceiling, and the bronze door by Carmelo Pozzolo shows the raising of Lazarus. Among those at rest here are Prince Franz Josef II and Princess Gina.

The princely house says the crypt opens only on 1 November. The rest of the year you see the door from the park. If my trip fell on All Saints’ Day, I’d make the most of it.

Can you go inside Vaduz Cathedral?

It’s a working church, the parish church of Vaduz. Neither the tourist board’s page nor the Lexicon gives visiting hours, so I’d go during the day, outside Mass times, and keep my voice down. I haven’t come across any entry charge.

Fitting it into your visit

It stands at the southern end of the centre, next to the government building in Vaduz and a step from the parliament, so it makes a natural start or finish to a walk along the Städtle in Vaduz. A quarter of an hour inside and another in the crypt park is plenty. The nearest bus stop is Vaduz, Post.