The black cube
Polished basalt concrete reflecting sky and castle.
Ruedi Walti, Basel (Schweiz) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mart2000 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rafael P. D. Suppmann — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rafael P. D. Suppmann — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is the national museum of modern and contemporary art, and the most striking building in Vaduz: a gleaming black cube (2000) of concrete cast with basalt gravel and polished until it reflects sky and mountains like a dark mirror — an award-winning Swiss-Austrian design that deliberately contrasts with the white castle above it. Inside are high white halls in natural light, showing the state collection of art since 1945 (Arte Povera, conceptual art, contemporary sculpture) in rotating exhibitions. More importantly, the museum regularly hosts works from the **Prince's Collection** — one of the largest and most valuable private art collections in the world, assembled by the House of Liechtenstein since the seventeenth century and including Rubens, Van Dyck and Rembrandt. The same building holds the Hilti Art Foundation with its modern-classic collection (Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso) on a combined ticket — so one visit joins the contemporary, the modern and the old in the middle of the Städtle.
Polished basalt concrete reflecting sky and castle.
Works from one of the world's most valuable private collections.
Klee, Kandinsky and Picasso in the same building.
Städtle 32, 9490 Vaduz
Treasure Chamber of LiechtensteinThe Treasure Chamber (Schatzkammer) is a small, concentrated museum showing the 1 minute walk3.8
Postal MuseumThe Postal Museum sounds like a marginal subject until you learn that **postage 1 minute walk4.3
Liechtenstein National MuseumThe National Museum (Landesmuseum) tells Liechtenstein's whole story in a buildi1 minute walk4.7
The Städtle (central Vaduz)The "Städtle" is Vaduz's main street and everything that resembles a "city centr2 minutes walk4.6
Vaduz CastleVaduz Castle is Liechtenstein's symbol and its image on every postcard: a white 2 minutes walk4.2A private art collection owned by the reigning House of Liechtenstein, counted among the largest in the world (about 1,700 works), begun in the seventeenth century and holding the largest gathering of Rubens in private hands. Most of it is displayed at the **Liechtenstein palaces in Vienna**, with works regularly lent to the Kunstmuseum in Vaduz — check the current exhibition before visiting if that is what draws you.