Museums within steps
Kunstmuseum, National, Postal and Treasury side by side.
Lucas Kendall — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rafael P. D. Suppmann — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rafael P. D. Suppmann — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Tournasol7 — CC BY 4.0
The "Städtle" is Vaduz's main street and everything that resembles a "city centre" in a capital of barely six thousand people: a pedestrian way a few hundred metres long lined with almost all the national museums — the Kunstmuseum with its gleaming black cube, the National Museum, the Postal Museum and the Treasure Chamber — alongside the government and parliament buildings, the tourist office, cafés and contemporary open-air sculptures. The surprise for a first-time visitor is that the capital is not a city in the usual sense: no medieval old town, no great cathedral, but an elegant modern street beneath a castle hung on a rock. That concentration is useful, though: every cultural sight in Liechtenstein is minutes on foot from every other, and all of them can be seen in half a day. At the tourist office on the Städtle you can get a **souvenir passport stamp** for Liechtenstein for a token fee — a tradition many visitors come for, since the country is in Schengen and entry is not stamped.
Kunstmuseum, National, Postal and Treasury side by side.
Liechtenstein's most popular souvenir, from the tourist office.
Open-air works along the promenade.
Städtle, 9490 Vaduz
Kunstmuseum LiechtensteinThe Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is the national museum of modern and contemporary 2 minutes walk4.4
Treasure Chamber of LiechtensteinThe Treasure Chamber (Schatzkammer) is a small, concentrated museum showing the 2 minutes walk3.8
Postal MuseumThe Postal Museum sounds like a marginal subject until you learn that **postage 2 minutes walk4.3
Vaduz CastleVaduz Castle is Liechtenstein's symbol and its image on every postcard: a white 3 minutes walk4.2
Liechtenstein National MuseumThe National Museum (Landesmuseum) tells Liechtenstein's whole story in a buildi3 minutes walk4.7The country has no airport and no railway station. The usual way: train to **Sargans** in Switzerland (on the Zurich–Chur line, about an hour from Zurich), then bus 11 to Vaduz (20 minutes, Swiss francs accepted). Or a bus from **Feldkirch** in Austria. By car: on the motorway between Switzerland and Austria. The currency is the Swiss franc; euros are sometimes accepted at a poorer rate.
Liechtenstein can be seen in half a day if you limit yourself to Vaduz, its museums and the castle from outside — which is what most visitors arriving from Zurich or Austria do. But a full day opens what is lovelier: mountain Malbun, Gutenberg Castle in Balzers, and walking in the Alps. The country is more beautiful outside its capital than in it.