Lichtenstein

Visited: August 2004, April 2022

Duration of visit: 2 days

Capital city: Vaduz

Population: 38.000 (2022)

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

• Vaduz – small capital city on the Rhine River near the Swiss border with 5,500 inhabitants.
• Iconic parliament building, art museum and pedestrian zone in the heart of the capital.
• The castle overlooking Vaduz – still offering a home to the royal family.
• Black vehicle registration plates stand out from common white background. Since there are so little cars, only numbers are used.

Lichtenstein is one of those pocket countries that offers high quality of life at exaggerated prices, security to hidden investors and gives me a feeling of being out of place. The only country in the world with 100% of its territory in the Alpine region receives less than 100.000 tourists per year.

Statistically, the 2^nd richest country in the world, provides prosperity to its inhabitants with GDP per capita at $165,000 in 2022.

However, this number can be somehow distorted since the country’s only billionaire for time is worth 50% of the entire nation’s GDP. His company named Ivoclar Vivadent, is actually the world largest producer of dental implants.

It was Saturday 30^th of April, just before 1^st of May – Labor Day in most of Europe. The capital city Vaduz was abandoned. I don’t think it gets really crowded at any time, but there were hardly any restaurants or shops opened. I only found the central church, several small museums, free parking in a garage, overpriced souvenirs on sale at the information office and kebab for 12.00€.

Since 2008, the State Parliament Building stands in the middle of Peter-Kaiser-Platz, in the immediate vicinity of the government building. Lichtenstein’s 25-member Parliament is the most outstanding structure in the city center, dominating the state square in front of it. The Long House, the High House and the Joining House were designed by Munich-based architect Hansjörg Göritz.

The hearth of Vaduz is small and easily walkable. It is impressive to find so many museums in such a small area. The most outstanding in terms of architecture and design is a museum for modern and contemporary art – Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein. The facade of this remarkable building consists of colored and seamlessly poured concrete made of black basalt rock and colored river gravel. It is treated to create a lively play on the reflective surface.

Some other important museums are National museum, Post museum, Treasury of Lichtenstein and the sculpture park – an open-air art exhibition featuring renowned works by Fernando Botero and other artist that are located around the city.

It would be a good experience to eat in a traditional restaurant, but everything was closed and expensive kebab was not the option.

Vaduz Castle, on the top of the hill, 120 meters above the city, offers fantastic view over the whole valley; actually, over the entire country and beyond the borders. The palace is closed for public, since the Prince uses it as an official residence, when being around.

The castle was constructed as a fortress as early as the 12^th century, before living quarters were added in 1287. In 1939 the Prince moved in with his family and adopted Vaduz Castle as his official residence.

There is an interesting fact about the origin of Princess Angela of Liechtenstein. She became the first woman of primarily African descent to marry into a reigning European dynasty.

She married Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein in January 2000. She was born in Bocas del Toro, Panama, the place where I met the woman of my life as well. It is true that she was raised mostly in the US, where she studied and later worked as a fashion designer.

One of the most outstanding memories from Lichtenstein for me could actually be the black car license plates labeled with FL and straightforward numbers without letters, since there are so little cars in the country. Liechtenstein license plates are assigned to the vehicle owner, not to the vehicle. I guess everybody knows everyone in this tiny country.

Letters are not needed at this point; only numbers are used.

Surprisingly, a factory of considerable size and a research center for Hilti power tools is located on the outskirts of Vaduz, while the main sources of income are finance, banking sector, foreign off shore companies and high-tech development.

When visiting any of these extremely expensive countries, I always notice high quality of products, infrastructure or goods and standard of living in general. There is no place for cheap Chinese crap that is useless almost immediately after being purchased.

It is hard to define Liechtenstein as a tourist destination. Probably the last thing this country needs are tourists. There are so many other options and incentives to keep this little population happy, that the per capita GDP is the second-highest in the world.

Well, most of them actually cross the border on a daily basis to go to work – either to Switzerland or Germany. The whole country seems very clean, organized and quiet. Similar to Switzerland: the system works, people enjoy a hassle-free life.

Borders are open and the country is interconnected with their neighbors. Clever enough to avoid spending money for unnecessary bureaucracy and infrastructure that would not be justified for the small local population.