The Rhine Valley's castle town — Gutenberg vintages, alpine trails and the country with no army
Vaduz is the capital of Liechtenstein, the world's sixth-smallest country, a doubly landlocked principality (landlocked by two landlocked countries — Switzerland and Austria) squeezed into the Rhine Valley between the Alps and the river. The city is defined by Vaduz Castle on its cliff above the main street — still the private residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein, who is one of Europe's few truly reigning monarchs. The principality produces excellent wines from the Rhine Valley slopes, hosts one of Europe's finest private art collections (the Prince's collection of Flemish and Dutch maste…
Liechtenstein was assembled from two separate lordships (Vaduz and Schellenberg) in 1719 when the Liechtenstein family purchased them purely to gain a seat in the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire — they had never visited. The family only moved there after 1938 when Nazi Germany seized their estates in Czechoslovakia and Moravia. The principality was one of the last holdouts of absolute monarchy in Europe, with the Prince holding significant veto powers codified in the 2003 constitution. It is the world's only country to have both abolished its military and been in a war — a detachment o…