Engländerbau

Why it matters

The Engländerbau is one of Vaduz’s clearest statements of early modernism. Architect Erwin Hinderer designed the three-storey commercial building in 1933 for Mutualclub, an English-managed lottery company; the client gave the building its unusual name. The lottery closed the following year, but the building remained a useful record of the principality’s changing commercial and cultural life.

Liechtenstein acquired it in 1944. Works from the princely collections were exhibited here from 1952, followed by the state art collection from 1969 until 2000. The building has been protected as a heritage monument since 1992.

Read the architecture

Stand back on Städtle to take in the full, elongated façade. The building is a steel-frame structure with brick infill, faced in vertical travertine slabs. Its calm geometry is deliberate:

• Window rhythm: regular rows organize the upper floors.
• Street level: large display windows break up the west-facing ground floor.
• Stair tower: the projecting cylindrical stairwell at the north end was conceived as a light-catcher.
• Setting: the structure steps against the Schlossfelsen, the rocky slope below Vaduz Castle.

Many upper-floor openings have profiled metal infill panels, added during the late-1980s renovation. That later intervention is part of the building’s appearance, not a missing original feature.

Kunstraum Engländerbau

The second floor has housed Kunstraum Engländerbau since 2002. This is a 300-square-metre venue for changing contemporary-art exhibitions, concentrating on artists from Liechtenstein and the surrounding region. The programme can range across painting, photography, sculpture, installation, video and performance, so expect the contents to change rather than a permanent collection.

The same building also contains the Liechtenstein Postal Museum and the Liechtenstein Treasure Chamber. Treat the Engländerbau as a building with several cultural occupants, not as a single conventional museum.

Getting there and access

The address is Städtle 37, in Vaduz’s traffic-free centre. The nearest bus stop is Vaduz, Post; onward rail connections are available at Sargans, Buchs SG and Feldkirch. For drivers, the Post garage, Marktplatz garage and Kunstmuseum parking are nearby. Bicycle parking is by the Liechtenstein Center.

Kunstraum is open daily 13:00–17:00 and admission is free. A stair lift serves visitors with reduced mobility. Allow time to inspect the exterior even if the exhibition space is between installations or not your priority.