ASIANOVERLAND.NET WINTER EUROPEAN DAY 45/218: LIECHTENSTEIN TO LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND

 "25/1/1981 Ski ticket in Lucerne on the Pilatus Mountain."

Robbie Burns birthday, born 25 January, 1759 – maybe we should head to Scotland for a wee dram?

We drive through Vaduz, Liechtenstein to Switzerland, where we have a day’s skiing at Mount Pilatus (pictured), which towers over Lucerne. Great way to see Lucerne in winter.

In 1264, the Habsburgs under King Rudolph I (Holy Roman Emperor in 1273) extended their territory to the eastern Alpine plateau including Liechtenstein. 

In 1396 Vaduz (the southern region of Liechtenstein) gained imperial immediacy, i.e. it became subject to the Holy Roman Emperor alone.

The Liechtenstein Royal family originally came from Liechtenstein Castle in Lower Austria, which they had possessed from at least 1140 until the 13th century (and again from 1807 onwards).

Until the end of World War I, Liechtenstein was closely tied first to the Austrian Empire and later to Austria-Hungary; the ruling Liechtenstein princes earned much of their wealth from estates in the Habsburg territories, and spent much of their time at their two palaces in Vienna.  The economic devastation caused by the war forced the country to conclude a customs and monetary union with its other neighbour, Switzerland.

At the time of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Liechtenstein, as a province of the Holy Roman Empire, was no longer bound to the emerging independent state of Austria, since Austria did not consider itself the legal successor to the empire.

In March 1938, just after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Prince Franz I named as regent his 31-year-old grandnephew and heir-presumptive, Prince Franz Joseph. Franz died in July that year, and Franz Joseph succeeded to the throne. Franz Joseph II first moved to Liechtenstein in 1938, just a few days after Austria's annexation.

During World War II, Liechtenstein remained officially neutral, looking to neighbouring Switzerland for assistance and guidance, while family treasures from dynastic lands and possessions in Bohemia and Silesia were taken to Liechtenstein for safekeeping.

Liechtenstein was in dire financial straits following the end of WWII, so the Liechtenstein dynasty resorted to selling family artistic treasures, including a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. Really tough times – most top deckers would never sell their Da Vinci’s ….

By the late 1970s, Liechtenstein was a renowned tax haven and used its low corporate tax rates to host many companies, and became one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

Too expensive for a Top Deck meal, so we drove to the Mount Pilatus ski fields below Lucerne instead …

↑ Day 217 ↓ Day 219