Liechtenstein
Gafadura Hut
A princely hunting lodge of 1927, its dormitory now open to anyone who walks up.
Gafadura Hut stands at 1,428 metres on the western flank of the Drei Schwestern, forest below, pasture behind, the Rhine Valley falling away in front. Prince Johann II had it built as a hunting lodge in 1926-27; today it is Liechtenstein's Alpine Club refuge above Planken, and dinner is served to whoever walks up.
The lodge was designed by Gustav von Neumann for the princely hunts of the Gafadura territory; the Alpine Club bought it in 1968 and opened it that July as a staffed mountain hut. Its name is older than all of that: Gafadura comes from the Old Rhaeto-Romanic cavradüra, a clearing burned from the forest, remembering the Romance-speaking herders who worked this slope before the Walser came. The hut keeps fourteen dormitory beds, a kitchen that serves day walkers lunch and dinner, and a terrace pointed straight down the Rhine Valley, with the working Alp Gafadura in the meadow beside it. Approaches take about two hours from Planken or ninety minutes from the road barrier above the village, and the onward paths towards Gaflei ask for surefootedness.
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Solo
The two-hour climb from Planken earns a terrace, a plate from the hut kitchen and a story: you are eating in the room a prince built for his hunting parties.
Couple
Book two of the fourteen dormitory places, watch the Rhine Valley light fade from the terrace and wake at 1,428 metres with the day's first path to yourselves.
- The hut was built in 1926-27 as Prince Johann II's hunting lodge and became an Alpine Club refuge in 1968.
- The name comes from the Old Rhaeto-Romanic cavradüra, a clearing burned from the forest centuries before the principality existed.
- It stands at 1,428 metres above Planken, reached in about two hours on foot, with a terrace over the Rhine Valley.
- Fourteen dormitory beds and a kitchen that serves day walkers make it both an overnight base and a lunch objective.
The hut kitchen serves Käsknöpfle with apple sauce on the terrace, the Rhine Valley spread out far below your table.
Overnight guests eat from the evening menu and wake to a hut breakfast; bring Swiss francs or euros, because cards are not accepted.
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