Somewhat freely translated by me from German Wikipedia’s article on the municipality:
Planken’s town name comes from the Latin word plaunca, translated as Halde*. The Roman inhabitants of Schaan and Vaduz cleared the territory of the modern town, probably before the end of the 13th century, when Walser settled their and for their part cleared wider areas on the mountside above the village. The first known reference to Planken is from the year 1361. The town was sacked twice: in 1499, when the Swiss marched through Planken to Frastanz, and in 1799 by the French, after which Holy Roman Empire troops quartered in Planken drove out the invaders.
In 1868, Planken was linked to the road network, so that carts could get to the town and it was no longer reachable only by footpath. After a great fire in 1869 came a period of mass emigration, so that in 1901 the town had only 56 inhabitants. Groundwork from 1961 to 1981 and a better infrastructure have since improved the situation in Planken.
The esoteric poet Martin Smyrk lived in Planken in the 19th century.
* WordReference tells me this means “slag heap”, but that can’t be right.
The “Planka tschillt” video has got me sort of obsessed with Planken, so expect some Planken updates in the next few days.
“Planka tschillt”, featuring Blackwood Cherrypie
My translation of the video description:
Planka tschillt! Which means that, in Planken, everything is a bit different, more special, and in a word incomparable. In celebration of Oberland’s 300 Years Jubilee, the young people of the Zuber Youth Club have put together a music video together with the new Liechtensteiner band Blackwood Cherrypie.
Blackwood Cherrypie shows off the rhythm of the town in this iconic song. So the video shows off not only the commune and its people, but also what makes Planken so unique in Liechtenstein!
View of Planken, Liechtenstein
