Europe’s most powerful monarch still lives in a towering hilltop castle and has the power to dissolve parliament and veto legislation. He is referred to as His Serene Highness.
Decades, or indeed centuries, after Europe’s kings and queens were forced to relinquish their political power to national parliaments, Liechtenstein’s Prince Hans-Adam II and his son, Crown Prince Alois have only seen their grip on the tiny Alpine nation tighten.
And the people of Liechtenstein, for the most part at least, seem to love them for it.
In 2003, after a series of disputes between Prince Hans-Adam II and Liechtenstein’s parliament, a referendum was held - not on whether to reduce his power over parliamentary politics, but to increase it. Liechtenstein’s 40,000 people voted overwhelmingly in favour.