Workshops (or ‘manufactories’, as they were known) and cottage industry were promoted by Maria Theresa and opposed by craftsmen. In ...

‘… shoemaker, tailor, linen-weaver, baker, merchant, gravedigger’. This children’s counting rhyme – still popular today – reflects the hierarchical society ...

While an arable crop ‘revolutionized’ the eating habits of people in the Habsburg Monarchy, an imperial plough mutated into an ...

As you make your bed, so you must lie on it: imperial interiors primarily served to provide an appropriately grand ...

‘Habsburg, single, interested in marriage, seeks ...’ – these might be the opening words of a Habsburg personal advertisement. However, ...

Maria Theresa, her ladies-in-waiting, her dressmaker and probably even the latter ’ s maidservant all had something in common: their ...

Oriental chic. The courtly collection for autumn/winter 1743: harem pants, silk and lashings of fur! Courtiers dressed in the latest ...

Theatre booms during the eighteenth century, with a large number of new stages being built as a consequence. In Vienna ...

In the Habsburg Monarchy, as it had been evolving from 1526, the imperial Court developed into the definitive integration platform ...

The size and power of attraction of the imperial Court, together with the huge expenditure on the Court household, was ...

The sixteenth century saw large parts of the nobility becoming Protestant. If the Habsburgs emphasized their own Catholicism, it was ...

From Italy a new art form arrived at the Habsburg court: the opera. With grandiose festivities and lavishly staged opera ...

Schönbrunn Palace is presented to the millions of tourists from all over the world who visit it annually as the ...

At the beginning of the seventeenth century developments in art were affected by the shortage of funds resulting from the ...

In the sixteenth century the medieval Church was rent by schism. The Reformation, Counter-Reformation and the emergence of various confessions ...

During the early modern era the House of Habsburg experienced a meteoric rise. Initially the leading role was taken by ...

"W ith classes three God filled the world As best as best can be; One class must teach, another feed, ...

Going on a journey in early modern times was an arduous undertaking as there were very few routes fit for ...

At the end of the Middle Ages the prices of agricultural produce began to fall, and the feudal rents collected ...

‘Happy is he who forgets’ was certainly not the motto of Emperor Maximilian I, a monarch who did his utmost ...

The term ‘ ganzes Haus ’ (lit.: the whole house, i.e., household-family) refers to a particular form of communal family ...

Employing craftsmen and artists at court was important to many dynasties. The objects they created embellished their rulers’ lavish lifestyles, ...

In late medieval and early modern times, magic, alchemy and the veneration of the saints were an integral part of ...