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Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria

1738–1789

Born
6 Oct 1738, Vienna
Country of birth
Habsburg monarchy, today Austria
Died
19 Oct 1789, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee
facts
9
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Vienna

    Birth, Vienna

  2. Died · Klagenfurt am Wörthersee

    Death, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee

What was it like?

The world around Vienna, 1738: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Archduchess was born around the same time as Isabelle de Charrière, Giovanni Paisiello, and Carl Michael Bellman.

Known for

Titles held

  • abbess
Born around the same time

  • Isabelle de Charrière

    1740 · Dutch French-language writer and composer (1740-1805)

  • Giovanni Paisiello

    1740 · Italian composer of the Classical era (1740-1816)

  • Carl Michael Bellman

    1740 · Swedish poet, songwriter and composer (1740–1795)

  • James Watt

    1736 · British engineer (1736–1819)

  • Joseph-Louis Lagrange

    1736 · Mathematician and astronomer (1736–1813)

  • Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

    1736 · French physicist (1736-1806)

Fashion

Feast day versus daily wear

For feast days, people wore finer clothing, such as a blouse made of fine linen, whereas daily work clothes were made of coarse linen.

Personal cleanliness through body linen

In 18th-century Vienna, ordinary men typically owned between six and ten shirts, while women owned between seven and eleven shifts, which were essential for maintaining hygiene and a respectable appearance.

Music

Violins replaced bagpipes in rural dances

Following the 17th century, the violin replaced the bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy as the primary instrument for village dance music in the region, influenced by courtly examples.

Masquerade balls were a social highlight

During the carnival season, masquerade balls were highly popular, with noble guests often wearing costumes of lower social orders, such as cooks, servants, or exotic figures.

Getting around

Massive imperial travel party of 1738

The imperial journey of Maria Theresa and Franz Stephan from Vienna to Florence in 1738–1739 took over a month, involving 453 people and up to 300 horses at individual stations.

Around 1745–1745

Slow boat transport on the Inn River

In 1745, a boat trip on the Inn River between Kufstein and Hall took eight days, requiring 50 to 60 horses for towing.

Daily life

Crowded homes and shared urban infrastructure

Most residents lived in rented rooms or shared apartments where cooking, sewing, child care, and sleeping often occurred in the same few rooms. Homes relied on tiled stoves for heat and fuel, and daily movement was shaped by access to neighborhood wells and fountains.

Feeding children with bread-based pap

It was fashionable to feed young children a semisolid pap made of flour or bread cooked in water or milk to keep them quiet. Wealthy households often employed wet nurses and nannies to assist with the demands of child care.

Food

Beverages of the ordinary people

While the wealthy enjoyed wine, poorer women in Vienna often drank water mixed with vinegar to cool themselves during hot summers. By the 1730s, beer consumption was rising, and Viennese residents drank about three times as much wine as beer, though beer was increasingly becoming a staple drink.

Meager diet of the common people

The vast majority of the population ate very meagerly, relying on dishes made from legumes like peas, beans, and lentils, as well as porridges made from millet, oats, or barley. Meat was only rarely served to the common person.

Prices and wages
Around 1740–1740

Food prices in Vienna

In 1740, a kilogram of bread cost 2.61 Kreuzer, while a kilogram of beef cost 9.36 Kreuzer.

Work

Common Jobs Combined Multiple Trades

Many ordinary people relied on multiple income sources, combining small-scale farming with trades like weaving, masonry, or day labor to survive. Seasonal labor, such as weaving in winter and construction work in summer, was common.

Long Working Days Following Sunlight

The working day followed the sun and church bells, often lasting from dawn until dark, though authorities attempted to enforce longer shifts and reduce the number of holidays. In extreme cases during this era, some workers were required to toil for up to sixteen hours a day.

During their lifetime

  1. 1781

    Abolition of Serfdom Controls in 1781

    In 1781, Emperor Joseph II issued the Serfdom Patent, granting peasants the legal right to marry, move, and seek education without lordly permission.

  2. 1781

    Religious Toleration Patent of 1781

    The 1781 Patent of Toleration granted religious freedom and legal equality to Lutherans, Calvinists, and Serbian Orthodox Christians.

  3. 1784

    Centralized Hospital Opened in 1784

    The Allgemeines Krankenhaus opened in Vienna in 1784 to centralize medical care and provide free treatment for the poor.

  4. 1785

    Certified Medical Staff Decree of 1785

    In 1785, the Emperor decreed that every community must have a state-certified midwife and doctor to prevent epidemics.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.