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Alexandrine Prinzessin zu Windisch-Grätz

1850–1933

Born
20 Aug 1850, Como
Country of birth
Italy
Died
12 Jul 1933, Slovenske Konjice
facts
8
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 · Como

    Birth, Como

  2. Died · Slovenske Konjice

    Death, Slovenske Konjice

What was it like?

The world around Como, 1850: 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.

When Alexandrine was born in 1850, Como belonged to the Kingdom of Italy, ruled by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

Who ruled

  • Victor Emmanuel II of Italy

    Monarch of Italy, 1861–1878 · Kingdom of Italy

  • Otto I the Great

    Monarch of Italy, 951 · Kingdom of Italy

Born the same year

  • Luigi Cadorna

    Italian general (1850-1928)

  • Frances Xavier Cabrini

    Italian-American Catholic nun, misionary and saint (1850-1917)

  • Robert Louis Stevenson

    Scottish novelist and poet (1850–1894)

  • Mihai Eminescu

    Romanian poet, novelist and journalist (1850-1889)

  • John Collier

    British Pre-Raphaelite painter and author (1850-1934)

  • Guy de Maupassant

    French writer (1850-1893)

Fashion

Folk costumes signaled social status

Folk costumes in rural Italy served as detailed social markers, where the quality of dye, the number of buttons, or even the type of metal in a finger ring signaled a wearer's wealth and marital status. These traditional outfits, often featuring unique local embroidery and lace, were brought out specifically for harvest festivals and religious processions.

Respectful dress for feast days

For working families, a clean white shirt or a well-preserved jacket kept by attentive wives was considered essential for church or feast days to show respect to God and demonstrate civility. Ordinary laborers often spent their weekdays in worn clothing, but would carefully maintain these finer garments specifically for such holy occasions.

Music

Pifferari musicians perform for the Madonna

As Christmas approached, wandering musicians known as pifferari traveled from the mountains to Rome, playing bagpipes and oboe-like pifferi to perform devotional concerts before images of the Madonna.

Around 1825–1849

Essential instruments for daily life

Castanets and tambourines were essential instruments for dancers, frequently accompanied by violins and guitars. Guitars were especially favored for nocturnal serenades, open-air concerts, and romantic declarations.

Getting around
Around 1825–1849

Climbing Mount Etna by horse and carriage

To climb Mount Etna, travelers would depart Catania by carriage for Nicolosi, then ride horses to the Casa degli inglesi, arriving at midnight. From there, they trekked 1.5 hours before dawn to reach the summit to witness the sunrise.

Around 1825–1849

Travel by mule and lettiga in Sicily

In Sicily, travel was often done by mule or in a lettiga, a carriage-like box without wheels carried by two mules that moved at about three miles per hour. This unconventional vehicle was notoriously noisy due to bells and prone to swaying on uneven ground.

Daily life
Around 1840–1849

Daily routine in boarding schools

In private boarding schools run by Pious Schools in the 1840s, students typically followed a strict routine that included eight to nine hours of sleep, five hours of lessons, and two hours of spiritual exercises daily.

Cost of meals and daily dreams

In some areas, public soup kitchens served meals for a modest fee of 11 centesimi per portion. Meanwhile, the urban poor in cities like Naples sometimes dreamed of basic comforts they lacked, such as a clean house with fresh air, white bedsheets, and regular meals of meat and pasta.

Food

Frugal flavor for polenta

For peasant families, one salted herring was considered sufficient to flavor a large serving of polenta for at least three people.

Around 1825–1849

Chestnuts as a main dish

Poor Neapolitans purchased nine boiled chestnuts for one soldo and used the reddish cooking juice to soak their bread as a main meal.

Prices and wages

Coffee and diet of the poor

In the mid-19th century, luxury items like a cup of coffee cost 2 grana, a price that laborers often paid daily as a digestive despite their poverty. At the same time, many workers lived as mangiafoglie, eating pasta only occasionally because it was expensive relative to their daily wages.

Around 1825–1849

Coffee and social status symbols

A cup of coffee, which cost 2 grana, transitioned from a natural pleasure to an increasingly indispensable luxury for ordinary people like shoemakers. Eating white bread was a significant social marker, as some laborers could only afford the common "mangiafoglie" diet of vegetables.

Work

Eight-Hour Workday in Pazzano Mines

In the Pazzano iron mines, a regulation established in 1845 set a working day of eight hours, which was notably shorter than the 10 to 16 hours common elsewhere in the Kingdom.

Around 1825–1849

Common roles in southern Italy

In the mid-19th century, common service roles included priests, domestic servants, and sailors, while most people outside of agriculture were not highly industrialized or commercialized.

During their lifetime

  1. 1888

    First National Healthcare Law Enacted

    Following a cholera pandemic that killed approximately 50,000 people, the government enacted Italy's first national healthcare law in 1888.

  2. 1888

    Introduction of Emigration Regulations

    The 1888 Emigration Act established the first formal regulations for citizens leaving the country as transatlantic emigration climbed to nearly 205,000 that year.

  3. 1898

    The Bread Riots of 1898

    Widespread bread riots broke out across Italy in 1898 due to rising wheat prices, leading to mass repression, including the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan where up to 400 people were killed.

  4. 1905

    Nationalization of Italian Railways, 1905

    In 1905, the Italian state nationalized the railway network, forming the State Railways (FS) to modernize transport and boost heavy industry.

  5. 1906

    Simplon Tunnel opens, 1906

    In 1906, the Simplon Tunnel, at 19.7 km the world's longest at the time, opened, connecting Italy and Switzerland by rail.

  6. 1913

    Peak of Italian migration, 1913

    In 1913, Italian migration hit a record peak, with 870,000 people leaving the country in a single year.

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.