Archduke Heinrich Ferdinand of Austria

Getting around

Regional coach travel remained slow for years

Before the railway reached Villach, the slow stagecoach between Klagenfurt and Villach took about eight hours to complete the trip.

At the table

Limited meat consumption for poor families

Poor industrial workers and families often survived on dry bread, with meat, such as boiled beef, appearing on their tables only during holidays or feasts.

What people wore

Prankish feast day dessert centerpieces

At peasant feast day dinners, a dessert centerpiece was garnished with bows of bright ribbons, flowers, and deliberately hidden thorns and stinging nettles.

Music

Landler dance in the Wechsel region

The Landler was the dominant dance in the Wechsel region, often accompanied by instruments ranging from violins and clarinets to wind instruments and the Styrian diatonic harmonika. Thousands of Landler melodies were played at celebrations like harvest festivals or in local inns.

Daily life

Shared water taps in Vienna apartment buildings

In urban Vienna, many apartments lacked private water or toilets, requiring residents to fetch water from a shared tap in the corridor called a bassena.