Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor

Getting around

Carriage travel times

Travel was slow and difficult; for example, a journey by carriage between St. Pölten and Melk, a distance of 30 kilometers, took 5 to 7 hours under good weather conditions.

Daily life

The heart of the home: The Stube

The Stube was a central, heated room in homes, where children often sat on a bench over the stove to stay warm while others worked.

What people wore

Four sets of clothing for rural life

In rural areas, people typically owned four types of clothing: workwear, everyday festive wear, Sunday best, and special attire for high church holidays. The wedding suit often served as the high holiday outfit and was frequently worn by the deceased for their burial.

Music

Common rural dance instruments

In the seventeenth-century countryside, ordinary people primarily used bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies for dance music, before the violin became established as a popular instrument later on.

At the table

Creative Substitutes in Rural Cooking

Facing shortages, rural families practiced creative cooking by mimicking expensive dishes, using names like false almond cake or false meat soup to describe their humble substitutes.