Marie Antoinette

What people wore

Traditional dress of Austrian peasants

Upper Austrian peasants commonly wore dark-gray jackets, red waistcoats with spherical metal buttons, and black leather breeches. They completed the outfit with tight buskins and broad-brimmed, shallow-crowned round hats.

Getting around

Foot travel: 20–35 km daily

In the Habsburg lands, poorer people who could not afford a horse or a stagecoach typically traveled on foot, covering about 20–35 km per day.

At the table

Staple diet of ordinary people

Ordinary people rarely ate meat and relied instead on flour-based dishes, legumes like peas, beans, and lentils, and porridges made from millet, oats, or barley.

Music

The Ländler and Early Viennese Waltz

Around 1750, the Ländler, also known as the Schleifer, served as a popular country dance for couples and provided the foundation for the later Viennese waltz.

Daily life

Shared urban living in cramped quarters

For ordinary residents, homes were often cramped rented rooms in multi-story buildings where daily tasks like cooking, sleeping, and working were all performed in the same limited space. Families relied on neighborhood wells and fountains for water and had to manage heating through tiled stoves that required constant attention.

What it cost

Jewelry cost 307 gulden in 1755

A gold smith received 307 gulden for jewelry for a wedding in 1755, demonstrating the high cost of luxury items in the mid-18th century.