Maria Josefa von Habsburg

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.

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.

Getting around

Travel on foot for commoners

Ordinary people generally traveled on foot, covering 20 to 35 kilometers per day, as horse-drawn transport like coaches was expensive and largely reserved for the wealthy or official use.

What it cost

Price of bread in Vienna

Between 1650 and 1674, the price of bread in Vienna ranged from 1.27 to 2.82 Kreuzer per kilogram.

Music

Common instruments for rural dance

In 17th-century rural areas, the most common instruments for dance music were the bagpipe, the hurdy-gurdy, and the fiddle.

Daily life

The smoke kitchen as a central hub

Ordinary homes featured a smoke kitchen, a central space where food was cooked over an open fire, often leaving the room blackened by soot. This kitchen served as a cooking and heating area and sometimes even housed poultry at night.