Empress Maria Theresa - Vienna, Austria
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Metro2
N 48° 12.276 E 016° 21.640
33U E 601096 N 5339936
Maria Theresa was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress
Waymark Code: WMK3JB
Location: Wien, Austria
Date Posted: 02/07/2014
Views: 22
Located on the plaza named after her, Maria-Theresien-Platz, this monument depicts the enthroned Empress. She is depicted as a middle-aged woman in this larger than life bronze work which was unveiled in 1988. She sits with a scroll and sceptor cradled in her left arm while she raises her right arm in greeting. This website (
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"13 May 1888 saw the unveiling of a large monument situated between the two Court Museums as part of the Ringstrasse ensemble. Still one of Vienna’s landmarks, it glorifies Maria Theresa, who sits enthroned, high and mighty above her advisors and generals. The monument depicts Maria Theresa in her best-known aspects, as a mother figure and as an enlightened yet absolutist reformer. Gathered around her as ‘pillars of the throne’ are her chosen political supporters and other contemporary figures."
Another good photo of the monument can be seen at (
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and thumbnails at (
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Wikipedia (
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"Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (German: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.
She started her 40-year reign when her father, Emperor Charles VI, died in October 1740. Charles VI paved the way for her accession with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and spent his entire reign securing it. Upon the death of her father, Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, and France all repudiated the sanction they had recognised during his lifetime. Prussia proceeded to invade the affluent Habsburg province of Silesia, sparking a nine-year conflict known as the War of the Austrian Succession. Maria Theresa would later unsuccessfully try to reconquer Silesia during the Seven Years' War.
Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, had sixteen children, including Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, Duchess Maria Amalia of Parma and two Holy Roman Emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II. Though she was expected to cede power to Francis and Joseph, both of whom were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled by the counsel of her advisers. She criticised and disapproved of many of Joseph's actions. Although she is considered to have been intellectually inferior to both Joseph and Leopold,[5] Maria Theresa understood the importance of her public persona and was able to simultaneously evoke both esteem and affection from her subjects.
Maria Theresa promulgated financial and educational reforms, with the assistance of Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz and Gerard van Swieten, promoted commerce and the development of agriculture, and reorganised Austria's ramshackle military, all of which strengthened Austria's international standing. However, she refused to allow religious toleration and contemporary travellers thought her regime was bigoted and superstitious. As a young monarch who fought two dynastic wars, she believed that her cause should be the cause of her subjects, but in her later years she would believe that their cause must be hers."