"Sonsten sind wir alle wohlauf und haben hauptschöne divertimenti." Mikulov jako dějiště oslav císařského dvora v 17. století

Abstract

This study deals with three visits by members of the Habsburg family to the South Moravian town of Mikulov (Nikolsburg) in the second half of the 17th century. In 1672 Emperor Leopold I and his wife Margaret Theresa stayed here; in 1676 Archduchess Eleonore Maria, after a planned visit by the Emperor and his second wife Claudia Felicitas had been cancelled the previous year, and in 1691 the Emperor with his third wife Eleonore Magdalena. For these important visits Mikulov constituted an attractive place to stay not only because of its strategic location on the route from Vienna to Brno (BrĂźnn), or because of the Habsburgs’ close ties with Dietrichstein, to whom the estate belonged, but above all because of the local pilgrimage tradition. All these visits were accompanied by lavish programmes of festivities. In the case of the imperial visits, musical-dramatic productions were also prepared. In 1672, the serenade Il nuovo Giardino delle Hesperidi was planned to be performed for the Empress’s name-day, and in 1691 the serenade Gli auguria veracemente interpretati, intended for the Emperor’s birthday, which made Mikulov the only Moravian town at that period to experience festivities of this kind.