Maria Theresa. The Habsburg‘s most powerful woman

The myth of the “Mother of the Nation”

2017 sees the 300th anniversary of the birth of Maria Theresa. She was never elected or crowned empress, and yet everyone knows her as Empress Maria Theresa. She was the “Mother of the Nation”, the guarantee of the cohesion of the various peoples and a myth that has survived to the present. Her strong personality serves as a surface on which hugely differing images of women can be projected, that of the self-sacrificing mother and good wife, that of the strict orthodox Catholic and that of the most powerful empress of the Habsburg empire.

The person Maria Theresa in all her facets

The Austrian National Library presents the person of Maria Theresa and her role in Austria and Europe. The exhibition addresses both her political successes and crises and the cultural achievements of her era. That she modernised her empire like no other ruler before or after she regarded herself as a baroque ruler by the grace of God, who attached the utmost importance to faith and tradition.

You can find more about Maria Theresa in all her facets on » Google Arts & Culture.