ABSTRACT
From the second half of the sixteenth century, ephemeral architecture proved an indispensable component of ceremonial occasions in Western and East-Central Europe. Prague, like Vienna, became a venue for particularly opulent festivals, especially during the governorship of Archduke Ferdinand II; ephemeral architecture played a part in staging these festivities. A few years later, on 16 March 1563, Maximilian II's ceremonial entry into Vienna took place, following his coronation as king of Bohemia and Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor. The new ceremonial mode only reached Cracow later, with the 1574 reception of Henri de Valois signifying a new semantic orientation, a kind of 'Europeanizing' of the festival. An examination of ceremonial display in Cracow at this time reveals many similarities with the Habsburg festivals. Cracow's rise as a place in which particularly magnificent festivals with a strong European flavour were staged only occurred later, in the final third of the sixteenth century.
