ABSTRACT
One of the most important festive venues of the Austrian Habsburgs during the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century was their main summer residence, the so-called Favorita. Eleonora, a daughter of Duke Vincenzo I of Mantua, became the new owner of the estate and in a letter from 20 August 1622, proudly reported to her brother, Duke Ferdinando, that she had a Favorita of her own in a very beautiful place outside Vienna. The naming of the Viennese villa Favorita can be interpreted as a conscious act of Eleonora and is significant as a factor in her role as an agent in the process of cultural transfer of an Italian–and specifically a Mantuan–style to Vienna. From 1622 on, Eleonora regularly staged dance performances and other theatrical events, which soon became an integral part of the festivities at the imperial court in Vienna.
