Eleonora Gonzaga (1598–1655)

Princess Eleonora Gonzaga ( born September 23, 1598 Mantua, † June 27, 1655 in Vienna) was the youngest daughter of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat and Eleonora de ' Medici, Princess of Tuscany.

Biography

Eleonora spent her childhood at the court in Mantua. She married on 2 February 1622 Innsbruck to Emperor Ferdinand II, whose first wife Maria Anna of Bavaria in 1616 had died. But the family Gonzaga not benefited as hoped by their association with the Emperor. For this marriage was frowned upon by some of his advisers. This was reported by the Messenger of the Gonzaga shortly after the wedding. Imperial armies conquered in 1630 even in the Mantuan War of Succession the residence of Mantua and devastated it.

Eleonora was described by the papal nuncio Caraffa as very beautiful and good. So Eleonora founded Carmelite convents in Graz and Vienna. They also let the Herzgruft in the Augustinian church built in Vienna. Her marriage with the emperor remained childless, but Eleonora was the stepmother of Ferdinand's four surviving children from his previous marriage.

Your last resting place Eleonora first in the Carmelite convent in Vienna, until it was in 1782 transferred to the Ducal Crypt at St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Gallery

As a widow

Coffin in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral