Habsburg Monarchy

State · 1487–1805 CE · at its largest around 1721 CE

The lands ruled by the Austrian branch of the Habsburg dynasty, centred on Vienna, which grew to include Bohemia and Hungary and was a leading power in central Europe.

Its battles, in Battle View

Battle of Blenheim (1704 CE)

On its lands while it lasted

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 CE – 1519 CE): Italian Renaissance polymath born in Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, whose notebooks record studies in anatomy, engineering and flight.
Michelangelo (1475 CE – 1564 CE): Florentine sculptor, painter and architect of the High Renaissance. He carved the Pietà and David, painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgement, and designed the dome of St Peter's.
The Last Supper (1495–1498 CE): Leonardo da Vinci's mural in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, depicting Jesus announcing that one of the apostles will betray him.
Pietà (1499 CE): Michelangelo’s marble sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ, finished around 1499 in Rome when he was in his early twenties. It stands in St Peter’s Basilica and is the only work he signed.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500 CE – 1558 CE): Habsburg ruler of Spain, the Netherlands, much of Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. He opposed the Reformation and abdicated his titles in Brussels in 1555–1556.
Mona Lisa (c. 1503 CE): Leonardo da Vinci began this portrait of Lisa Gherardini in Florence around 1503 and kept working on it for years. It hangs in the Louvre and is among the most famous paintings in the world.
St. Peter's Basilica (1506 CE): Pope Julius II laid the foundation stone of the new basilica in Vatican City in 1506; it was consecrated in 1626. Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini all shaped its design.
Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512 CE): Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 and 1512, including the Creation of Adam. It is a cornerstone of High Renaissance art.
The School of Athens (1511 CE): Raphael’s fresco in the Vatican’s Stanza della Segnatura, painted between 1509 and 1511, gathers the philosophers of ancient Greece around Plato and Aristotle. It is a defining work of the High Renaissance.
Ninety-five Theses (1517 CE): In 1517 Martin Luther circulated his 95 theses against the sale of indulgences in Wittenberg. The dispute that followed launched the Protestant Reformation.
Galileo Galilei (1564 CE – 1642 CE): Italian astronomer and physicist born in Pisa who pioneered experimental science and telescopic astronomy. Condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, he spent his last years under house arrest near Florence.
Johannes Kepler (1571 CE – 1630 CE): German astronomer and mathematician who, working in Prague with Tycho Brahe’s observations, found that planets move in ellipses and formulated his three laws of planetary motion.
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648 CE): A series of wars fought mainly in the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 to 1648, involving most European powers. It devastated Germany, where millions died from fighting, famine and disease.
Johannes Vermeer (1632 CE – 1675 CE): Dutch painter from Delft known for quiet interiors filled with soft daylight, such as Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid. He painted slowly, and only about 35 of his works survive.
Peace of Westphalia (1648 CE): Treaties signed at Osnabrück and Münster in 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War. They recognised Dutch and Swiss independence and reshaped the European state system.