Marie Antoinette · Premium
The island of destiny: the "handover" of Marie Antoinette
On 21 April 1770, fourteen-year-old Archduchess Marie Antoinette left Vienna to become Dauphine of France. After days of travel, on 7 May, on an island in the Rhine, the handover ceremony took place: in a specially built pavilion, the girl was stripped of her Austrian clothes and dressed in French ones, erasing every trace of her previous identity. The ceremonial was extremely rigid, and even her pug Mops had to remain in Vienna. The venue was decorated with tapestries depicting Jason, Medea and Creusa, an ominous omen noticed by the young Goethe. In a few minutes, Maria Antonia of Habsburg became Marie-Antoinette, Dauphine of France. Alone, surrounded by strangers, she crossed a border that was not only geographical, but existential.
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