Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria

Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (; 21 April 1770 – 1 October 1809) was an archduchess of Austria as the daughter of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and became princess-abbess of the Theresian Institution of Noble Ladies in Prague.

Life Maria Anna with her older brother Ferdinand in 1770 on a painting by Anton Raphael Mengs. Maria Anna was the fourth of the sixteen children of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife, Maria Luisa of Spain. She was born in Florence, the capital of Tuscany where her father reigned as grand duke from 1765 to 1790. Her father was a son of Empress Maria Theresa, sovereign of the Habsburg monarchy, and her mother a daughter of King Charles III of Spain.

She had a happy childhood surrounded by her many siblings. They were given a different upbringing than was usual for royal children at the time: they were raised by their parents rather than by servants, were largely kept apart from the ceremonies of court life and was taught to live simply, naturally, and modestly.

In 1791, she became abbess of the Theresian Institution of Noble Ladies in Prague, a monastic chapter of secular canonesses founded by Maria Anna's grandmother, Maria Theresa for poor noblewomen. In 1809, she travelled to Neudorf (today a part of Zăbrani, Romania) where she died on 1 October, aged thirty-nine. In 1841, her nephew, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria commissioned a funerary plaque of Carrara marble.

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