Gratz

Title

Gratz

Description

Bird's-eye view of the city of Graz an der Mur with the Schloßberg and figural staffages in the foreground.

ca. 1660

Artist

Bouttats (1640-1695-96)

Gaspar Bouttats the Elder was a Flemish printmaker and engraver of the Baroque period. He was born in Antwerp in a family of engravers. He was the son of the engraver Frederick Bouttats the Elder and Marie de Weert. His uncle Philibert Bouttats as well as his younger brother Frederik Bouttats the Younger built reputations as engravers.

Historical Description

The name Austria is first handed down in its Old High German form Ostarrichi from the year 996. The Latin form Austria was also used. In 1156 Austria became an independent duchy in the Holy Roman Empire. After the Babenbergs died out in 1246, the House of Habsburg prevailed in the struggle for rule in Austria. The area designated as Austria later included the entire Habsburg Monarchy and later the Austrian Empire, which was constituted in 1804, and the Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy established in 1867. The present republic came into being in 1918.