Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Abstract:
In the Paulanerkirche in Vienna there is a chapel dedicated to St Francis de Sales, one of the patron saints of the Duchy of Savoy. On the altarpiece is an inscription with the foundation date (1706) and a direct reference to the Savoy Nation that had financed the work. In the 18th century, many immigrants from the territories of the Duchy of Savoy lived in Vienna. These were not only soldiers and nobles following Eugene of Savoy but mainly textile merchants and workers employed in the new cotton and silk spinning mills in and around Vienna. These immigrants had succeeded in formally integrating into the society of arrival, although they had retained a strong identity and relied on a solid network of compatriots who provided not only solidarity and charity work within the nation but also commercial enterprises. A second chapel in the city dedicated to the Savoyard saint was completed in the Peterskirche as early as 1714, again thanks to funding from a number of emigrant families. Many members of the Savoy Nation in Vienna maintained close ties with their homeland thanks to continuous trade as well as artistic and cultural exchanges: not only artists travelled between the two countries, but also numerous works of art were sent from Vienna to villages in Savoy and Piedmont in memory of their expatriate fellow citizens. In many cases, the models taken came from the new homeland, as evidenced by the copy of the Peterskirche altarpiece that is still preserved in the parish church in Saint Nicolas-de-Véroce in the Savoy Alps.