Early modern European festivals were the catalyst for the creation of many temporary and occasionally permanent architectural feats both within courts and cities. Royal residences could be transformed into arenas for the performance of a wide variety of celebrations, while civic space could similarly become home to elaborate structures designed to facilitate festivities and make a statement about the power and influence of a particular state and/or ruler. The essays in this volume discuss examples of festival architecture ranging from imperial summer houses to the transformation of urban space in Paris, Rome and Venice.

Introduction: Making Space for Festival J.R. Mulryne 1. A Productive Conflict: The Colosseum and Early Modern Religious Performance Mårten Snickare 2. A New Sack of Rome?: Making Space for Charles V in 1536 Richard Cooper 3. Vienna, a Habsburg Capital Redecorated in Classical Style: The Entry of Maximilian II as King of the Romans in 1563 Mikael Børg Rasmussen 4. Fountains of Wine and Water and the Refashioning of Urban Space in the 1565 Entrata to Florence Felicia M. Else 5. Making the Best of What They Had: Adaptations of Indoor and Outdoor Space for Royal Ceremony in Scotland c. 1214 to 1603 Lucinda H. S. Dean 6. From Ephemeral to Permanent Architecture: The Venetian Palazzo in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century Martina Frank 7. Contested Ideals: Designing and Making Temporary Structures for the Entrée of Louis XIV into Paris in August 1660 Elaine Tierney 8. Overcrowding at Court: A Renaissance Problem and Its Solution: Temporary Theatres and Banquet Halls Sydney Anglo 9. Transformed Gardens: The Trompe-l'oeil Scenery of the Versailles Festivals (1664-1674) Marie-Claude Canova-Green 10. Ephemeral and Permanent Architecture During the Age of Ercole I d'Este in Ferrara (1471-1505) Francesca Mattei 11. "Ascendendo et descendendo aequaliter": Stairs and Ceremonies in Early Modern Venice Katharina Bedenbender 12. Permanent Places for Festivals at the Habsburg Court in Innsbruck: The "Comedy Houses" of 1628 and 1654 Veronika Sandbichler 13. La Favorita festeggiante: The Imperial Summer Residence of the Habsburgs as Festive Venue Andrea Sommer-Mathis 14. Between Props and Sets: The Menus Plaisirs Administration and Space Conversions in the French Court, 1660-1700 Pauline Lemaigre-Gaffier