"(…) a tak Její Veličenstvo nejmilostivěji nařizuje, aby byl také tento nešvar odstraněn". Císařovna Marie Terezie jako patronka Tereziánského ústavu šlechtičen v Praze:

The study analyzes activities of Maria Theresa as the foundress and patroness of the Theresian Foundation for Noblewomen at Prague Castle. The Foundation was established in 1755 and served as a prominent care giving institution for unmarried women from noble families. Attention is paid for instance to the issue of patrons’ motivation, the way individual members of the Foundation were chosen as well as to individual factors that influenced the granting of the Empress’s support. Furthermore, particular forms of Maria Theresa’s patronage activities connected with the everyday functioning of the Foundation are observed – especially the ways of communication with the leading representatives, the development of personal ties with the members of the socalled body of superior ladies, as well as forms of active involvement in the routine functioning of the Foundation through issuance of new directives to which the Empress resorted in reaction to repeated breaches of current regulations. The study also focuses on the figure of the first abbess of the Foundation at Hradčany, the Empress’s eldest daughter Archduchess Marie Anna (1738-1789).