Four years previous to the Archduke Ferdinand's coming to take up his residence at Innsbruck as Regent of Tyrol he had acquired the picturesque and finely situated Castle of Ambras, and by many alterations and additions to the then existing building soon made it one of the most noted as well as one of the most beautiful residences in the whole country. He furnished it with great magnificence, and when all was completed presented it to his wife Philippine. Here they usually spent the summer months in a happiness which was not only proverbial but undoubted. As have been several other rulers of Tyrol, the Archduke Ferdinand was not only greatly interested himself in art, science, and literature, but he sought as the patron of these to gather around his person and to attach to his Court learned professors, artists, and scientists from all parts of Europe. As a result the court of Ferdinand and Philippine grew from an artistic, musical, and intellectual standpoint to be a particularly brilliant one. [Sidenote: CHARACTER OF PHILIPPINE] The character of Philippine seems to have been as pleasing as was her physical appearance. She is said to have had a fine, clear, though somewhat pale, complexion, blue eyes, and golden hair, although it must be added that existing portraits of her do not do her justice in the latter regard, unless her beauty was greatly exaggerated. In most of them she appears with a slightly oval, and more Italian than Teutonic type of face, with well-marked and well-bowed eyebrows, soft, but intelligent eyes, a straight nose, and a very sweet, and even in some portraits "roguish," mouth; but as a whole her face is not one of striking beauty, judging it by the standards of more modern times. Philippine, when settled at Ambras, greatly interested herself in good works of all kinds, but more especially in the visiting and care of the sick, and the memory of her good deeds in this respect is still cherished in Tyrol. Her chief physician has set down the large number of sick who were at various times under her immediate care, and in the record one finds mention of ailing folk of many nationalities, showing her Catholic spirit in the relief of suffering. She even had her own dispensary at Ambras in the charge of one Guranta, who was a celebrated chemist of that time. Concerning her one of her biographers says, "She, herself delicate in health from early life, had a strong and ever ready sympathy for sufferers, especially those who were distressed in mind or circumstance as well as in body."