History of Vienna Cafe

In Rome, the most famous is the Graco Cafe, which opened in 1750. Traveling to continental Europe is an essential education for British aristocratic children, while Rome is the preferred destination. For the sake of art, a group of northern artists from Britain, Germany and Scandinavia work in this city. These painters, sculptors and antiquities researchers regard Greco Cafe as their favorite place to go.

The cafe is not big, and even in the 19th century there were only three small rooms. Around 1752, after a dispute between a group of British artists and their German counterparts, they moved to a cafe in Spain Square a few hundred meters away and turned it into a British cafe. In 1765, James Boswell made it his own post office and told his friends to send the letter to the Cafe of England during his stay in Rome.

Thomas Jones, a young Welsh painter, recorded that in December 1776, on his first day in Rome, he was taken there, where he was happy to find "an old friend of London". The cafe is opened in a dirty vaulted room, but the decoration is the most exciting modernist style, in Rome's cold winter, damp accommodation makes Jones very inappropriate, the only comfort is to "run to the English cafe."

In Vienna, the birth of cafes has long been romanticized by the story of the Polish Franz George Karzesky. In 1683, Vienna was besieged by well-equipped Ottoman troops. After months of shelling, just as the fortifications seemed to collapse, the Polish Prince led reinforcements to lift the siege, the Ottoman army was wiped out, and all baggage and supplies were captured.

The officers in Vienna were amazed by the large amount of war materials and military supplies, especially the large amount of food supplies that the hungry city urgently needed. Karzesky had spied on the enemy several times during the battle and had experienced a lot of danger. in order to reward his bravery, Karzesky was given a few bags of Ottoman coffee, which no one had ever seen before, and no one knew how to eat it.

Karzesky had so much coffee that he peddled the drink in the city and made the residents of the city like it. However, the first cafe opened in 1685 and was owned by an Armenian in the city, who applied for and received the only concession to make and sell this "oriental drink" in Vienna for 20 years.