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The Most Beautiful Coffee Houses in Europe

Coffee is more present today than ever before and can be found all over the world in a wide variety of combinations and flavors.

If you want to experience real coffee house culture, you can look forward to an exciting trip to the history of the cafés.

Coffee is more present today than ever before and can be found all over the world in a wide variety of combinations and flavors. However, what many of us hardly perceive is the fact that the actual drink has also developed a true coffee house culture. This has spread across Europe since 1554 and embodies so much more than just the enjoyable and unforgettable taste of a coffee.

Budapest, Naples, Istanbul, Venice, Vienna and Oslo – the most beautiful coffee houses in Europe can be found in these and many other cities. You can find them in large places in the city center, in charming alleys of old towns and everywhere else. Cafés are the perfect meeting point for a cozy get -together. Here we can exchange ideas about the worries of everyday life, enjoy fresh coffee and let the first rays of the spring of spring work on us when the weather is good. Cafés used to be a social hotspot and attract people of all nationalities, cultures, skin colors and languages. However, the classic coffee house culture has changed significantly in some points. However, the old charm continues in the most beautiful coffee houses in Europe and invites you to an exciting journey through the history of the cafés.

Coffee house culture of the old school

Many of us understand the term coffee house, many of us, like Starbucks and Co. Especially young people hardly see the flair of the “old school” in today’s cafes. But what exactly is hidden behind the classic concept of coffee house culture and what does this mean for the history of the cafés? In 1554, the first coffee house was created in Constantinople, i.e. today’s Istanbul. A few years later, other cafes followed in Venice, London, Oxford, Bremen, Marseille, Vienna, Paris and many other cities. The coffee house owners invited the state’s well -lifted society to dine together, enjoy delicious coffee and to discuss current topics. In fact, the coffee houses of the time were a meeting point for philosophers, artists, scholars and writers. Top -class citizens of every city met here to open up new perspectives and to exchange ideas with each other. Music, art, literary works and political decisions found their origin in coffee houses such as the Café Rivoire, the Greco in Rome or the Procope in Paris. Thus, the classic coffee house culture had developed from a simple café to a place of revolution, development and modernity. Cities like Florence or Vienna in particular benefit from the new coffee houses and still look back on a story that would hardly have gone without those meeting points. Of course, there were also delicious coffee and tasty pastries to taste. With always new coffee creations and a first -class service, the coffee house owners tied their customers themselves and created a new gastronomic standard that cannot be experienced everywhere. This unique flair is an integral part of today’s coffee houses from the old days, which distinguishes it from modern and hip cafés.

Denker and artist of past years, such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Thomas Mann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal or Hemingway, socially important works in coffee houses. For many, it was the perfect places to discuss and control the political and society events. These places of inspiration continue to exist today and invite people to think and exchange ideas. A good example of this is the world-famous book series of the Magic apprentice Harry Potter. The author Joanne K. Rowling wrote the first volume in Elephant House, a charming coffee shop in Edinburgh. So if you are looking for classic coffee house culture, you will still find it these days. Appropriately, the photographer Adonis Malamos went on a trip across 20 countries in which he explored the most beautiful coffee houses in Europe.

The old school’s cafés: Experience coffee

The most beautiful coffee houses in Europe invite each of us to experience the coffee culture as it existed from the start. The flair of the old facilities, waiter with red west and noble suits, confectionery with history, confectionery of the old school and coffee houses from other times. If you want to join famous writers, politicians and artists, you are in good hands here and can experience real coffee house culture apart from the “coffee-to-go”.

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Coffee in Europe: History of Italian Coffee

In Europe, Italy is considered the motherland of coffee – or “caffè”, as the Italians call it. But why actually? Mamis Caffè dives into the history of coffee in Italy with you.

The discovery of coffee: thanks to the goats

All sorts of legends surround the origin of coffee. The most well-known is about an Ethiopian herdsman named Kaldi, who grazed his goats in the Kaffa region. Accordingly, he observed that the animals always jumped around particularly cheerfully when they had eaten from the fruits of a certain bush. That’s why Kaldi tasted the coffee cherries and discovered their stimulating effect.

Whether the goatherd was really the first person to ever taste coffee is uncertain. However, many sources show that coffee actually spread from Ethiopia, first to North Africa and then to the entire Arab world. There, people drank it with pleasure for many centuries before coffee finally came to Europe.

The coffee goes to Italy

The origins of coffee in Europe are clearly Italian. The Venetian physician Prospero Alpini, for example, got to know the coffee plant on a trip to Egypt in the 16th century and learned from the local people how to roast the beans and use them to prepare the aromatic drink.

In 1570, thanks to Alpini, the first beans reached European soil in Venice. Initially, coffee was sold in pharmacies as medicine due to its beneficial and stimulating properties. In addition, the black gold was so expensive that only rich people could afford the luxury. Coffee quickly became a popular and valuable gift among aristocrats, a symbol of love and friendship.

Church and coffee: love at second sight

Not everyone made friends with the brown pick-me-up straight away. The stimulating drink from the Arab world was considered by many to be a stimulant for unbelievers, and Catholic clergy initially condemned it as “the devil’s stuff”. Some even called for coffee drinkers to be excommunicated and called on Pope Clement VIII to officially ban coffee consumption.

Clemens VIII, however, decided to try the controversial drink himself first – and was enthusiastic about the taste of the frowned upon luxury food. “This drink of Satan is delicious,” he is said to have exclaimed. The Pope then decided not only not to ban coffee, but even to define it as a “Christian drink”. Since then, no coffee drinker in Catholic Italy has had to have a guilty conscience – and coffee has been able to begin its triumphal march unmolested.

Caffè Florian in Venice: The first coffee house in Europe

In the heart of Venice, under the arcades of the spectacular Piazza San Marco, Europe’s first coffee house opened in 1647, a forerunner of today’s famous Caffè Florian. The café, based on models in Alexandria and Constantinople, was very well received and quickly found imitators: just a few decades later there were already more than 200 cafés in Venice alone. The new fashion quickly spread to other Italian cities, including Padua, Turin, Rome and Naples. Coffee also became popular in many other European cities at this time.

The stylish coffee houses gained increasing prestige. They became the meeting place for well-known writers, philosophers and statesmen, who engaged in stimulating discussions over an invigorating cup of coffee. And to this day, the cafés are the favorite meeting place for Italians.

Milestone: The invention of the espresso

A milestone in Italian coffee history is the invention of the espresso. In 1901, Milanese Luigi Bezzera patented the first machine that used steam to prepare the little black one.

Contrary to what is often assumed, the Italian term “espresso” does not mean “fast”. There are two explanations for the name. On the one hand, the meaning “explicitly” or “specifically”. Because in the early years, the “caffè espresso” was only brewed on express request. So the little black one was a coffee “expressly or specially prepared” for the guest.

Another explanation relates to the then new method of preparation with steam and brings espresso in connection with steam locomotives – also known as express trains at the time. Incidentally, the Italians themselves usually refer to the pick-me-up simply as “caffè”. They still prefer to drink it neat, with a fine crema or as a cappuccino for breakfast.

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