Caffe Tommaseo, Trieste

Caffè Tommaseo is the oldest café still in operation in the city of Trieste. Opened in 1830, the café was one of the centers of the Trieste irredentist movement and is still today a meeting place for Trieste merchants, artists and intellectuals. It is part of the historical places of Italy.

The building that houses the Caffè Tommaseo was built in 1824 on the initiative of two Mantuan merchants: the brothers Felice and Vitale Vivante commissioned the Trieste architect Antonio Buttazzoni to design the project in piazza dei depositianti, now called piazza Niccolò Tommaseo.

In 1830 the Paduan Tomaso Marcato opened the Caffè Tomaso on the ground floor of the building. Marcato decked out his café with chairs made by cabinetmaker Michael Thonet and Belgian wall mirrors; he also commissioned the Friulian painter Giuseppe Gatteri (1799-1878) to decorate the walls. The café soon became a popular meeting place for traders, artists and other intellectuals. Marcato also organized numerous concerts (Thursdays by the Teatro Comunale orchestra and Saturdays by the band) and art exhibitions by well-known painters such as Giuseppe Bernardino Bison . Furthermore, he was the first to introduce the ice cream traditionin Trieste. In 1844 gas lighting was also introduced, which at the time was considered to be at the forefront of technology.

Among the best-known clients of the Caffè Tommaseo are: Pasquale Besenghi degli Ughi, Domenico Rossetti, Pietro Kandler, Henry Beyle (Stendhal), Virgilio Giotti, Giani Stuparich, Pier Antonio Quarantotti Gambini and Umberto Saba. Italo Svevo wrote some works in this place, while Claudio Magris wrote here his most famous work, Danubio.