Café Central – the former literary stronghold

Where is Café Central located? When was it founded and who was the architect? What kind of visitors did Café Central attract? What makes a visit to Café Central an experience today?

There are coffee houses and there is Café Central, as they say in Vienna. Café Central is the number 1 café and the best known in the world. It is located at Herrengasse 14 in Vienna’s city center in a beautiful building in the style of the Tuscan New Renaissance.

The Viennese Ringstrasse architect Heinrich von Ferstel created this Italian-inspired building in 1860. He was inspired by Italian Trecento architecture after a long trip to Italy and wanted to implement this in Vienna. Ferstel also built the University of Vienna, the Votive Church and the University as well as the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK).

Café Central was founded in 1876 by the Pach brothers. Initially, the old stock exchange halls and the Austro-Hungarian Bank were located on the site of the café.

The café’s flight of fancy

After Café Griensteidl , the former meeting place of the literati, was demolished, they moved just a few hundred meters away to Café Central. This was the beginning of the café’s rise to fame in 1897. Famous regulars included Peter Altenberg, Anton Kuh, Adolf Loos, Sigmund Freud, Egon Friedell, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hermann Bahr, Alfred Adler, Oskar Kokoschka, Stefan Zweig, Alfred Polgar, Leo Perutz, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Felix Salten, Richard Beer-Hofmann and Arthur Schnitzler.

Everyone who was anyone in Vienna at the turn of the century could be found at Café Central. Over cake, coffee and cigars, people discussed, philosophized and often spent more time here than at home. Some guests even gave their home address as Central (Peter Altenberg). It was an international meeting place and there were 250 newspapers in 22 languages. People liked to play chess, especially Mr. Bronstein, alias Leon Trotsky, who lived as an emigrant in Vienna from 1907 until the end of the First World War.

Destruction, renovation and the present

In 1943, the pillared hall was destroyed during the Second World War and the café was closed. It fell into disrepair until it was renovated and reopened in 1975. A further renovation took place in 1986.

Today, visitors to Vienna are still greeted by the same atmosphere as at the turn of the century. A Peter Altenberg figure greets guests at the entrance, after the usually long wait. No other café in Vienna has a longer queue. Sometimes a pianist plays in the evening and you can sample both the Viennese coffee specialties and Café Central’s own patisserie delicacies in this ambience. There is also a Café Central cake.

Café Central offers not only sweets, but also typical Viennese dishes such as the famous Wiener Schnitzel, beef goulash, cabbage dumplings or fried chicken. A classic Viennese dessert – the Kaiserschmarrn – is also a must. This makes Café Central the perfect place to eat in the morning, at lunchtime or in the evening.

The Viennese like to go there early in the morning, around 8am you can have breakfast in peace and quiet at Café Central, where the proportion of locals is around 90%. Two hours later, this changes to 90% tourists and the Viennese are already at work.

Time Travel Tip: After a visit to Café Central, be sure to stroll through the Ferstel Passage onto the Freyung. Vienna has only a few passages of this kind. Exquisite stores invite you to sample chocolate, wine, ham and other delicacies .

Image source: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Palais_Ferstel_Cafe_Central.jpg