Trieste's historic cafés on the Locali Storici d'Italia register

Map of 4 locations in Trieste, Italy

Locali Storici d'Italia admits a room only if it has kept working more or less as built, and Trieste's four members read as a timeline of the city under and after Vienna: an 1830 coffeehouse that doubled as a nationalist meeting room, a 1914 café decorated by a mountaineer-painter, a 1900 pastry counter on James Joyce's street, and a 1915 bar fitted out by the man who panelled Adriatic ocean liners. All four still serve coffee at the counter rather than charging admission to look. What survives in each case is specific and checkable: the marble, the brass, the liberty glazing, the Presnitz.

Places in this collection

  • Antico Caffè Torinese — Fitted out in 1915 by the interior designer Debelli, whose other commissions were the passenger liners Vulcania and Saturnia, which is why…
  • Caffè Pasticceria Pirona — A pastry shop since 1900, with its liberty-style windows and original fittings intact, on the street where James Joyce kept a house between…
  • Caffè San Marco — Built in 1914 to Mark Lovrinovich's design, with the decorative work directed by Napoleone Cozzi, a painter who was also a climber and a wr…
  • Caffè Tommaseo — The oldest coffeehouse in the city, opened in 1830 by a Swiss merchant named Tommaso Marcato, and credited with bringing gelato to Trieste.…

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