Café Tomaselli
The Café Tomaselli on Alter Markt in the state capital Salzburg is the oldest operating coffee house in Austria . Its history dates back to 1700. It has been owned by the Tomaselli family since March 12, 1852.
history
It was not until 2003 that the historian Gerhard Ammerer found out when researching the history of the café that it was not founded in 1703, as it says on the facade, but in 1700. At that time, Johann Fontaine received the approval of the authorities to open the first "coffee bar" to open in Salzburg. But it was initially in Goldgasse and was not yet a real coffee house, but above all a meeting place for students. In 1764, the rights to serve coffee were acquired by Anton Staiger, who founded the café at its current location; it was named "Staiger". Staiger was court master of Archbishop Siegmund III. Count Schrattenbach . He turned the coffee house into an elegant establishment for the upper class. Even Mozart was a frequent guest at the Staiger , as he noted in his writings. Even Michael Haydn belonged to the circle of friends Staiger. After Anton Staiger's death on January 2, 1781, his son Franz Anton took over the café and enlarged it by purchasing two shops. After his death in 1819 it came to his son Josef, who soon handed it over to tenants.
In 1852 Johanna Staiger sold the café to the “confectioner” Carl Tomaselli , son of the tenor Giuseppe Tomaselli from Milan . The family was associated with the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart family . Mozart's widow, remarried Constanze von Nissen , also lived in this house from 1820 to 1826. Tomaselli added ice cream to the existing range of coffee, tea and cocoa. In 1859 the Tomaselli kiosk was opened opposite the café, which is still a meeting place for cultivated sociability even today in summer. A few years later Tomaselli had a second billiards and games room set up, which in 1891 became the “ladies' salon”; until then the visit had been reserved exclusively for men. In 1937/38 the Tomaselli terrace was built according to plans by the architect Otto Prossinger . Otherwise the café has remained largely unchanged.
After the Second World War , the café was confiscated by the Americans for several years and operated as an American coffee shop under the name Forty Second Street Café . However, in 1950 it was returned to the Tomaselli family. The café is now in the fifth generation of the family.
literature
- Gerhard Ammerer : The Tomaselli and the Salzburg coffee house tradition since 1700. Verlag Christian Brandstätter, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-902510-22-6 .
- Walburga Schobersberger: From the vaulted café to the literary café. In: Salzburg Archive. Writings of the association "Friends of Salzburg History". Vol. 20, 1995, ZDB -ID 2379825-7 , pp. 321-358.
Web links
- Website of the Tomaselli
- Article on Tomaselli ( Memento from January 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- About history
Coordinates: 47 ° 47 '57 " N , 13 ° 2' 42" E