CITY OF COFFEE HOUSES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 153, 16 July 1937, Page 17

CITY OF COFFEE HOUSES

( Own Corresnondent—

National Hungarian Institutions 400 YEARS OLD

-Bv Air Mail.")

LONDON, June 15. Budapest has been called the towu of cafes (or coflee-houses, in the Hungarian language), and the four hundredth anniversary of the Buda coffeehouses has been celebrated by the publication of a two-volumed illustrated history of these coffee-houses, by Mr Bela Bevilaqua. the recorder of Budapest history and traditions, and Mr Bela Mozsary. The coffee-houses play a peculiar part in the lifo of the Budapest citizen. They are meeting-places for politicians, artists, authors, commercial travellers, and merchants, gossiping women, and loafers, but they also set the standard of life for the small bourgeoisie. In this class the love of coffee-housea is so deeply rooted that a family will deny themselves food, clothing, or heating so that the father may spend some time in a coffee-louse evory day. When hard times prevent him drinking his cup of black coffee and studying the newspapers, the whole family suffers from the eense of loss of caste. "House of Music." The first coffee-houses in Buda were opened during the Turkish rulo, and m 1541 the treasurer of Stamboul made a list of those existing in Buda and Pest. At that time the coffee-houses bore Turkish names, such as "House oi Light," "House of Music." "House of Nightlight," etc. In the "Bevanda Asiatica" of the Italian general, Count Marsigli, who took part in the recapture of Buda, the coffee-houses aro mentioned as being frequented by the invading army. After the passing of the Turks the coffee-houses were taken over by Serbians from the south of Hungary, and lat-er by Italiane, Germans, Spanish, and French. The Serbian coffee-houses were meeting places for merchants/ agents, and middlemen, and were small exchanges, whereas the German coffeehouses remained true to type and ptovided coffee with milk for groups and societies. Gambling Hells. In contrast to these the Italian and Spanish coffee-houses were often" gambling helle in which roulette and faro were played, and where fino brandy was serve.d with the coffee. In '48 the coffee-houses played an important part in politics, as their small rooms were the meeting-places for the patriot3 who. laid their plans for throwing off tho Austrian rule. It was in one of them that Petofi first recatcl his poem, "Talp'a Magyar!"- ("Eise, Hungarian 1 ") which was the signal for the outbreai of the Freedom War. At the end of tbe past centurv the first modern colloe-house, the fNew York," created a senaation for some yeai3 by its marble apd mirrors. To-day the "New York1" coffeehctise has tnkcn its place amOng the more modest esJeblishments.