Caffè San Marco is a historic café in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

founded in 1914 that became famous as a rendezvous for intellectuals and writers including

Italo Svevo Aron Hector Schmitz (19 December 186113 September 1928), better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo (), was an Italian and Austro-Hungarian writer, businessman, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. A close friend of Irish novelist and ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

Umberto Saba Umberto Saba (9 March 1883 – 25 August 1957) was an Italian poet and novelist, born Umberto Poli in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean port of Trieste when it was the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Poli assumed the pen name "S ...

and

Emmanuel Hocquard Emmanuel Hocquard (11 April 1940 – 27 January 2019) was a French poet. Life He grew up in Tangier, Morocco. He served as the editor of the small press ''Orange Export Ltd.'' and, with Claude Royet-Journoud, edited two anthologies of new Amer ...

, a tradition that continues to date with Claudio Magris. It is located in via Battisti 18. A meeting point for Trieste's irredentists, the café was destroyed by Austro-Hungarian troops during the first World War but was reopened when hostilities ended. The interiors reflect the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

style popular when the café was founded. Part of the frescos are attributed to Vito Timmel. The café is owned by Italy's largest insurance company (also based in Trieste),

Assicurazioni Generali Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. ( , ; meaning 'general insurances') or commonly known as Generali Group is an Italian insurance company based in Trieste. As of 2022, it is the largest insurance company in Italy and ranks among the world's largest i ...

. Italians campaigned to save the historic café in 2013 and it has now been restored, incorporating a bookshop.

References

External links

Brief History of Caffè San Marco
(in Italian)
Youtube video detailing the cafè's history
(in Italian)
Caffé San Marco website
(in Italian and English) Coffeehouses and cafés in Italy Buildings and structures in Trieste Restaurants established in 1914 Italian companies established in 1914 Art Nouveau architecture in Italy Art Nouveau restaurants 1914 establishments in Austria-Hungary {{Coffee-stub