History
In 1861, Europe's greatest boulevard was being built. The Ringstrasse was taking its shape and evolved into the “Korso” between today's opera and the Stadtpark, a promenade unknown to this point.
It was in those days when the Café Schwarzenberg, the oldest café on the Ringstrasse today, was opened by the Hochleitner family.
The Café Schwarzenberg has been a meeting place for business people from the very beginning.
Although never an artists' or writers' café, one famous visitor was a regular to his coffee house for many years:
The architect Josef Hoffmann, founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, used to be dropped off by his driver to have lunch, read the newspaper and put his ideas down on sketching paper (Quadratel Hoffmann). Many of his outstanding works were created at the Schwarzenberg.
After 1945, officers of the Soviet Army occupied the rooms for their events and destroyed the furniture.
A relict of those days was retained until the 1979 refurbishment: a mirror whose cracks and bullet holes had been turned into ornaments, making the best of it this way.
The Café Schwarzenberg today is one of the last cafés on the Ringstrasse upholding the typical atmosphere and tradition of a Viennese café.
A popular meeting place with the Viennese, an attraction for foreign visitors, a place to see and be seen.
(Kulinarik Gastronomie und Frischküche GmbH, Oberlaaer Straße 298, A - 1230 Wien)
