Shall we have a coffee? Besides Mozart, Sissi sausages, waltzes... Cafés are very typical of Vienna. And since 2011 the café culture, so traditional in Vienna, has been a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The Viennese go to cafés to feel like they are in their living room. You can read the paper, enjoy a pleasant conversation, eat a sandwich or snack and, depending on the facilities, play a game of bridge, chess or billiards.

The legend has its origin in the bags of coffee left by the Turks after failing in its siege of Vienna in 1683. But there is no clear information, the opening of the first café is attributed to an Armenian named Johannes Diodato, although the identity of the genius who decided to mix the bitter infusion with milk and sugar thus creating a drink that conquered the Viennese is unclear. It is also said that the first café opened in Vienna was called Die blaue Flasche (the blue bottle) and was opened by a Pole named Franz Georg Kolschitzky, who had lived in Turkey for several years and was a connoisseur of the world of coffee. And when the Turks fled they left behind, among other things, 500 bags of coffee that did not seem to interest anyone. Only this young man knew their true value and the usefulness of the contents and he asked to keep them.

There is something for everyone: from the essential Cappuccino or Melange to the resounding Turkish coffee, café latte, the Maria Theresia (with orange liqueur), the Mozart (with pieces of almond), the Franz Landtmann (with brandy and cinnamon) and the Sobiesky, served with vodka and honey.

What do the cafés offer artists, thinkers, philosophers, politicians, ordinary people.. they all gather beside a cup of coffee and a nice piece of their famous pies.

There are more than 1,083 cafés, 900 Kaffee-Restaurants and 181 Kaffe-Konditoreien, cafés producing and selling their own pastries.

Some luxury, some more austere, with large pillars and windows with typical wooden chairs by Michael Thonet, white marble tables or benches upholstered in red velvet, under huge chandeliers, or something darker and light yellow, decorated with wood or large frescoes, more modern and now almost everywhere has Wi-Fi, yes, all imbued with the aroma of roasted coffee beans.

Among the peculiarities of the cafés of Vienna, until 1856 no female customers were allowed entry, so the only women who had been in them before then was the cashiers.

We are convinced that if the cafés and the special atmosphere they created had not existed, many of the literary, philosophical or musical works or the birth of new ideas and styles that helped change the world would not have been possible. Now it is your turn to enjoy a good coffee.