Híres kávéházi asztaltársaságok a 19. századi Pesten

The 19th-century cafés in Pest meant more than simple entertainment venues for people of the age. Their basic function, of course, was hospitality, but they gave much more than that to citizens, aristocrats, and rural people or foreigners traveling through the city. Travelers remembered the city’s brilliant cafés in many colorful travelogues. The lively social life that took place here in the 19th century attracted many to the town of cafés. In my study, my primary goal was to present the best-known tableware companies of 19th-century cafes, along with their implications for social and political life. We have seen that, in addition to cultural and professional debates, participants have paid close attention to discussing current political issues of the age, focusing on the operation of table companies in the early and middle centuries. The first revolutionary aspirations also started from the cafés. However, after the defeat of the War of Independence, the role of literary cafés, once revolutionary centers, changed. From the 1850s onwards, their primary task was to provide shelter for those actively involved in the revolution. With the selfless help of many coffee shop owners, the literary and cultural life of the coffee shop rebounded and life began to return to its old wheel. Then, in the 1890s, coffee shops had to adapt to the needs of the modern era, also due to increasing foreign influences. By then, the city is no longer just about cafes in the classical sense of the word. There is also an increasing place for musical entertainment venues that provide modern forms of entertainment. In cafes, however, despite modernization, we can find the classic table companies of previous decades, proving that the arts have also found their audiences in a renewable café environment.