No Coffee, No Revolution?
-
Loading... - Szabo Dominik
- 15 Mar 2022
- 412 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
In Hungary, too, coffee houses were the centers of social life. Just think of the Pilvax Café, which was one of the starting points of the 1848 revolution. Pilvax (original spelling: Pillwax) was frequented mainly by young reformists. Funnily enough, before that, the place was called Café Renaissance (“new birth”). The name fits well with the struggle for freedom.
On the wall, there were pictures of the French Revolution. These images acted almost as subliminal advertisements, along with the knowledge that in the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) the café also played an important role. During the French Revolution, for example, the Jacobins gathered at the Café Procope, the coffee house that still exists in Paris today.
The Society of Ten was founded in the Pilvax Café under the leadership of PetÅ‘fi and Jókai. In March 1848, it is where the youth delegate from Bratislava (Pozsony) announced the outbreak of the revolution in Vienna. Here PetÅ‘fi recited the National Song for the first time and the Twelve Points were published for the first time.
The presence of coffee was not always connected with historical events for Hungarians. According to the stories, when the Turkish army occupied a part of Hungary, they invited the Hungarian prince for negotiations. The meeting was organized as a lunch, at the end of which coffee was drunk. Hence the saying: now comes the black soup, i.e. now come the Turkish demands, now comes the “Turkish trap.” Other sources say, however, that it is a blood-based dish and it has nothing to do with this story.
How long has coffee actually been available in Hungary?
According to the legend, the Prince of Transylvania, Mihály Apafi, was the first Hungarian to consume coffee. This coffee was personally offered by Ali Pasha – who made him a prince – in his tent in Érsekújvár. It is thanks to the Turks that the “black soup” has become a part of our everyday lives. The Turks were the first to open the first coffeehouses in the country.
The first official coffee shipment to Hungary was made by a Turkish merchant named Bechram in 1579 – This year is the birth of Hungarian coffee culture. However, we should add that at first, only the Turks enjoyed the coffee. Read More...
