As Austria's oldest coffee house, Café Tomaselli in the heart of Salzburg's old town stands for 300 years of coffee tradition and already welcomed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Café Tomaselli on the Alter Markt in the historic city centre is one of our top 10 sights in Salzburg. It was founded in 1700 and has been owned by the Tomaselli family since 1852. This makes it not only the oldest café in Salzburg, but in the whole of Austria, beating even the Viennese cafés so famous for their tradition.
Café Tomaselli is in a prime location on the Alter Markt, a historic alley in Salzburg that branches off directly from the square in front of Salzburg Cathedral and ends in Judengasse or Getreidegasse. The traditional café is a listed building and an absolute must when strolling through Salzburg!
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Austria's oldest café
Café Tomaselli can now look back on over 300 years of history. During this time, the Tomaselli family, now in its fifth generation, has modernised their elegant café while at the same time holding on to old traditions.
After all, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Thomas Bernhard and Herbert von Karajan were among the regulars who met here to drink coffee, write, chat and play chess.
Today, the audience is mixed and consists of families, students and artists as well as business people and, of course, tourists. At festival time, Café Tomaselli is also popular with actors, opera stars and international VIPs.
Visit to Café Tomaselli
Guests take their seats at marble tables in the stylishly furnished traditional café between wood-panelled walls and classic newspaper racks, and are served their orders on silver trays by the waiter in a tailcoat.
In addition to classics such as Melange and Häferlkaffee, you can also enjoy Italian coffee specialities and the irresistible Tomaselli coffee at Café Tomaselli.
Shortly afterwards, the "cake lady", a friendly lady in a white frilly apron, appears with a load of tempting delicacies. Looking at the 40 or so different pastries right at the table, hardly anyone says no to a sweet coffee accompaniment.
The birth of the coffee house in Salzburg
Although the façade proclaims that Café Tomaselli has been open since 1703, it was actually founded on 31 March 1700, at that time still in Goldgasse.
In 2003, historians found a document that "Her Grace" had graciously granted Johann Fontaine the first public "sale of chocolate and coffee". This right was bought from him in 1764 by Anton Staiger, who opened the café at its present location as a real coffee house.
In 1852, the café went to the Italian-born confectioner Carl Tomaselli. The interior has hardly been changed since then, apart from a few extensions and renovations.
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