Paszkowski

Paszkowski opened in 1846 on what is now Piazza della Repubblica in central Florence, originally under the name Caffè Centrale. In 1904 the cafe passed to the Paszkowski family, Polish immigrants, who reworked it as a Viennese-style beer hall and concert cafe. In the early decades of the 20th century it became a gathering point for the writers and artists associated with the literary magazines La Voce, Lacerba, and Il Selvaggio, part of the wave of cafe culture that made Florence's Piazza della Repubblica cafes a fixture of Italian intellectual life. The cafe also built a musical tradition around live orchestral performance, including, unusually for the period, a women's orchestra performing there in the early 1900s. Its Art Deco interior, with wood-paneled rooms, was formally recognized in 1991, when the venue was declared an Italian national monument. It continues to operate as a cafe and host live music and events on the piazza today.