# The 17 Greatest Historic Coffeehouses in the World

> Gilt-and-marble Central European palaces sit beside dim literary haunts and grand Belle Époque halls, and some regulars swear by one over the rest. Where would you settle in with a cup?

*By YPB Team · Published September 30, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-17-greatest-historic-coffeehouses-in-the-world*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Café Central** — score 1000/1000
   Vienna coffeehouse in the Palais Ferstel, famous for its vaulted hall and its literary regulars.
2. **Café Gijón** — score 775/1000
   Madrid café on the Paseo de Recoletos, open since 1888 and long the seat of literary tertulias.
3. **Café Majestic** — score 756/1000
   Belle Époque café on Rua de Santa Catarina in Porto, opened in 1921.
4. **Antico Caffè Greco** — score 724/1000
   Rome café near the Spanish Steps, open since 1760 and hung with paintings and busts of its famous patrons.
5. **Les Deux Magots** — score 665/1000
   Saint-Germain-des-Prés café opened in 1884, a hangout of Sartre, de Beauvoir and Hemingway.
6. **Café Procope** — score 596/1000
   Paris's oldest continuously operating café, open since 1686 and once a meeting place of Voltaire and Diderot.
7. **Caffè Florian** — score 517/1000
   Venetian café on Piazza San Marco serving since 1720, with mirrored, gilded rooms.
8. **Els Quatre Gats** — score 517/1000
   Barcelona modernista café-tavern of 1897 where the young Picasso held his first exhibition.
9. **Café Slavia** — score 423/1000
   Prague café opposite the National Theatre, opened in 1884 and frequented by dissident writers.
10. **Caffè Pedrocchi** — score 310/1000
   Neoclassical Padua coffeehouse of 1831, once known as the café without doors.
11. **Café Landtmann** — score 310/1000
   Vienna Ringstrasse café from 1873, a favorite of Freud and of Burgtheater audiences.
12. **Gerbeaud** — score 310/1000
   Budapest confectionery and café on Vörösmarty Square, serving since 1858.
13. **Café Tortoni** — score 310/1000
   Buenos Aires café on Avenida de Mayo, open since 1858 and known for its tango and literary gatherings.
14. **Café de Flore** — score 310/1000
   Paris café on Boulevard Saint-Germain, open since the 1880s and tied to Sartre and the existentialists.
15. **Café Sperl** — score 0/1000
   Vienna coffeehouse unchanged since 1880, with billiard tables and bentwood chairs.
16. **Café New York** — score 0/1000
   Budapest's ornate Italian Renaissance-style café of 1894, once the haunt of writers and journalists.
17. **A Brasileira** — score 0/1000
   Lisbon Chiado café from 1905, where poet Fernando Pessoa is said to have sat.

Tags: europe, coffee, travel, cafes