'Cafè Triest', a Habsburg enclave in religious Jerusalem

(by Francesco De Filippo) In the second half of the 19th century, when the Ottoman Empire was already in the process of crumbling, the Emperor of Austria asked for a base in the Holy Land for the reception of its pilgrims. It was founded in 1854 in Jerusalem the Austrian Hospice Holy Family from the then Archbishop of Vienna, who is still its owner today. An island not only Austrian in that area: the café, in ground floor, a Wiener Kaffeehaus, has an iconic name "CafèTriest", then a port of the Habsburg Empire. To tell the story the environment and atmosphere of this "enclave" is Giuseppe Colasanto, an official of a European Union agency, located in Jordan and Lebanon. "I was there recently for a business meeting and one of my Austrian colleague had suggested the Österreichische Hospiz to me zur Heiligen Familie, the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family, on whose roof two flags fly, Austrian and Vatican". The café had "amber lights, marble-topped tables and the wooden chairs, on the walls the pictures of Francesco Joseph and a young Princess Sissy; next to the coffee machine a seventeenth-century crucifix to complete this Habsburg microcosm in the Middle East. Classical music provided background music for customers who sank into upholstered sofas of dark red quilts read newspapers and magazines in German". In short, it's like finding yourself in a hundred-year-old Trieste ago, while outside the city of the three religions is crossed only by men and vehicles of the Israeli army and residents, without the presence of any tourists. The Café Triest has menus in German and English, prices in euros, and food, obviously, Austrian. "Next to me a lady with hat, order wiener schnitzel and kartoffel with a mug of beer and to finish a slice of Sacher torte - he says Colasanto -. Naively I ask at the counter if they have any Apple strudel. The blonde girl answers me with an accent. German yes, amazed that I was able to put in I doubt such a certainty!". In November 1869 Emperor Franz Joseph himself in trip to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal was hosted at the Austrian Hospice. He was the first European monarch to visit the Holy Land since the end of the Crusades.