Pedrocchi coffee

It was 1772 when Francesco Pedrocchi from Bergamo opened a coffee shop in Padua. At the turn of the century, the fashion for this new drink was spreading rapidly and his son Antonio, having inherited the property from his father, decided to buy the entire block and the nearby buildings to build a real factory for roasting, storing and pouring coffee. The project, presented to the municipal authorities in 1826, was entrusted to the Venetian architect and engineer Giuseppe Jappelli who in 1831 delivered an eclectic neoclassical building that looks like a gallery that develops parallel to the central Via 8 Febbraio,  open on two doors to the north and south that deliberately remain wide open both day and night (until 1916).
In 1839 the 'Pedrocchino' was built, a neo-Gothic style room intended to house the pastry shop, while in 1842 on the occasion of the IV Congress of Italian Scientists, the upper floor or 'noble floor' was inaugurated, intended for parties, meetings and shows and to house the Museum of the Risorgimento and the Contemporary Age.
Bequeathed to the son of one of his helpers, the Caffè Pedrocchi became the property of the municipality and all the people of Padua in 1891 at the behest of the owner himself.

This elegant building, one of the most famous historical and literary cafés in Italy in the nineteenth century, was immediately frequented by Italian and European artists, writers. With its three rooms, White, Red and Green in homage to the Italian tricolor, it was a meeting place for the Paduan bourgeoisie but also a place open to all. In fact, even the most penniless students could stop in the Green Room (still today intended for those who want to stop without the obligation to consume) without consuming anything but simply to read a newspaper. This seems to be the origin of the saying still in use today "stay broke".

The White Room, on the other hand, preserves in one wall the hole of a bullet that exploded on February 8, 1848, during the guerrilla war between students, Paduans and the Austrian army, and is also known as the setting chosen by Stendhal for his novel La certosa di Parma.

Finally, the Red one is the central nucleus of Caffè Pedrocchi, where the original counter built to a design by Jappelli is still located today.