Rome's Historic Antico Caffè Greco Where Gogol Wrote Dead Souls Closes After Long Legal Battle

Rome’s famed Antico Caffè Greco, founded in 1760 and long hailed as the city’s oldest operating café, has closed after a protracted legal battle over its lease.

The building that housed the café belongs to Rome’s Israel hospital, whose management announced plans to open a new establishment in the space. The hospital has not yet revealed what type of venue will replace the historic café.

The eviction followed a seven-year court dispute between the café’s management and the property owners that began in 2017 when the lease expired. The café sought to renew the lease but the owner refused and subsequently contested the renewal in court—a process that stretched for eight years.

Located in a prestigious central Rome district near boutiques such as Gucci, Bulgari, Cartier, Prada and Max Mara, Antico Caffè Greco displayed several dozen paintings and sculptures in its rooms. Staff have moved the works into storage.

Over the centuries the café drew literary and intellectual figures: English poet George Gordon Byron, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and writer Mark Twain. Russian writers also frequented the café—Nikolai Gogol wrote parts of Dead Souls there, and poets Fyodor Tyutchev and Ivan Turgenev visited the premises.

Local press first reported the closure in Corriere della Sera.