The Cafés of Žilina, 1918 – 1945

The study provides a brief overview of the cafés situated in the city of Žilina during the period of the first Czechoslovakia and the first Slovak Republic. The development of selected cafés, that is, of café-type establishments (coffee houses and restaurants) is not comprehensively recorded from the start to the close of trading of the establishments, the study focuses exclusively on interbellum period. Considering the lack of specialized literature that deals with public houses in Žilina, especially coffee houses, the research relies exclusively on archival research of the records of the Bytča branch of the State Archive located in Žilina. The study mentions the most famous cafés of Žilina, the variety of goods they offered and the potential cultural program that was intended to attract the public.
Café culture developed in Žilina thanks to population growth (from 2,326 in the year 1850 to 11,996 in 1919) and industrial development in this important crossroad of the trade routes between Poland and the Bohemian lands, as well as the ideal opportunities for the establishment of small and medium-sized enterprises in the interbellum period.