Osteria
Osteria is the name of a restaurant in Italy, where one mainly serves wine and light meals.
Etymology
The name comes from the Old French word Osteria for host " oste, ostesse " which in turn comes from the Latin ( hospite (m)) and is therefore to compare the root word with the German "economic ". One of the first evidence of the expression hostaria found in the magistrates' rules of the " Signori di Notte " ( Lords of the Night ), which, as the name suggests, watch over the night's sleep in Venice in the 13th century.
History
Comparable Local existed in ancient Rome, enopolium called while we were served hot food and drinks in thermopolium. These were kept in large tanks that were embedded in the counter: Well-preserved examples can still be seen in the excavations of ancient Pompeii.
Taverns emerged as rest stops on passages or in commercial places such as streets, intersections, plazas and markets, often in modest buildings. They soon developed as meeting places, places of public assembly and places of social relations. Wine was an essential part around which everything else moved: the food, the rooms, the prostitution.
Sociological significance
The Osteria was until the mid-20th century, a typical place where men met in the evening; a place of encounters and of social life, who always contributed to the spread of alcoholism, although excessive consumption of alcoholic drinks was not so much linked to the place than with the social situation and the lives of the impoverished sections of the population. The habit of attending an Osteria is often been the subject of bitter family disputes about the waste of money.
We can look at the taverns as the predecessors of the hotels and pensions of today. They usually had names referring to their coat of arms, which they issued an angel, a lion, an eagle, a crown, two spades, often together with a leaf branch. They offered wine, food and - for tourist accommodation and were of different " category" - sometimes. The cozy harbored among them respected people; the seedier pilgrims and soldiers.
The cheapest taverns were found in the vicinity of the port to accommodate the travelers who got out in a daze from the ships. Some taverns there was the notorious places of the city, where at night prostitutes, thieves, vagabonds and police officers were staying.
In the taverns slept and ate it, even though mostly very little and badly. In the taverns but one died. There are long lists of deceased handed stranger, sick hikers, injured soldiers and exhausted pilgrims. The taverns took without problems seriously ill travelers: by Christian charity and because, in the event of death, they have all the " inherited " which the deceased was wearing.
The oldest Osteria
In Ferrara, next to the cathedral, is the oldest Osteria in the world whose existence is documented back to the year 1435. Already around 1400 existed the " Hostaria del Chiucchiolino ", and who left the church (or wanted to avoid the entrance fee), entered the lane next door ( now Via degli Adelardi 11 ) to feast on board a boat on good wine - the Osteria was located in a small bay, which had been formed by rain water.
It is reported by many illustrious guests of this establishment, among them the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, the poet Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso, and the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who lived across the Osteria and studied.
In 1973, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski the Primate of Poland, Karol Wojtyła and who accompanied him were in Ferrara. The occasion was the 500th anniversary of the astronomer. To enter the living quarters of the famous man, they had the inside of the " Enoteca al Brindisi " as the oldest Osteria is called today, traverse.