A café, pastry shop and restaurant in the Piazzale Konrad Adenauer, housed in the building that was designed as the official restaurant of the Esposizione Universale Romana.
At a glance
The Palombini group has run this café in the EUR district since 1963. It occupies the ground floor of a building constructed in 1939–42 to serve as the “official restaurant” of the E42 exhibition, next to the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana.
Key facts
- Where: Piazzale Konrad Adenauer 12, Roma
- What: Bar
- When: 1939–1942, as the building
- GPS: 41.8366, 12.4671 · Open in Google Maps
History
Giovanni Palombini came to Rome with his coffee experience in the 1940s and opened a bar on Via Vittoria Colonna, naming it the “Caffè dei Professionisti”. The business later grew into the Palombini group. The café in EUR has been in operation since 1963, according to the group’s own account.
The building it occupies predates the café. It was built between 1939 and 1942 as the “official restaurant” of the E42, the planned world’s fair that gave the EUR district its name. The structure was designed to provide restaurants for functionaries, workers, executives and visitors to the exhibition.
What you see
The two photographs show the same building from different sides. The side view reveals a rationalist structure with tall vertical windows and a low stone base along the street. The front view shows a sign for “Caffè PALOMBINI” above the entrance, with a paved square and parked cars in the foreground.
Inside, to the right of the entrance, a side room contains polychromatic marble mosaics by Eugenio Fegarotti. They show a table with cutlery and flowers, with EUR buildings in the background. The entrance room has frescoes by Franco Gentilini from the same period.
Do you know more about this place?
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Nearby
- Leon Battista Alberti State Institute of Higher Education, Rome — an educational building in the same district
- Palazzo degli Uffici (EUR) — Gaetano Minnucci and the First Building of the E42 — the first building of the E42
- Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana — the “Square Colosseum”
- Salone delle Fontane — an event space with mosaics by Futurist artists
Gallery
Sources
- Palombini, Caffè Palombini EUR – Dal 1963 l’eccellenza a Roma: founding of the group by Giovanni Palombini, the café’s operation in EUR since 1963, and its range of services
- Dianne Bennett and William Graebner, Rome the Second Time: Art with your food in Rome – Caffe’ Palombini in EUR: construction of the building in 1939–42 as the official restaurant of E42; mosaics by Eugenio Fegarotti; frescoes by Franco Gentilini
- Daroma S.p.A., PALOMBINI – Daroma: Giovanni Palombini’s arrival in Rome in the 1940s and the opening of the Caffè dei Professionisti on Via Vittoria Colonna
- Apple Maps, Palombini Eur in Rome, Italy: address at Piazzale Konrad Adenauer 12
- OpenStreetMap, Palombini node 2517197511: address and coordinates
- Gillian Longworth McGuire, Gillian Knows Best mini guide to EUR: description of Caffè Palombini as a historic Roman bar serving pastries, tramezzini and aperitivi
- Stefano Vigolo, photographs and notes to the editorial staff (2026): identification of the subject. Not a published source
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