Shabandar Cafe

The Shabandar Café (Arabic: مقهى الشابندر, romanized: Maqha al-Shabander) is one of the oldest and most famous coffeehouses in Baghdad, Iraq. It is located at the end of al-Mutanabbi Street near the Qushla. The coffeehouse building was previously "al-Shabandar Press", which was established in 1907 and was owned by Musa al-Shabandar, who became Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time of the King Faisal II in 1941. The coffeehouse is now a cultural and intellectual social hub and is considered one of the most important heritage landmarks of Baghdad where poetry, politics, culture, literature, and art are discussed and a place to increase the visitor's knowledge about said topics.