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# Two hundred and sixty years, sealed shut
- URL: https://www.readingrome.com/two-hundred-and-sixty-years-sealed-shut/
- Published: 2026-09-20T14:42:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-20T14:42:22.000Z
- Author: Maria Chugrova

The sign still says 1760\. Gogol drank his coffee with cream here every morning while writing *Dead Souls* — there's still a small portrait of him on the wall. Baudelaire came, and Canova, and Fellini. The door's been locked since October, mid rent dispute, its antiques seized as evidence. People still stop, hands on the glass, reading a plaque for a place that no longer opens. The city keeps the label long after it stops keeping the thing. RR