Lviv Pharmacy Museum

Lviv is situated in western Ukraine and is considered to be a city of immense historical significance. This city has renowned all over the world due to its old buildings and religious activities. So a large number of tourists from all over the world pays visit to the place every year. Among its many spots of tourist attraction, Lviv Pharmacy Museum is one of the most important and famous one.

Lviv Pharmacy Museum was first opened in an old drughouse by a military pharmacist in 1735 beside the market square. In 1966, it was remodeled as a pharmacy museum while in 1972 it was considered as a National Museum. The architecture of the museum still reminds us of the medieval age. The ceilings are polychrome painted and it signifies the four major force of the universe - water, air, fire and earth. The painting was done by a Viennese painter in the 19th century.

As told earlier, the museum building is a perfect example of 17th century architecture and here you will notice two bas reliefs of two Greek gods and inside the building you will notice the history of pharmaceutics since the ancient period.

In 1968 a group of Ukrainian pharmacists started collecting medicines from everywhere and grew this museum. Lviv Pharmacy Museum has 16 halls and 2000 articles rare instruments, vessels, scales and manuscripts. Among the 16 rooms, the first room is considered to be the trade room and people can buy medicine from here. The wall of the room is decked with lined built -in closets. Some glasses are designed with several symbols like eagle, crown, star etc. These designs symbolize different pharmacies like “under the crown”, “under the star” etc. On a desk of the town hall there are 3 19th century scale. They look like the modern electric candlesticks. In this room you can see two bronze figures of two Greek gods – Aesculapius and Hygies. A symbol of medicine depicting a bowl and a snake can also be noticed here. The symbol is said to be more than 4000 years old. You can even witness an oil lamp here which was made in the middle of 19th century. In fact, Lviv produced the first oil lamp in the world.

The other rooms in Lviv Pharmacy Museum include a pharmacy laboratory, a cook room, an office room and basements. Various materials like first hand held tablets, percolator herbal drugs are also exhibited.