Zlatá Koruna monastery boasts authentic Baroque pharmacy exhibition
Have you ever wondered what a Baroque pharmacy looked like? The answer lies in a monastery called Zlatá Koruna, in southern Bohemia, which recently re-created such a pharmacy from authentic items dating back to the 18th century.
The former kitchen, which is now scented with herbs such as sage, lavender, thyme, rosemary and basil, houses a truly original Baroque apothecary set. Historically, however, it was not located in the monastery. It originally came from the closed Jesuit college building in Jihlava. It came into the ownership of the monastery after it was purchased by the National Heritage Institute from a private owner, thanks to a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture.
The whole set is quite extensive, as is already evident from the words of local guide Kateřina Tarantová.
"First of all, there are the apothecary cabinets from the middle of the 18th century. In these cabinets, there are medicine jars, various small pharmacy bottles amd containers made of glass, wood and porcelain. A lot of these medicine bottles still have the original medicines in them. Here we have an original sales and production counter with old-fashioned scales on it, a microscope from the mid-18th century, and a fully preserved plant press. Then there's a painted chest and above it portraits of the two patrons of medicine and pharmacy, which are St. Cosmas and St. Damian."
The pharmacy was located in the monastery practically from its foundation around 1263 and its activity was carefully documented, until it was forced to close with the dissolution of the monastery in 1785.
According to the National Heritage Institute, most monasteries already had space for the accommodation and care of the sick in the Middle Ages. In addition to pharmacies, the monasteries also had pharmacy gardens where herbs were grown for the preparation of medicines. The exhibition at Zlatá Koruna displays many of the original medicines. But do we know what the old medicine jars and bottles contain? And how effective would these old recipes be? We asked our guide Kateřina Tarantová.
“We had a chemical analysis done from the residue of the medicines. And we are gradually finding out what the individual drugs were used for etc. That's all still in process because the pharmacy is something that’s new this season, so we're still looking into that. We have big plans for the future, though - we want to do different specialized tours.”
The exhibition is open to visitors every day except Monday from 9am to 4:30pm.
