Chemist Shop Museum Under Black Eagle, Lviv

Chemist Shop Museum Under Black Eagle in Lviv

The Chemist Shop Museum Under Black Eagle is the oldest surviving pharmacy in Lviv, turned into the only museum of its kind in Ukraine, where you can see old pharmacy equipment and the herbals that medieval apothecaries used.

The pharmacy museum, which, incidentally, has worked as an ordinary pharmacy since 1735, holds pharmacy vessels and pill-making machines of different ages, old scales, herb cutters and medieval herbaria. Here you can see ancient stone mortars in which ointments were prepared or dried medicinal plants were pounded.

The people of the medieval city trembled as they crossed the threshold of this pharmacy. The spirit of health, longevity and even immortality seemed to hover here. People believed in it, and that very belief was a kind of psychological medicine against illness.

In the museum rooms you can see unusual pharmacy equipment from different eras: 14th-century amphorae for transporting and storing liquids, a collection of wooden and metal pharmacy presses, herb cutters, crucibles, measuring beakers, flasks, carboys, original stills for distilling water, mills for crushing and grinding solid preparations, and samples of healing plants.

You can also stroll around the pharmacy museum without leaving your chair, thanks to the 3D tour on this page.

The museum also holds the most valuable documents on the history of pharmacy, from ancient times to the present day. Among the exhibits, original editions of Galen’s works from the 16th century have a special place. The pharmacy also owns authentic early printed pharmaceutical dictionaries and prescriptions from the 18th century.

Alongside ordinary modern medicines, the Lviv pharmacy museum sells its own signature remedy, «iron wine», a tonic drink that is sold only here.