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Bratislava - Farmaceutické Múzeum (Pharmacological Museum), Slovakia

Selena Hajduko

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Farmaceutické Múzeum (Pharmacological Museum) is housed in a tiny shop with a large red lobster door sign above. Walking towards the back, in the first room on the left there is a tiny model of a sixteenth or seventeenth century alchemist's lab. Alchemists were the very model of the mad scientist, except instead of creating Frankensteins from used body parts they tried to make gold from lead and other metals. Their claims made them popular with rulers who needed all the gold they could get. Prague's Golden Lane housed a gaggle of alchemists at one time. When looking at this model, try to imagine Faust at work - or perhaps using it as a dollhouse for a particularly demented child. To the right of the model is a bust of Paracelsus (1493-1545), an Austrian doctor and alchemist from Salzburg who visited Bratislava in 1537. His contributions to medicine were considerable for the time. There is also lab glassware to the left. Go back one room and look at the display of ingredients that would have been used in pre-twentieth century medicine. The top floor of the museum has a display of more medicines and scales, including a twin of the homeopathic medicine kit on display in the City Museum. The baroque and newer chests used to store medicinal ingredients are sometimes quite elaborate. In the back room to the right there is a map of all the former pharmacies in Bratislava and what year they opened and closed, as well as a collection of containers used to store medicinal substances. Turn left just before the stairs to view some old medical treatises. This museum is important because it gives some idea of what medicine was like in the days before man-made substances came to the forefront. Doctors relied on natural concoctions, time-tested over centuries, and had much more success with them than one would think. This shop's location near Michael's Gate indicates that it did a good amount of business. What is now the upstairs display area would have been the living quarters for the shopkeeper and his family.