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The Raeapteek or Town Council Pharmacy is located on the north side of the Town Hall Square (Raekoja plats). Pharmacy or apothecary was located here since the medieval times. It was first mentioned in 1422 when it was owned by Burkhardt family. Subsequent 10 generations of this dynasty worked in pharmaceutical business in a current Raeapteek. The pharmacy is divided into 2 rooms. One rooms is dedicated to a pharmacy itself, where they still sell modern drugs and medicines. The second room is a small museum full of ancient potions made from dried herbs, burned bees, earthworms and many other unusual components. These medicines are not for so sale, however. The Raeapteek is open to the public free of charge. Visitors are often treated with marzipan deserts.
The Council Pharmacy is located in the building at 11 Town Hall
Square (Raekoja plats 11), directly opposite Tallinn Town Hall. It is
actually three buildings that have been connected to each other. The
council pharmacy was probably founded in the early 15th century. The
first document attests to the third owner for the year 1422. Later
sources name Johann Molner as the first pharmacist and mention that
medicines are said to have been sold there as early as the middle of the
15th century.
Pharmacist dynasty Burchart
The history of the
Ratsapotheke is particularly linked to the Burchart family (Burchard,
Burchardt), a Regensburg pharmacist dynasty, who ran it from 1582 to
1911. Hungarian Johann Burchart (von) Belavary de Sykava came to Tallinn
from Bratislava between 1579 and 1581. In 1582/83 he leased the "Great
Pharmacy on the Market" from the city council.
The first-born son
of the Burchart family was given the name Johann and inherited the
pharmacy. Johann Burchart (IV.) bought it from the city in 1688 for 600
thalers. 1690 confirmed the Swedish king Karl XI. the purchase and the
rights and obligations of the owning family. Members of the family also
worked as doctors. The coat of arms of the Burchart family carved in
stone with the year 1635 can be seen in the porch of the house.
In the attic, Johann Burchart (VIII.) set up a small local history
museum in addition to wooden boxes for storing herbs, which he called
Mon faible (French: "my weak side"). Some of the exhibits from that time
can now be seen in the Tallinn City Museum.
At that time, not
only medicines but also other specialties were sold in the pharmacy:
sweets, marzipan, pastries, paper, wax, spices, playing cards and later
even tobacco. The Burchart family secured the privilege of importing 400
liters of cognac tax-free from France every year. The Ratsapotheke was
also known for the Tallinn claret, a wine made by infusing spices and
sweetened with sugar.
After the death of Johann Burchart (X.),
his sister sold the pharmacy to the Baltic German Rudolf Carl Georg
Lehbert (1858-1928) in 1911, thus ending the 325-year family tradition.
After the Soviet occupation of Estonia, the pharmacy was nationalized in 1944. After Estonia regained independence in 1991, the historic building was extensively renovated and inaugurated in new splendor in 2003. Today the pharmacy is on the ground floor. With its displays from the 17th to the 20th century, it is a magnet for many tourists. Above that is the Balthasar Garlic Restaurant. On the second floor there is a stone column with the coat of arms of the Burchart family and the year 1663.
Mardileib, or "Pain de Mart", a kind of marzipan, is a delicacy and a
specialty of Tallinn. According to Jaan Kross (Mardi leib - “Mart's
bread” - 1973) it was invented by Mart, apprentice of the Raeapteek at
that time. Having to test a remedy, he preferred to replace the bitter
ingredients with sweeter ones.
In the Middle Ages, patients could
buy mummy juice (powder of mummies mixed with liquid), burnt hedgehog
powder, burnt bees, bat powder, snakeskin potion and unicorn horn
powder.
Also available were earthworms, various herbs and spirits
distilled on site.
There were also foods such as candies,
cookies, marzipan and jams, fruit peels and jellies. Spicy biscuits,
called "morsells", were a specialty.
You could even find Klaret,
a sweet and spicy Rhine wine. Later, the pharmacy acquired the privilege
of importing approximately 400 liters of cognac per year, and directly
from France.
The pharmacy also sold paper, ink, sealing wax,
dyes, powders, granules, spices, candles and torches. When tobacco
started to be imported into Europe and Estonia, the pharmacy was the
first to sell it.
The pharmacy today sells, like any other
pharmacy, the most modern drugs.