The Pharmaceutical Museum is a pharmacy and museum named after
Prof. Jan Muzynski, located on Freedom Square in Lodz. This is the
oldest pharmacy in the city. The patron saint of the museum, after
whom it is named, is Professor Jan Kazimierz Muzynski, a preacher of
pharmaceutical knowledge, one of the most prominent Polish
pharmacists of the first half of the 20th century, founder of the
Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lodz.
The pharmacy
was founded in 1840 by the chemist Karl Ketchman. The building,
which was located in the very center of the city, on the former New
Market, was built in 1828 and was originally one-story. In 1893,
according to the project of the architect Gustav Landau-Gutenteger,
a second floor with an attic and two outbuildings were added.
The museum in the pharmacy was opened in 2008 by a Polish
pharmaceutical company. The facade of the building has retained its
original appearance. On the ground floor of the museum, a room from
the late 19th century has been recreated with furniture from
Austrian workshops.
The collection of the museum has more
than three thousand exhibits, which are located on two floors. Here
you can see various glassware, wooden boxes for storing medicinal
powders, laboratory scales, old medical recipes, as well as an
apparatus for the production of narcotic drugs. The oldest exhibit
in the museum dates back to the 18th century. An interesting piece
of the collection is the diary of the first conference of Polish
pharmacists.
The museum's library contains a unique
collection of pharmaceutical literature not only in Polish, but also
in English, Russian and French. There are also medical periodicals.
In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum hosts
temporary exhibitions dedicated to renowned pharmacists.