The pharmacy museum is housed in an old pharmacy on the Market Square. This pharmacy was opened in 1735 by a military pharmacist. Years passed, the owners changed, but even today you can buy modern medicines here. In 1966 on its basis was created a museum of the history of pharmacy and now it has about 8 thousand exhibits.
The exposition consists of 5 halls and a basement gallery. Through a double glazed door you enter directly from the street into the sales room of the pharmacy with modern medicines and the first museum hall. Tall oak cabinets decorated with artistic carvings, pharmacy utensils made of porcelain, faience, glass of different colours, interesting scales in the shape of the founder of medicine Aesculapus and his daughter Hygeia. A special place in the exposition is occupied by an oil lamp in the far cabinet on the left side. It was in Lviv in 1852 that paraffin was invented. Attention should be paid to the ceiling with interesting paintings, as well as to the gas candelabrum.
In the second hall of the pharmacy-museum there is a realm of medicines and pharmacy supplies - pill machines, pill devices, scales, stupas, a large collection of ampoules from different times and, of course, a cabinet with substances that are used in medicine in exceptional cases - poisons and narcotic substances are stored there. A valuable exhibit of the pharmacy museum is the prescription book of Lviv pharmacists.
The third hall may not be the best in terms of the value of exhibits, but it is very important for those who want to learn about the history of medicine. It presents the history of pharmacy from ancient times to the present day on artistically designed stands and tablets. The exhibits here familiarise visitors with the different stages of processing medicinal plants and making medicines from them. Here you can see herb cutters, presses, drying cabinets, percolators, a collection of rare medicinal plants from different parts of the world, including ginseng and others. There is an alchemical laboratory in the underground room.
