Museum of Pharmacy – Red Crayfish Pharmacy
Baroque pharmacy with impressive murals on the ceilings serves as a ticket office for Michalská Tower and an information center.
The Museum of Pharmacy is housed in a part of a former pharmacy called the Red Crayfish on the ground-floor of a Baroque burgher’s house. The equipment is supplemented with faience, stoneware, wooden, china and glass containers for storing medicines. The atmosphere of the room is enhanced by paintings in the Baroque – Classicist style with a theme of healing and three figurative compositions on the vaulted ceiling.
Entrance is free unless you decide to visit the Michael’s Tower.
The basic equipment of the oldest pharmacies consisted of wooden vessels. They were used for preserving dried parts of plants and animals as well as gemstones. Later on, tin vessels were introduced for storing oils, fragrances, natural resins, but also dragon’s blood, healing honeys, nutmegs, opiates and semi-liquid healing substances.
In the 17th century, the territory of Slovakia saw the beginnings of ceramic vessels usage for preserving ointments, extracts, honeys, elektuaria and syrups. For long centuries, glass vessels belonged to the permanent equipment of a pharmacy. They were used for liquid extracts, liquid chemicals, but also for powder medicaments.
