Cluj-Napoca

The Pharmacy Museum in Cluj-Napoca occupies the historic Mauksch-Hintz House, a remarkable Renaissance and Classical building on Union Square that has housed the city's first pharmacy since 1573, making it an extraordinary repository of nearly 450 years of pharmaceutical history in Transylvania. This distinguished institution, part of the National Museum of Transylvanian History, showcases over 7,000 artifacts telling the evolution of pharmacy and medicine in the region, including the original officina (sales room), camera materialis (storage room), and basement laboratory that preserve the authentic atmosphere of traditional pharmaceutical practice from the 16th through 19th centuries. The museum's exceptional collection, developed initially by Professor Gyula Orient in the late 19th century, features an impressive array of bronze, marble, and cast iron mortars (16th-19th centuries), historical scales, presses, weights, and thousands of wooden pharmaceutical containers collected from across Transylvania, alongside fascinating curiosities such as the legendary "Mummy Powder" believed to cure all diseases and prolong life. Notable historical figures associated with the pharmacy include Tobias Mauksch, who operated it from 1752-1802 and left behind a remarkable 1752 Hungarian-language fresco documenting the pharmacy's history, and the Saxon Hintz family who owned the establishment from 1851 until nationalization in 1949, transforming it into the renowned "Saint George's Pharmacy." The building itself represents architectural evolution through the centuries, featuring a Classical façade from the 1820s built atop Renaissance-era foundations and basement, while the museum experience allows visitors to explore both the pharmaceutical collection on the ground floor and the comprehensive medical instruments collection in the historic basement laboratory. After recent restoration work completed in 2024, the museum continues to serve as a vital educational resource that bridges the gap between historical pharmaceutical practices and modern medicine, offering visitors a unique opportunity to understand how traditional remedies, alchemical practices, and folk medicine evolved into contemporary pharmaceutical science in one of Europe's most historically significant pharmacy locations.