The Pharmaziemuseum – Museum of Pharmacy is located in Bressanone (via Ponte Aquila, 4). It was opened in autumn 2002 on the floor above the historical Pharmacy Peer. It collects many pharmaceutical drugs, books and instruments like pill press machines and suppository molds, glassware, jars and packaging used in the pharmacy, some of them for more than 400 years.
A view of the museum
Some pharmaceutical drugs
A work of art composed of pills
The museum is divided into some spaces:
- a Cabinet of Curiosities (the Wunderkammer), that includes items such as a stuffed crocodile, the head of an armadillo, a “unicorn” horn, parts of an Egyptian mummy and an elk dew claw.
The mithological unicorn horn
- a section with many pharmaceutical drugs and machines. There are curious items like suppositories following historic recipes, gold plated pills for the 17th century’s rich people, distillation kits, crucibles, modern powder inhalers for patients suffering from asthma, transdermal patches to treat high blood pressure or high-tech tablets capable of retarding drug release.
Lab equipment
Drugs
- a section with materia medica (minerals, animals or herbal sources) used in the past in order to create drugs and other medicinal substances.
Venison penis, used in the past in the impotence therapy
Pike jaw, used in the past in the kidney stones therapy
In the museum there are several unknown items like this one
- a library with books collected during over five centuries. There are encyclopedias on herbs, collections of recipes, physical and chemical instructions or books on medical science.
A book on chemistry
- Photos, main text and page layout by Gianmaria Barone (October 2017)
- Locate the items on this Google Map