The Baroque Officina of the old apothecary shop in Cluj

The so-called Officinae were the shop parts of old pharmacies - see details of the definition from Lat. Officina. The Officina of the apothecary shop in Cluj-Napoca, currently hosting the History of Pharmacy Collection, is the representative room, the most decorated one, the place where clients entered directly from the main square. The room was initially longer, as the corner of the building (The Maucksch-Hintz House in Cluj) was cut off during the 1950s in order to widen pedestrian access around the intersection. As any luxury shop today, the more impressive the interior the higher the prices.

18th century Officina inside the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj

18th century Officina inside the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj

The most important element of decoration in the Officina is the painting of the vault, created right after the middle of the eighteenth century. This is a rare example of lay Baroque painting preserved in the city, adapted to the room’s function: the medallions contain symbols of pharmacy such as the snakes of Aesculap on the Tree of Life, the stork with a rock in its claws, a symbol of vigilance, and the horns of plenty, symbols of abundance and, in a wider sense, health.

18th century Officina inside the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj

Central show case with animal ingredients, prescriptions and apothecary weights.

Another element of decoration consisted of the furniture and the numerous apothecary jars. the latter impressed clients through their shape, decoration and Latin inscriptions that proved the pharmacist’s presumed erudition. Naturally, the main function of these signatures was to indicate the content of the jars that was either apothecary ingredients or intermediate products such as bases for unguents or elixirs. The apothecary jars were made of different materials – pottery, glass – clear or milky, in order to protect the contents from intense light, and – exhibited in the next room – jars made of wood.

Detail of cupboard with display shelves, bust of Hygeia and 19th century portrait of a pharmacist from Gherla.

See, read and listen to more on the old pharmacy in Cluj on the museum's multimedia free-access profile on izi.Travel.