Raeapteek
Encyclopedia
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
city, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
.
Opposite the Town Hall, at house number 11, it is one of the oldest continuously running pharmacies in Europe, having always been in business in the same exact house since the early 15th century. It is also the oldest commercial enterprise and the oldest medical establishment in Tallinn.
The first known image of the Town-Hall Pharmacy is an oil-painting by Oldekop, showing Tallinn's Town Hall Square in 1800. The first photos of the building date from 1889.
History
Historians have not been able to determine when exactly the pharmacy opened, but the oldest records available show that the Raeapteek was already on its third owner in 1422. Some scholars consider the opening year to be 1415.In a town council's notebook there is an entry by a chemist named Nuclawes who stated that the owners of the pharmacy are 10 honourable men, the majority of whom are aldermen. Other documents dated after 1422 refer that the first chemist here was Johann Molner and that medicines were already being sold at the pharmacy in the second half of the 15th century.
The Burchart (Burchard) family: 1582–1911
The Burchart (Burchard) familyBoth family
The Both family is an Hungarian aristocratic family who gave many personalities. Its members were Magnats Magnificus and medieval barons of the kingdom of Hungary since the 12th century.- History :It gave differents branches :...
are those most closely associated with the pharmacy's history, having run the business for over 10 generations, spanning over 325 years from around 1582 to 1911.
Between 1579 and 1581, a Hungarian immigrant named Johann Burchart Belavary de Sykava
Žikava
Žikava is a village and municipality in Zlaté Moravce District of the Nitra Region, in western-central Slovakia.-History:In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1075 : Sikula or Sichoua, Sichoa , Sitva , Zikawa , Žikawa...
, moved to Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
from his home town of Pressburg (present day Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
) and obtained a lease
Lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...
from the city council to run the business of the pharmacy. He was to be the first in a long dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
of pharmacists that were to run the Raeapteek.
He also started the family tradition of giving the first born son the name "Johann" who was always expected to carry on the family business. This tradition was carried on for eight further generations, until the late 19th century with the birth of the tenth first born son in 1843 called Johann X Burchart.
The Burcharts were well educated and often were not only pharmacists but also doctors
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
. They played a significant role in the life of the town.
In 1688 Johann Burchart the IV finally was able to purchase the pharmacy from the city council for 600 thaler
Thaler
The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where some of the first such...
s. In 1690 the Burchart dynasty and Town-Hall Apothecary's rights and obligations were confirmed with a privilege written by the ruling king Charles XI of Sweden
Charles XI of Sweden
Charles XI also Carl, was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period in Swedish history known as the Swedish empire ....
.
In 1710 Johann Burchart V started his career while Tallinn was being ravaged by the Black Plague. When Tallinn capitulated to the Russian army in the Great Northern War
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...
, he was one of the first to provide the Russian army with medicines. In 1716, he became the town doctor and the doctor of the garrison and the naval hospital.
The fame of the Burchart family became so great that in 1725 even the Russian Tsar Peter the Great supposedly called for Johann Burchart VI to attend to him on his deathbed, but he died before Burchart reached St. Petersburg.
In 1802 Johann Burchart VIII established a private museum of local life and curiosities calling it "Mon faible". Several items from his collection are now displayed in the Estonian History Museum
Estonian History Museum
The Estonian History Museum is a museum about the history of Estonia in Tallinn.It was initially established by chemist Johann Burchard who ran the town hall pharmacy in Tallinn known as the Raeapteek.-External links:...
. In 1802, he organized the first art exhibition in Tallinn.
The last two Burcharts were men of ill health, who could not supervise the pharmacy and leased it out to others again. The Burcharts rule over the pharmacy came to an end in the 1890s with the death of the last male heir of the named Johann X Burchart. The sisters of Johann X sold the property in 1911 to C.R. Lehbert ending the family run business which had lasted for ten generations.
1944–1991
During the second occupation of Baltic states the pharmacy was nationalized.1991 to present
After 1990 the entire pharmacy underwent extensive refurbishment as the building had been neglected for almost 50 years. This refurbishment lasted over 10 years until 2003.Presently the main part of the pharmacy is located on the first floor and sells most modern medicines, including aspirin
Aspirin
Aspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication. It was discovered by Arthur Eichengrun, a chemist with the German company Bayer...
, and even supplies condoms.
There is an antiques shop on the ground floor and in 1999 a garlic restaurant called "Balthasar" was opened on the second floor.
Features
Near the modern pharmacy on the first floor there is a small museum displaying old medical instruments, historical chemist tools and other curiosities. Set in wall, the museum also contains a large stone Coat of armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
of the Burchart family dating from 1635. It shows a griffin
Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...
with a crown and underneath a rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
between lilies.
On the second floor, there is a pillar on which a stonemason has carved the date 1663 together with Burchart's coat of arms.
Products sold throughout history
In medieval times patients could buy mummy juice (powder made of oversea mummies mixed with liquid), burnt hedgehogs powder, burnt bees, bat powder, snakeskin potion and unicorn horn powder for treatments.Also available were earthworms, swallow
Swallow
The swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...
’s nests and like various herbs and spirits, distilled at the spot.
Food was also sold such as candies, cookies, preserves and marzipan and jellied peel. Spicy cookies called “morsells” were a specialty.
One could even find a glass of Klaret (a locally sugared and spiced Rhine-wine wine). Later the pharmacy acquired the privilege to import around 400 liters of French cognac
Cognac
Cognac is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:Cognac is situated on the river Charente between the towns of Angoulême and Saintes. The majority of the town has been built on the river's left bank, with the smaller right...
tax-free on an annual basis.
The pharmacy also sold paper, ink, sealing-wax, dyes, gunpowder, pellets, spices, candles and torches. When tobacco was brought to Europe and eventually to Estonia, the pharmacy was the first to sell it.
See also
- ApothecaryApothecaryApothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
- Baltic Germans
- History of pharmacyHistory of pharmacyThe history of pharmacy as an independent science is relatively young. The origins of historiography pharmaceutical back to the first third of the nineteenth century which is when the first historiographies that while not touching all aspects of pharmaceutical history is the starting point for the...
- TallinnTallinnTallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
- Bot ou Both (famille) ,Burchart dynasty, in french.
Sources
- Seuberlich, Erich: Liv- und Estlands älteste Apotheken. Beiträge zu deren Geschichte gesammelt und bearbeitet von Erich Seuberlich. Riga, Druck von F.W. Häcker 1912
- Website of the restaurant "Balthasar" on the second floor. Includes a short history of the pharmacy
- History of the Pharmacy
- R. Sõukand, A. Raal: Data on medicinal plants in Estonian folk medicine: collection, formation and overview of previous researches
- Miljan, Toivo, 2004: Historical Dictionary of Estonia. (limited preview)