Est. 1415
Some would argue that the Santa Maria Novella pharmacy in Florence, Italy is the oldest pharmacy in the world, but while it was founded in 1221, it wasn’t open to the public until 1612. The world’s oldest commercial pharmacy is actually the Raeapteek in Tallinn, Estonia. Established in 1415, the pharmacy sold all kinds of wonderful and mystical concoctions including unicorn horn powder and ointments from crushed up Egyptian mummies.
The pharmacy was run by various people until it was acquired by the Burchat family, who ran the business from 1582 to 1911, when it was sold. The Raeapteek was nationalized in the 1940’s and renovated in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. While it still operates as a pharmacy, it’s also a museum to a bygone age of apothecaries and old medicines.
