The Kyiv Pharmacy Museum, located in the heart of historic Podil on Prytyska-Mykilska Street, is a unique landmark where time seems to have stopped at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The history of this building began in 1728, when Johann Heiter, a German by origin, opened here the first private pharmacy in the city, having received the appropriate patent from the imperial government. After his death, the business was inherited by his son-in-law Georg-Friedrich Bunge, who turned the pharmacy into a true center of European culture and medicine of that time. For 111 years, the institution belonged to the Bunge family, which produced prominent botanists, chemists, and statesmen, and remained the main place where Kyiv residents sought help in fighting diseases.
Today, the museum space, recreated in 1986, invites visitors on a journey through time. The exhibition on the first floor carefully reconstructs the interior of an 18th–19th century pharmacy: from massive cash registers and antique Karelian birch furniture to refined glass bottles that once contained elixirs and tinctures. Here one can see original prescription books, apothecary scales, and “marine” chests with medicines. Particular attention is drawn to the pharmacist’s office, filled with the atmosphere of strict scientific inquiry, and the trading hall, where medicines were once dispensed according to prescriptions of doctors of old Kyiv.
The true secrets of the museum are hidden in its basement premises. In the deep brick cellars, thematic installations are arranged: a cell of a herbalist monk from the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra of the 11th century, who healed with prayers and herbs; a healer’s hut with charms and dried plants; as well as an alchemist’s laboratory, where among unusual flasks and retorts attempts were made to uncover the secrets of the philosopher’s stone. A separate corner is dedicated to the history of winemaking, recalling the times when wine was considered a medicinal remedy.