There are many pharmacy museums in the world, and Riga also has one, opened in 1986. The Pharmacy Museum occupies three small and romantic 18th century houses in the very heart of Riga's Old Town. The museum has a cozy backyard with a small garden of healing herbs - after all, every pharmacy used to grow herbal ingredients for its needs in the past.
The Pharmacy Museum offers a travel in time - from healers in times long past to the time when pharmacies were a world of mystery and only pharmacists could comprehend the names of medication. From alchemist laboratories to drugstores of the Soviet period, and on to the 21st century.
Pharmacies in Riga and Latvia have a long history - historical records say that Riga had a functioning pharmacy already in the 14th century. On the other hand, the beginnings of the history of pharmacy go to prehistoric times when man realized the healing power of plants and herbs.
At the moment, the museum's exposition occupies five halls altogether: "History of the Development of Pharmacy in Latvia", "Pharmacy Sectors", "Pharmaceutical Vessels", "21st Century Medications. Made in Latvia", "Traditional Medicine" and "Pharmacy - Laboratory in 18th and 19th Centuries". There is also a "real" healer's hut on display, and the office of a soviet-era pharmacy's assistant pharmacist.