The Raeapteek ( en, Town Hall Pharmacy; german: Ratsapotheke) is a pharmacy in the center of

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. Opposite the Town Hall, at 11 Raekoja plats, it is one of the oldest continuously running

pharmacies Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links healt ...

in Europe, having always been in business in the same 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 Gustav Adolph 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 An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members the ...

. 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) family 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 Johannes Burchart I (1546-1616), born János Both Bélaváry de Szikava ( hu, Szikavai és Bélaváry Both János), was a pharmacist and druggist and the first of a line of doctors and pharmacists who owned the Raeapteek in Reval (Tallinn, Eston ...

Both Belavary de Sykava, moved to

from his hometown of Pressburg (present day Bratislava) and obtained a

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

from the city council to run the business of the pharmacy. He was to be the first in a long

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

of pharmacists that were to run the Raeapteek. He also started the family tradition of giving the firstborn 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 firstborn son in 1843 called Johann X Burchart. The Burcharts were well-educated and often were not only pharmacists but also doctors. 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 thalers. 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 or Carl ( sv, Karl XI; ) was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721). He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein- ...

. 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 The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swed ...

, 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 V to attend to him on his deathbed, but he died before Burchart reached

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. 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. In 1802, he organized the first art exhibition in Tallinn. From 1880 to 1885 the first Estonian speaking pharmacist with a degree from

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

Oskar Mildebrath Oskar Fridrich Woldemar Mildebrath March 2, 1849 – January 9, 1900 was a pharmacist in Estonia who founded one of the oldest rural pharmacies in the country that stayed in business continuously at the same place, in the same building for 122 ...

was hired by the Pharmacy. 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 Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were invaded and occupied in June 1940 by the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and auspices of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had been signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet ...

, 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 A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

, including

aspirin Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and/or inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat inc ...

, and even supplies

condoms A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of inte ...

. There is an antiques shop on the first floor and in 1999 a garlic restaurant called "Balthasar" was opened on the second floor. Raeapteek sign

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 the wall, the museum also contains a large stone

Coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

of the Burchart family, dating from 1635. It shows a griffin with a

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

and underneath a

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

between

lilies ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...

. 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

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

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 The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

’s nests and 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 ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cognac production falls under French appella ...

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.

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

References

{{coord, 59, 26, 16.1, N, 24, 44, 45.64, E, region:EE-37_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Buildings and structures in Tallinn History of Tallinn Pharmacies of Estonia History of pharmacy 15th-century establishments in Estonia Kesklinn, Tallinn Tourist attractions in Tallinn Tallinn Old Town