Gallery
Photo credits: Giovanni Hänninen
History
The first news of the existence of a pharmacy in the abbey complex of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma dates back to 1201, but its foundation could be even earlier, since the monastery was founded in 980 AD. It is likely that at first the pharmacy was only at the service of the Benedictines and that only later did it become public. The current arrangement, as regards the furnishings, dates back to the end of the 16th century and the first years of the following one, while the layout of the rooms underwent a radical change in 1766, when the Benedictines had to secularize the pharmacy to avoid the definitive closure imposed by the Bourbon minister Guglielmo Du Tillot. In 1896 the State acquired the premises, which, reopened to the public in 1951, contain a collection of mortars, jars, vases, stills and other objects from various institutions and private donations. Of the original eight rooms of the Spezieria, four remain today: the Sala del Fuoco, the Sala dei Mortai, the Sala delle Sirene and finally the Sala del Pozzo. All the rooms take their name from the specificity of their contents or from the decorative elements that characterize them.