17/02/2026
Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella — Florence (1221)
The oldest pharmacy in the world.
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Italy has the most beautiful pharmacies in the world. Some are 500, 600, even 800 years old.
Nobody talks about this. Italy has pharmacies that are 500, 600, 800 years old — and some of them are still open. Still making what the monks made. Still selling it over the same counter. I've been to most of them. Here's the list.
— STILL SELLING —
Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella — Florence (1221)
The oldest pharmacy in the world. Dominican friars started growing herbs to make medicines over 800 years ago. In 1533, when Caterina de' Medici left Florence to marry the future King of France, she asked these monks to create a perfume that captured the essence of her city. That perfume — Acqua della Regina — is still sold today. Same recipe. Over 500 bars of soap are still handmade here every day, chiseled and molded by hand after 30 days of curing on wooden racks. The frescoed ceilings alone are worth the visit. 2,000 people walk through these doors every day. Via della Scala 16, Florence. Free to enter.
Antica Spezieria di Santa Maria della Scala — Roma (1500s)
The oldest pharmacy in Rome, hidden in Trastevere. For nearly 400 years the Carmelite friars made medicines for popes, cardinals, and princes — everyone called it "la farmacia dei papi." The historic spezieria upstairs is frozen in time: 18th-century wooden shelves, original instruments, distillation equipment, and a marble jar still containing the Theriaca — an ancient antidote made from 57 ingredients including dried viper meat. You can tour it by appointment. Then walk downstairs to the ground-floor pharmacy, still open, where herbal remedies are still made from the original monastic recipes. Piazza della Scala, Trastevere.
Antica Farmacia Sant'Anna dei Frati Carmelitani Scalzi — Genova (1650)
Still run by Carmelite friars. 375 years. Same order. Same building. They still prepare herbal remedies and cosmetics by hand using the original formulas. This is not a museum. This is monks doing the same work their brothers did in the 1600s. Piazza Sant'Anna 8, Genova.
Antica Farmacia di Camaldoli — Arezzo (1046)
Almost a thousand years old. It started as a monastic hospital deep in the Tuscan forest. The monks here still produce liqueurs, herbal remedies, cosmetics, and tisanes following the Benedictine tradition of Ora et Labora — pray and work. You can visit the original pharmacy with its 16th-century wooden shelves and ceramic jars, then walk into the shop next door and buy what they made that week. Completely off the tourist radar. They also sell online at anticafarmaciacamaldoli.it.
— MUSEUM ONLY (BUT BREATHTAKING) —
Farmacia del Complesso degli Incurabili — Napoli (1700s)
A baroque masterpiece inside a hospital complex founded in 1522 for the poorest of the poor. The pharmacy was designed by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro and contains around 400 hand-painted majolica jars and carved walnut wood cabinets. The floor is made of hand-painted ceramics by the same artisans who created the famous cloister of Santa Chiara. One of the most beautiful rooms in southern Italy. Almost nobody visits it.
Museo Farmacia di Roccavaldina — Messina (1580)
A hidden gem in a tiny Sicilian hilltop village with less than 1,000 inhabitants. It holds 238 Renaissance pharmacy jars hand-painted in Urbino by the master ceramist Antonio Patanazzi — mythological scenes, biblical stories, and grotesque decorations inspired by Raphael's Vatican designs. The second largest Renaissance pharmacy collection in the world after the Santa Casa di Loreto. Visit by appointment. 5 EUR.
Museo Farmacia Mazzolini Giuseppucci — Fabriano (1800s)
The hand-carved wooden interiors from the 19th century make this one of the most photogenic pharmacies in Italy. Small, unexpected, and almost unknown outside the Marche region.
Italy doesn't just preserve history. In some places, it still sells it to you — wrapped by hand, made from the same recipe a monk perfected 500 years ago.
Save this. These aren't in any guidebook.
