Pharmacy Museum Hofgeismar

The Apothekenmuseum Hofgeismar stands in the oldest stone building in the town, the ‘Stone House’ built in 1239. The thick sandstone walls and three-metre-high vaulted entrance once formed part of a small city fortress. After centuries as a private home and storehouse, the building now shelters 350 years of pharmacy history.

The museum opened in 1989 when a local pharmacist’s family donated 18th-century equipment. A city council decision in 1978 had saved the building from decay. Since 2012 it has belonged to the town, allowing visitors to explore five floors of displays.

On the lowest level an alchemist’s kitchen shows copper stills and mortars from a medieval apothecary. The upper floors hold three reconstructed dispensaries: the Hubertus-Apotheke of 1949 with its original mahogany cabinets, the Brunnen-Apotheke recreated from 1768, and the Sandersche Hirsch-Apotheke in pale green classical style, which closed only in 1974. A library of 200 volumes, the oldest printed in 1582, occupies the second floor. Outside, a 250-square-metre garden grows the medicinal plants once gathered by local apothecaries.