600 Years of Town Hall Pharmacy (raeapteek) in Tallinn, Estonia.

Abstract

The Town Hall Pharmacy (Raeapteek) in the Town Hall Square of Tallinn, Estonia (N59°26'16.001'' E24°44'45.412'') was first mentioned in historical records on 8 April 1422. To our best knowledge, the Raeapteek is the oldest community pharmacy in Europe which has operated on the same premises since the beginning. There are several hypotheses about the actual opening time of Raeapteek: it is possible that the pharmacy was operating on the square of the Tallinn Town Hall as early as in 1415, 1420, 1392 or even in 1248. In the territory of present-day Estonia, two pharmacies (in Tartu first mentioned in 1430) were already in business in less than 200 kilometres from each other before community pharmacies were opened in Russia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Lithuania, and other cities. The Raeapteek played an essential role in the establishment of the current Estonian History Museum, the Estonian Pharmaceutical Factory, K. C. Fick's faience manufactory and other dignified institutions had their beginning at the pharmacy. Now, the pharmacy functions hand-in-hand with the museum which is supported by the city of Tallinn.