Pharmacy Museum “Under the Black Eagle”. Lviv’s oldest working pharmacy, with over 3000 exhibits, an alchemy lab and a painted ceiling

Shelves of antique apothecary jars in the Lviv pharmacy museum
A pharmacy museum hall with tall windows and an old painting
The old alchemy laboratory in the pharmacy museum
Wooden pharmacy cabinets with drawers and bottles
An old cast-iron cauldron in the pharmacy museum’s cellar
Glass bottles on the pharmacy museum’s shelves
Shelves of antique apothecary jars in the Lviv pharmacy museumA pharmacy museum hall with tall windows and an old paintingThe old alchemy laboratory in the pharmacy museumWooden pharmacy cabinets with drawers and bottlesAn old cast-iron cauldron in the pharmacy museum’s cellar

The Pharmacy Museum “Under the Black Eagle” is Lviv’s oldest working pharmacy, in the corner building where Drukarska and Stavropihiiska Streets begin. Its sixteen rooms hold more than three thousand exhibits: antique pharmacy furniture, scales on bronze figures of Asclepius and Hygieia, vessels and equipment from different eras. The tour leads from the painted ceiling of the sales hall through the laboratory and the alchemy room to the cellars with barrels and a cozy inner courtyard.

Why visit

  • Lviv’s oldest working pharmacy, where medicines and the famous “Iron Wine” are still sold in the sales hall
  • More than three thousand exhibits in sixteen rooms: pharmacy furniture, vessels, equipment and old remedies
  • The sales hall ceiling is covered with polychrome paintings of the four elements: water, fire, earth and air
  • Pharmacy scales on bronze figures of Asclepius and Hygieia – among the most interesting exhibits in the sales hall
  • A recreated alchemy laboratory, a library of more than three thousand books and cellars with barrels for medicinal wines
  • A cozy inner courtyard with a wooden gallery, a fountain and reliefs of famous physicians invites an unhurried stroll

Good to know

Ticket prices
Adult ticket – UAH 100, university student – UAH 60, school student – UAH 40.
Opening hours
Daily from 10:00 to 17:00.
Exhibition
Sixteen rooms covering 700 m²: the sales hall, the storeroom, the laboratory, the room of pharmacy history, the annex with the alchemy laboratory and library, the pharmacy cellars and the inner courtyard.
Working pharmacy
The sales hall is a working pharmacy: you can buy medicines and the famous “Iron Wine” here.
Getting there
The pharmacy museum is in the corner building at the start of Drukarska and Stavropihiiska Streets, a short walk from Rynok Square in the Old Town.

The tour begins in the sales hall, whose ceiling is covered with polychrome paintings: oval medallions symbolize the four classical elements – water, fire, earth and air. Among the most interesting exhibits are pharmacy scales resting on bronze figures of Asclepius, the ancient Greek god of medicine, and his daughter Hygieia, the goddess of health. The pharmacy still works as a pharmacy, so in the sales hall you can buy medicines and the famous “Iron Wine”. Next come the storeroom, with vessels for storing medicines, equipment from different eras and old patent remedies; the laboratory, with a recreated interior of an old pharmacy kitchen; and the room of pharmacy history, which leads from Egypt and Ancient Greece to the present day. A wooden gallery leads to a four-story annex built at the turn of the 16th century: it houses an alchemy laboratory recreated from old paintings and engravings, and a library of more than three thousand books. Going downstairs, you reach the early 18th-century pharmacy cellars with large wooden barrels and bottles for medicinal wines, and oak stairs lead out to an inner courtyard recreating the home of a well-to-do townsman. The pharmacy occupies a building from 1775 and got the name “Under the Black Eagle” under the Sklepiński family, who owned it from 1857 and restored the sales hall. The Museum of Pharmacy History opened in 1966. The pharmacy museum is open daily from 10:00 to 17:00, a short walk from Rynok Square.