Did you know that pharmacies, like libraries, are among the oldest institutions created by mankind, where knowledge, skills, lifestyle artifacts and manifestations of everyday culture are preserved? Let's take a look around the Viekšniai Pharmacy Museum, looking for the connections between pharmacy and perfumery that will take us to the world of ancient civilizations, the gardens and laboratories of medieval European monasteries, the first European pharmacy, Officina Profumo - Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence, founded in 1221 and still operating today, and the shelves of the Viekšniai Pharmacy, which has been open since 1860.
How does the use of fragrant ingredients in pharmacy and medicine intersect with the need for scents to express rituals, hierarchy, and aesthetics?
What is the role of the pharmacist in the history of pharmacy and perfumery?
What did the exhibits of the Viekšniai Pharmacy Museum smell like (and still smell like today!) - from "fish glue" to charming perfumery products in independent interwar Lithuania?
Like true trackers, we will follow the scent and find answers to these intriguing questions in the most secret corners of the Viekšniai pharmacy and among the museum's numerous exhibits.
Perfumery culture educator Edita Vigelytė will help unravel the detective story and share her scent experiences.
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