Officina Profumo - Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella

The Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella occupies the site of a former Dominican convent founded in twelve twenty-one. It is recognized as the oldest pharmacy in the world, having evolved from a monastic infirmary where friars cultivated botanical gardens to treat the sick. The main sales hall is located within what was once the chapel of San Niccolò, a space donated to the friars in the fourteen century by a merchant named Dardano Acciaioli. He commissioned the chapel as a gesture of gratitude after the monks successfully treated his illness using bearberry extracts.