Stories from the oldest pharmacy in central Romania’s Cluj Napoca

The pharmacy museum in Cluj-Napoca in central Romania, adorned with Baroque paintings, is housed in the city’s oldest pharmacy building. But the museum’s future is uncertain: it can be evicted any time.

It’s a sunny, biting-cold, autumn Saturday morning. Cluj-Napoca is hyper as always, swarming with students. The taxi driver, a friendly Hungarian man, has no clue where the Pharmacy Museum is. “It happens to me all the time,” says Ana Maria Gruia (pictured above), who works as a guide at that museum. “So I tell taxi drivers that it’s near hotel Melody.” The museum is, indeed, hidden; but it’s hidden in very center of the city. Right across the street, there is the Lutheran Church. Melody, a famous hotel built in the 19th century, is 50 meters away. The museum building hosted for centuries a real pharmacy. It’s often described as the first pharmacy of Cluj-Napoca. In front of the entrance door, you can notice a small banner announcing the Harry Potter exhibition, which ended some time ago. Another big banner, showing to the Ferdinand Boulevard, warns people that the museum is in great danger. It can be evicted any time.