Town Hall Pharmacy

The facade at the entrance is made up of three medieval houses that became a single building over time. Its middle section has long been connected with the pharmacy trade, and the market and city shops once crowded around Town Hall Square. The sign retains the Estonian name Town Hall Pharmacy; medicines are still sold behind this door today.

Medicines are still dispensed behind this door, and the neighboring room is set aside for a museum. The exact opening date is unknown. The first reliable record appeared on April eighth, fourteen twenty-two, and the pharmacist was already the third in succession.

A letter from Johann Molner, the first known pharmacist, explains the change of owners. He sold the business to Hermann and was waiting to be paid. The new owner needed to maintain a stock of costly remedies and earn money by selling them, but there was not enough money: Hermann repaid a debt of seven marks with the medicines themselves. Then the pharmacist fell ill, could no longer run the business, and died. After his death, the shop stood closed for some time.

Then the councilmen—members of the city council—stepped in. Many commercial premises near the market belonged to the council: officials maintained the buildings and rented the shops to craftsmen. They also took control of the closed pharmacy, found a new pharmacist, and gave him the premises together with the duty to supply the city with medicines. In the record of fourteen twenty-two, the pharmacy was already administered primarily by the councilmen.

That is where its name comes from. The Estonian name “Town Hall Pharmacy” means “pharmacy of the city council”—in Russian, Town Hall Pharmacy. It stood opposite Tallinn Town Hall because this was where the market, the city shops, and the people responsible for their work were located.

The present building is joined together from three medieval buildings. The pharmacy the councilmen spoke of in fourteen twenty-two occupied its middle section. Medicines are still sold there today, and the name at the entrance preserves the city council’s decision, made after the purchase that ruined Hermann.