Red Crab Pharmacy
Building, structure
The Baroque bourgeois house built into the “Zwinger” in the advanced gate fortress of the Michael Gate offers an unusual experience. The proportional Baroque building that houses the former Vörös Rák pharmacy is younger than the Bratislava pharmacy itself (now a museum). ; In the first half of the 19th century, the classicist, empire and Biedermeier styles often appeared together in the furnishings of pharmacies. The most beautiful example of the so-called “Viennese Empire” style is the interior of the former “Vörös Rák” pharmacy in Bratislava. Along the three windowless walls, there is furniture made of stained beech wood, complemented by a work table and a stand for hand scales. The furnishings are complemented by faience, stone, wooden, porcelain and glass containers from the second half of the 18th century to the middle of the 20th century, used to store and process medicines. The atmosphere of the room is completed by the baroque-classicist paintings with a medical theme, the decorated railings and the figural compositions on the ceiling. ; ; Finally, we quote a few lines from Dezső Kosztolányi's work: "Figures/ the Apothecary": ; - How many pharmacies do we have? ; - 1164. ; - Which is the oldest? ; - The "Red Crab" in Bratislava. This opened in the fourteenth century. At this time, several apothecaries were also operating in Buda. ; - What did they sell? ; - Medicinal herbs, but also everything that alchemy produced. We can see from old jars that their pharmacy contained powdered ox horn, camel marrow, breast milk, dog milk, and even axungia hominis, human fat. ; - Where did they get the human fat? ; - Occasionally. Many such memories testify to our communion with sorcerers. The first pharmacy was founded in Baghdad by the Arabs. The names of our two medicines, the Arabic words “alcohol” and “syrup”, have since passed completely into the vernacular. The custom of painting a snake on the signboard of pharmacies also remains from the Middle Ages: the herbalists of that time nailed a snake to their eyebrows.