MUSEUM

Pharmacy Museum of the University of Basel

Switzerland, Basel

The Pharmacy Museum of the University of Basel (Pharmaziemuseum Universität Basel) is one of the largest and most important collections of historical pharmaceutical artifacts in the world, the only one of its kind in Switzerland. Its collection includes apothecary ceramics, fully preserved apothecary furniture, an alchemical laboratory, mortars, traveling apothecaries and surgical instruments, medical books, historical medicines and devices related to drug production. Museum is located in the heart of Basel's old town in the Zum Vorderen Sessel building, first mentioned in 1316. Over time, it has hosted notable figures such as Johann Amerbach, Johann Frobenius, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and Hans Holbein the Younger. In 1526-1527, the renowned Theophrastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsius) worked here, and his famulus Johannes Oporinus who later published Andreas Vesalius' groundbreaking anatomy book De fabrica corporis humani as well as works of Paracelsius.