Santa Maria Novella

Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella sets its roots back to 1221. Founded as a Dominican friars conventum, it is renowned from its beginnings for the cultivation of medicinal plants, the formulation of perfumes and cosmetics, the creation of candles and liqueurs.

Its apothecary art legacy crosses eight centuries and is deeply intertwined with Florence history, personalities, power and social tissue in an alchemy of tales and wonders. The oldest pharmacy in the world, it carries its activities in the very places where they all began, uniquely, 800 years ago.