A gyógyszertármúzeum a kolozsvári Mauksch-Hintz-házban kapott helyet, újra megnyílt

The Mauksch-Hintz House on the corner of the main square in the city of Cluj-Napoca has housed the oldest town pharmacy since the 1760s, which was founded around the middle of the 16th century. Since the beginning of the 18th century, it has been privately owned by pharmacists, most of whom came from Spis in Upper Hungary (today Slovakia): Jakob Foith, Samuel Schwartz, Tobias Mauksch and his great-grandson Prof. Dr. Georg Hintz (1850-1890) and his descendants until 1949, when the Hintz family's pharmacy and home were expropriated by the state. From 1954 onwards, the building housed a pharmacy history collection (museum), which was established by medical historians Prof. Dr. Valeriu Lucian Bologa and Dr. Sámuel Izsák of Cluj. The basis for this collection was the pharmaceutical history collection of the Erdélyi Múzeum Egyesület, which was founded by Prof. Dr. Gyula Orient before World War 1. In 2008, after returning the Mauksch-Hintz House to the heirs of the former “Dr. Hintz Apotheke”, the need for a thorough renovation of the building became evident. The grandson of the last owner, the ophthalmologist Dr. Georg Hintz (Frankfurt am Main), had the house completely renovated by a huge private investment and he rented the rooms (ground floor and basement) to the modern pharmacy museum, which reopened on January 15, 2024. The new pharmacy museum was designed by the historian and museologist Dr. Ana Maria Gruia. It presents on 315 square meters a remarkable collection of all pharmacy furniture, medicine vessels made of wood, glass, faience, raw materials for medicines of mineral, animal and plant origin, scales, mortars, tools, pharmaceutical and medical instruments, apparatus, Recipes, old books, certificates, photos, information boards, impressive baroque wall paintings and much more. The new museum has a rich inventory of more than 7,000 objects, which are also presented in a high-quality scientific catalogue (7 volumes, 3,200 pages), in English. This is available online too (https:// pharmatrans.mnit.ro/en/catalogue/). The valuable pharmaceutical and medical exhibits are not only highly attractive and informative for visitors and tourists, but the new institution offers also an optimal setting for museum educational activities, especially for children and young adult people.