Museum for the history of Pharmacy in Belgrade

Museums are significant institutions because they treasure and display the historical development from professional and scientific view.

Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Belgrade is only institution in this region which comprises the collection of manuscripts, books and objects of utmost importance for the history of pharmacy and by staying there we may readily take a view of the development of pharmaceutical profession and pharmaceutical science in this area.

Museum for the History of Pharmacy is founded by great involvement of many pharmacists and historians of pharmacy but above all of them by the scientific consultant Andrija Mirković. He donated his precious private collection of antiquities to be basic for the foundation of the Museum,. For its great historical value speaks the fact that this collection has been under the state protection since 1948 as cultural heritage because it includes apothecary vessels, apparatuses, manuscripts and books dated back to the XVI-XIX century. This entire collection is considered a unique one in Serbia for its variety, displays and greatness and may be used for the study of pharmaceutical sciences’ development. The significant contribution to enlarging the first Museum collection as well as its preservation, categorisation and fund treasuring gave his followers, everyone on his own, the lecturers at the Faculty of Pharmacy: Prof. Dr. Vojislav Marjanović, Prof. Dr. Dragan Stupar and Asst.Prof. Dr. Dušanka Krajnović.

The Museum collection of the Faculty of Pharmacy is one of the most significant pharmaco-historiographic collection for its volume and value on the territory of Serbia and ex-republics of the former Yugoslavia. It includes a lot of apothecary accessories and equipment for drug preparation used in the past in pharmaceutical laboratories, mainly for drug synthesis and easier toxicological and chemical analyses. The Museum partly disposes of the inventory of Pravitelstvena Apoteka which is the first state-owned pharmacy in Serbia (1836-1859). For its significance the collection of porcelan jars used for the preservation of liquid and solid preparations is particularly distinguished.

The Museum comprises very rich archive material and a library which includes scientific works between XVI-XX century.

Museum for the History of Pharmacy at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, belongs to the type of museums which are not for public display except when a visit is organised with previous announcement and agreement of administrative secretary for law and general affairs or the Office for Bibliotecary and Museum Affairs of the Faculty of Pharmacy - University of Belgrade.