The Mauksch–Hintz House is a historic building on the Main Square of

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

, Romania, which houses the first pharmacy in the city. The classicist façade dates back to the 1820s; the ground-floor and the basement however were built in the Renaissance era. A fresco from 1752 in the former office tells about the history of the pharmacy in the Hungarian language. Cluj's first pharmacy was opened in the building in the house on the Main Square (today Piaţa Unirii) in 1573 and was operated by the government. In 1727 it was sold to its first private owner, Alexander Schwartz, than to Tobias Mauksch in 1752. In 1851 it was inherited by the (

Transylvanian Saxon The Transylvanian Saxons (german: Siebenbürger Sachsen; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen''; ro, Sași ardeleni, sași transilvăneni/transilvani; hu, Erdélyi szászok) are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania ...

)

Hintz family Hintz may refer to: Places *Hintz, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community in USA *Cluj-Napoca Hintz House, a historic building in Romania People *Andrew Hintz (1963–2016), New Zealand cricketer *Gordon Hintz (born 1973), Democratic Party member ...

and was renamed "Saint George's Pharmacy" (''La Sfântul Gheorghe''). After the establishment of

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the s ...

, the whole building was nationalized, and the pharmacy was closed. The descendants of the once wealthy Hintz family migrated to West Germany in the 1970s. Today the building houses the city's Pharmaceutical Museum. The collection of the history of pharmacy was developed by Professor Gyula Orient in the last century and is on exhibit in four ground rooms and in the basement. The initial use of the different rooms of the ancient shop was preserved as it was in the old times: the office, the storeroom and the laboratory. The original features from the second half of the 18th century pharmacy are emphasized in the ceiling of the office, which preserves the original

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

s with pharmaceutical symbols. In the exhibition cases of Empire furniture one can see pharmaceutical implements of wood, ceramic, faience, porcelain and glass dating from the 17th–19th centuries. The reception desk features drugs, old receipts and seals of medieval pharmacies. The storeroom holds some of the furniture of the old drugstore with a rich collection of pharmaceutical wares of wood, collected from all over Transylvania. From this room, a staircase leads to the basement where the laboratory was located. Numerous bronze (16th–19th centuries), marble and cast iron mortars, scales, presses and weights are to be seen.

External links

*
The Medicine-Historical Museum
*
Farmacia
at the National Museum of History of Transylvania, in Cluj-Napoca *

Istoria farmaciei din Cluj-Napoca *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hintz House, Cluj-Napoca Buildings and structures in Cluj-Napoca History of Cluj-Napoca 1573 establishments in Europe Museums in Cluj-Napoca Pharmacy museums 16th-century establishments in Romania Medical and health organizations based in Romania