Apothicairerie de l’Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte

Présentation

Owned by the Hospitals of Troyes, the Apothecary’s collections were deposited with the City’s museums in 1976, and have the status of “Musée de France”.

The closure of the Apothecary’s was an opportunity to renovate the museum’s tour route, a project that is part of the major renovation project for all the museums in the city of Troyes. Part of the collections has been restored.

The entrance to the Apothecary’s is always through the historic door, directly from a large reception hall, shared with the Cité du vitrail.

The large 63 m² room has been restored to its 18th century state. The distances and panels have been revised.

The collection of 319 painted wooden boxes is unique in France and seems to have been made for the installation in the pharmacy. Each of the rectangular boxes dating from the 18th century has a cartouche containing the figure and name of the product contained. Most of these illustrations come from the book by Pierre Pomet, a merchant-grocer and druggist, L’Histoire générale des drogues, written in 1695.

The Apothecary’s also has earthenware: majolica, albarelli, Hispano-Moorish (16th century), Italo-Moorish (16th century), Italo-French (17th century) and French Renaissance (early 17th century) pillboxes, as well as a set of nearly 300 18th century rustic earthenware pots (Nevers style), soberly decorated with garlands of foliage and blue flowers, including chevrettes, pot-canons, pillboxes, bottles. In addition to these two exceptional sets, there are numerous pharmacy objects.

No furniture remains from the old laboratory. Remedies were still prepared here until 1961. The 59 m² laboratory now houses a renewed presentation on the work of the apothecary and a new mediation area “Apothecaries in the making”. Its layout, around the central pillar, echoes the old laboratory furnaces. It offers manipulative games based on the three kingdoms, a scent workshop, colouring and a digital application game for touchscreen tablets. It includes an adult interface (focus on certain objects in the collection, old recipes, quizzes, etc.) and a young people’s interface in which apothecary apprentices can obtain their apothecary diploma.