Hidden Treasures - La Farmacia di Santa Maria della Scala

The sales room of the Farmacia di S. Maria della Scala - basically unchanged since the 1700s and finally closed as a business in 1954.

It was once the centre of community life in Trastevere – a place where people went to find cures for what ailed them, to get medical advise, to make appointments to see the doctors in the area or just to compare aches and pains. After almost 400 years of serving as the local pharmacy for Rione VIII the Spezieria di S. Maria della Scala closed its doors in 1954.

A poster from 1895 advertising the benefits and availability of the Farmacia's famous Aqua Antipestilenziale (a great disinfectant) and Aqua di Melissa (just the thing to calm hysteria).

When the church was built in the 1590s on the orders of Clement VIII a convent was constructed adjacent to it to accommodate eighty friars of the Order of Barefoot Carmelites. As was required by the rules of the Order the monastery included a pharmacy for the growing of herbs for medicinal purposes. At first it was for the use of the brothers only but eventually, as with most farmacia, it became open to the public. In the 1700s as well as serving the Rione it became the Papal pharmacy. The sole task of the friars other than prayer was to cultivate plants, study their medicinal purposes and treat the sick. Their research and knowledge lead to the creation of a school, for both the religious and laity. A painting in the pharmacy shows Saint Basil of the Conception teaching a group of disciples – perhaps he is showing them how to make the farmacia's renowned products: l’acqua antipestinenziale and l’acqua antiisterica di S. Maria della Scala. Or their famous l'acqua di Melissa, the perfect cure for hysteria, which is still available for sale.

The Farmacia has only recently been reopened to the public by appointment only as a historical site, the good brothers now leave pharmaceuticals to others. As I mentioned the day we went there had been some confusion but finally a rather sweet chubby bespectacled young monk let us in and gave us a tour of the sales room, office and laboratories. Unfortunately photographs were not allowed so the photos here are scans of postcards, posters and borrowings from an article in Observatorio Romano.

Except for the addition of a few new fangled contraptions like the telephone, the sales room has not changed much since the 1700. A portrait of Saint Teresa of Avila, the founder of the order, looks over a room decorated with trompe d'oiel, gleaming wooden cabinets and the paraphernalia of the trade

One of the most famous products of the old Farmacia was an snake venom antidote known as Theriaca and said to be the creation of Andromache the doctor of Nero. It was manufactured up until the middle of the 1900s and was a blend of 57 different essences including the flesh of a male viper – which had to have lived far enough away from the sea to have had no contact with salt. "I viperai" were men who captured and milked the snakes for their venom as well as obtaining the viper flesh for the brothers – its a profession that has gone out of fashion in the last little while. There is still a sample of the concoction kept in a large stone pot (in the picture right) strategically placed in front of a window according to the instructions in the original recipe. The decor has remained largely unchanged since the 1800s – some decorations date back to the 1700s – with all the old scales, mortars, pestles, glass jars of herbal essences and equipment of the trade in their proper place. There are a few new fangled items such as a crank telephone but really little had changed in two centuries. One item that caught my attention was a serious of eye-high drawers with a doctors name on each one. Patients would come into the Pharmacy and leave their name and a description of their problem for their doctor, who would pick them up, perhaps dropping into see the person if it was felt necessary or often just leaving a prescription for their aliment.

The portraits of worthy royal patrons adorn the insides of the storage cabinets including Vittorio Emanuele I and Maria Theresa of Austria, to commemorate their visit in 1802. Another pair of doors depicts Umberto I, Prince of Piedmont and the Duchess Helen of Aosta, regular clients of the pharmacy.

The storage room was particularly fascinating with its wall of cupboards, the doors painted with miniatures of the famous apothecaries and men of medicine throughout history. But more charmingly the insides bear portraits of various members of Italian royalty who endowed hospitals or patronized the Farmacia. When the Papacy was crushed the task of running hospitals became the responsibility of the state. Though it is perhaps unfair to question the charity of the ladies of the House of Savoy, their work amongst the poor and sick were necessary if the people were to accept the idea of an Italian Royal family.

Going into the laboratories could be mistaken for a trip into a papal torture chamber – cauldrons, presses, centrifuges, bottlers and all manner of strange instruments including a machine for shaping pills. Even the young monk was a bit pressed to explain the use of some of the more complicated or esoteric contraptions – after all the pharmacy has ceased operation long before he was born and many of the old methods of treatment have faded from use.

Over the door of the entrance is a motto extolling the monks to treat the whole person that comes to them with ailments – treat the body but never forget to also treat the soul. Perhaps one of the old methods that could do with revival today.

17 maggio - San Pasquale Baylón Yubero

Hidden Treasures - A Morning in Trastevre - Part 1

One of the joys of living here - dear lord it has been almost three years! - is discovering the hidden treasures around the city. Those slightly off the beaten path places which are perhaps more a reflection of the life and history of Roma than what most people see. Many of these treasures are generally off-limits or not open to the public except by appointment. Others are just generally unknown, even to Romans. I'm lucky that early on in my stay here I became acquainted with a dear friend.  She is an accomplished art historian who has lived here for the past 40 years, and much of that time has been spent organizing and leading walks of venues around the city and beyond. Her knowledge is encyclopedic and a morning spent with her is a guaranteed treat. And she seems to get me into the most intriguing places.

A few months back on a rainy February morning we went over to Trastevere (literally Over the Tiber) to visit the local museum, the Church of Santa Maria della Scala and the Farmacia Antica which was run by the monks there for centuries. Being Italy there was a mix up in the times for the visit to the Farmacia but she worked it out with a very obliging, charming, chubby young monk. He not only opened the Farmacia but turned on the lights in the church so we could see it in its full splendor.

Trastevere is more than the streets, bars and trattorias around Santa Maria in Trastevere which are the main focus for most tourists. It is very much a neighbourhood of alleyways and byways, small shops, bars and everyday Romans going about their business. I go over to that side of the river once a week for an appointment and now have a favorite bar where I don't even had to give them my order any more. As I become more familiar with the area I can understand the attraction it has for so many of my friends.

Looking down the street from Santa Maria della Scala (top) towards the old protective walls and the Porta Settimiana - a new wall built by Urban VIII meant that the old walls no longer served as protection and this gate at Via della Lungara was left open at night. As with so many Roman neighbourhoods most of the buildings date back for centuries (chances are that brick wall in the middle photo dates from the 12-13th century if not earlier) - they've been altered, added to, repaired, destroyed and rebuilt. But through it all one thing has not been changed - looking out the window and watching the world go by.

Though the organ loft is splendid, the church itself is perhaps remarkable more for what it doesn't contain than what it does. At one point in time a papal lawyer had commissioned Caravaggio to paint The Death of the Virgin to adorn his chapel in the church. Unfortunately the cadaver that the painter choose as his model was that of a notorious prostitute who had, in a drunken stupor, fallen into the river and drowned. The good barefoot brothers (Discalced Carmelites) were scandalized and refused to hang the painting, substituting for it a rather bland handling of the subject by Carlo Saraceni. Caravaggio's work now hangs in the Louvre after a rather checkered ownership which included the English king, Charles I. If only those poor brothers had realized it would have become a tourist gold mine a few centuries later I'm sure they would have kept it.

The interior of the church is fairly representative of many churches in Rome except for that elaborate organ loft. I'm not sure if the organ is still played or even playable. So often in churches here they are simply hollow shells that have gone untouched for years.

As it is the church is seldom visited except for pilgrims wishing to catch a glimpse of the miraculous icon that gives the church its name. The real hidden treasure is the Farmacia attached to it. I'll be posting a bit about it in the next day or two.

12 maggio - San Pancrazio