Museum pharmacy "Alla Fenice"

At the end of World War II there were six pharmacies and one branch in the seaside towns of Slovenian Istria. In 1441, the Alla Fenice apothecary's shop, owned by the Palma family, was said to be in business It was operating on Tito Square until 1959, in the premises where the inhabitants of the town of Koper still obtain their medicine today.

In remembrance of the original apothecary's shop, today's pharmacy displays the original apothecary cabinet with apothecary containers that testify to over five hundred years of the town's pharmaceutical tradition; the remaining containers, furniture and part of the Galenic laboratory are put on display in the apothecary collection in Praetor's Palace, oficina [chemists' shop with dispensary] was taken by the present-day Regional Museum of Koper for safekeeping.

The furnishings of the Alla Fenice pharmacy consist of the oficina with chests of drawers and shelves, a recipe-preparation desk, pharmaceutical containers and some laboratory instruments. The existence of this apothecary's shop bears witness to the history of pharmacy in the Koper area and in Istria in general, as well as in broader Slovenia, since Koper was the first town in Slovenia to acquire a “lay” apothecary's shop.