Baranovichi. Laevsky’s Pharmacy
You cannot confuse this building in Baranovichi with any other. It looks as if it has dropped in on us from the 20ies last century.
This small tower-house, however, does come from the «landlord Poland». It was erected by Stanislau Lajewsky in the late 20ies – early 30ies, who by that time had graduated from Warsaw University with the qualification of a pharmacist.
Making up his mind to settle down on Baranovichi land in earnest, it is said, he built a two-storied mansion in the town in modern architectural style under the influence of folk Polish-Polesie architecture.
The building was situated not far from Polessky Railway Station in Zhvirka Street (now Thälman Str.) and became not only a local pharmacy, but also a residential house, according to established practices of those days. The Lajewsky family made their home upstairs. Here, in a cozy little yard, again according to a tradition, the family members laid out a pharmaceutical garden where they grew medicinal herbs and plants.
There is a late 1930s photograph where one can clearly see the pharmacy window with the notice «Apteka Stanislawa Lajewskiego» (Stanislau Lajewsky’s Pharmacy). The central window of the projection also had a notice made in the same style: «APTEKA Provizora farmacji ST. LAJEWSKIEGO» (Pharmacist St. Lajevsky’s Farmacy).
The pharmacy was kept virtually unchanged until 1946. Having lived through WWII, Mr. Lajewsky’s business «stumbled over nationalization», after which the pharmacist’s family had to emigrate to Poland, while the pharmacy stayed.
Pharmacist Lajewsky’s former property was handed over to Baranovichi regional department of Pharmacy Administration, which was set up at about the same time. At that time, an optical workshop , pharmaceutical and sanitary stalls, affiliated o the pharmacy, started working. On the upper floor of the pharmacy, in the former living quarters, there was an analytical laboratory functioning from 1954 until 1993, and from 1982 there was a municipal pharmacy enquiry service as well.
Since mid-1990s, the pharmacy has been selling only ready-made medicines. Since 2007, the building has been on the list of the monuments protected by the government. In 20010-20011, the building underwent major repairs with some restoration work. Now Pharmacy No. 21 contains an exposition of the history of pharmacy in Brest region, which is the only one of its kind there.
The 95 square metres exposition on display, which is on the upper floor, occupies 3 rooms. The first one is an imaginary study of Stanislau Lajewsku. It contains pieces which, according to the organizers, any self-respecting pharmacist living in the first half of the 20th century should have in his study: a typewriter, an adding machine, a telephone, a tonometer, an oil lamp, a photograph of the head of the family and other authentic small things.
The second room is the laboratory proper where once they made various medicines as pills, suppositories, ointments, tinctures, creams, etc. The thing is that in its time it wasn’t only the residents of the town but also the local hospital that the pharmacy supplied with drugs. It is here that one can see laboratory and pharmaceutical ware, mortars of different shapes and sizes, specialist equipment: a distiller, an infusion apparatus, an exsiccator and other accessories..
Finally, the third room is an improvised pharmacy section with its own distinctive features as well.
The downstairs lounge and the sales area itself (the pharmacy is operative up till now!) are decorated with pictures styled as medieval engravings made in the sgraffito techniqe. And what about the pharmaceutical garden? It is blossoming, old thing, in the back yard like it did 80 years ago!
Geographic coordinates: N 53° 07' 57,83" E 26° 02' 41,15"
Foto: с сайта www.pharma.by и Олега ПОНОМАРЕВА
