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This old pharmacy was located in Antwerp, Kipdorp 26 until the 1930’s. Originally it was the pharmacy
F.X. Van Campen and later it became the Duwaerts' pharmacy. Albert
Duwaerts' name was already being mentioned by 1871. After the closing of the pharmacy in 1934 it was dismantled and brought to the "Vleeshuis" Museum until it found its final home in the
"Volkskunde Museum" or Museum of Folklore.
The pharmacy shop was built in the empire style and all the cupboards and drawers are decorated with plants and herbs and filled with old (18th century) glass and porcelain pots. Many of these pots have golden labels.
Next to the pharmacy shop is the alchemist's room, or the pharmacist's workroom. In the back are drawers in which the different herbs were stocked. But there are also distilling flasks, a plant press, a very large saw tooth hanging on the wall and a crocodile hanging from the ceiling. These last two were the classical attributes of any pharmacist in those days!
Antwerp's Folklore Museum is housed in the magnificent space provided by several old guild houses behind the City Hall. Having started out as a small private collection, it is now the people's memory of Antwerp.
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