The exhibition of the Tula Historical and Architectural Museum presents a photo postcard, which depicts a two-story building in an eclectic style — ‘Old Tula Pharmacy’.

Initially, the pharmacy was located not in this house, but the neighboring one (today — Lenin Avenue, 25). The pharmacy, as well as the nearby building, which at that time was the local winter theater, was bought in 1864 by St. Petersburg’s pharmacist Ferdinand Belyavsky from the apothecary Roman Beyer. The purchase cost him 30.000 rubles. In the theater, Belyavsky even had a personal box. The building also housed the largest haberdashery shop in the city. In December 1868, the store burned down. In 1881, Belyavsky decided to build a new pharmacy on the ashes.

The construction lasted for four summers as before the twentieth century no construction work was done in winter. In the first year, a drainage system was arranged, the soil was very boggy. In 1884, a new pharmacy opened. It was called ‘Old Tula’.

The renewed pharmacy was arranged considering all the requirements that were imposed on such institutions. A retail space, a prescription department, a laboratory, and a manager’s office were situated on the ground floor. The second floor was occupied by the Belyavsky family. Herbs were dried in the spacious attic and mineral and fruit waters were prepared in the basement; medicines were stored in the ice storage room. Ferdinand Belyavsky’s ‘Old Tula Pharmacy’ was one of the most popular in the city. Citizens compared it to Carl Ferrein’s pharmacy in the centre of Moscow, the largest in Russia.

In 1918, the pharmacy was nationalized, it became state-owned and existed on that site until 2011. Its general history goes back almost 200 years, which is quite rare for a Russian province.

The building has preserved the layout and fragments of the original pharmacy interior: the original wall safe, cast-iron staircase, stoves, and doors. In 2012, both buildings — the Craft House, where the pharmacy was originally located, and the ‘Old Tula Pharmacy’ were transferred to the Tula Historical and Architectural Museum. Rare items were found in the attic: prescription forms, pharmacy utensils, labels, write-on labels. These artifacts formed the basis of the permanent museum exhibition ‘Old Tula Pharmacy’, which was opened in 2014.