Esteve Pharmacy

The Esteve Pharmacy (Catalan: Farmàcia Esteve, IPA: [fərˈmasiə əsˈteβə]) is a medieval pharmacy and museum located in the town of Llívia, in the comarca of Cerdanya, Catalonia, Spain. Llívia is a Spanish exclave within the French region of Pyrénées-Orientales. The Esteve Pharmacy, founded at the beginning of the 15th century, is one of the oldest pharmacies in Europe and keeps a collection of albarellos from the 16th and 17th centuries, glass from the 19th century, Renaissance boxes with portraits of saints and personages, a library, laboratory instruments, antique drugs and preparations, old prescription books, and a Baroque "cordialer" cupboard made by Josep Sunyer during the period when the Esteve family managed the pharmacy for up to seven generations. It is one of the most important collections of its kind in Europe.

In 1942, Lleó Antoni Esteve closed the pharmacy and moved to Puigcerdà. In 1958 the pharmacy was transferred to the Llívia town, and the Province of Girona Diputació purchased it in 1965.

The Esteve pharmacy keeps several albarellos or blue jars. They are cylindrical and taller than they are wide, with a smaller diameter at the top. They are of cobalt blue color. The base is never colored, which possibly means that the albarellos were bathed in color while holding them from the base. The interior is of white enamel.

The three types of albarellos are:

The simple ones measure about 30 centimetres (12 in), while the cordialer ones measure about 13–14 cm (5.1–5.5 in).

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