Makovsky's pharmacy in Radomyshl

Makovsky
Makovsky
 
Makovsky
 

At the end of the 19th century, the pharmacist Franz Kolenbach (a subject of the Austrian Empire) opened the first pharmacy in Radomysl. Vladyslav Matkovsky, a native of the village of Horbuliv, Radomysl County, served as manager there. After the sudden death of the owner, Vladislav Matkovsky became the owner of the pharmacy.

He was an educated and compre hensively developed person. In addition to studying botany, chemistry, pharmacology hemanufactured barometers and thermometers. He managed to expand the production. In the house where he lived with his family there was a drugstore and a laboratory. Behind the house, down the slope, heplanted a garden with medical herbs. Pharmacist Vladislav Matkovsky had not only to mix and sell ready-maderemedies, but also toobtain components from primary materials grownin his own garden. This process was laborious and expensive. The work of a pharmacis tof that time could beconsideredintellectualandatthesametimehardphysicallabor. Inaddition, he had to work standingupaccording to the pharmacy charter. In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, pharmacy consisted mainly of herbal medicines, to a lesser extent of chemical sandmedicines of animal origin. Water for the pharmacy was supplied from the spring"Chapel", known to every citizen of Radomyshl. It was brough tin water carts in large oak barrels with iron hoops. In those days only men could work in pharmacies. Women in the Russian Empire were not allowed to get the pharmaceutical education. According to old-timers memories, pharmacist Vladislav Matkovsky, a well-groomed gentleman with a fluffy moustache, dreamt that his daughters would  study pharmacy, and when the girls grew up, he would send them to study in Switzerland. For this purpose he hired tutors for in ten sive classes in French and music. The range of Matkovsky's pharmacy was quite wide: according to the conclusions of the commission of the 19thcentury, pills, oils, potions were sold there - morethan 250 names in total. Residents of Radomysl and the county could buy a variety of balms, oils, powders, candles, in fusion sand plasters in this drugstore. There were two separate registers of medicines – for wealthy citizens and for the poor. Herbal treatment was wide spread among the peasants, while in pharmacies quite expensive pills, which were in those days not only the medicine, but also an element of prestige were produced and sold. Not everyone could buy them: one pill could cost 3 rubles. In those times it was considered to be expensive. Prices, and, accordingly, them aterials were different. For example, soap for peasants was made from dog fat, and wealthy citizens were of fered personal hygiene products from palmorolive oil. Pharmacist Vladislav Matkovsky attached a separate room to the pharmacy house and created a plant for the production of carbonated water and sweet drinks ("Violet" and "Marinka"). The plant consisted of a large saturat or wheel (aso-called device that saturates water with carbon dioxideunde rexcess pressure). The wheel was spinned first manually and then later when a 120 kW power plant was built in Radomysl in 1908 (now it is the building of DEN – district electric networking company)by an electricengine. Building of the that plant put the beginning to the electrification in the town. In 1911, the Zelinsky War saw Society built a water tower and a 5.5-kilometer-long water supply system in Radomysl. The water supply system onVelyka Zhytomyrska Streetwas provided the same year. So the pharmacy didn’t need water from “Chapel” any more. Four people and some boy shired for seasonal jobs worked in the pharmacy.   Zelter water, as it was called, was in great demand, and the owner and his family lived wealthy enough. Zelter water,originated from Germanmineral springand known sincethe16th century, was supplied and is now suppliedin bottles (once they were ceramicvessels). Carbonated water was filled in to copper siphon so fvarious capacities,in buckets and other tanks. The water for sale was delivered to hotel-restaurants of the city ("Berlin", "GrandHotel", "Malynrooms", "Bluebird"), shops, theater "Express" and cityhospitalonspecialcarts. At the beginning of the twentieth century a glass siphon for in dividual use was invented. Ademand for Zelter carbonated water for domestic use, as well as for glass vesselsor siphons increased. The capacity of the tanks ranged from one to three liters. Those on sale in the pharmacy, were in incredible demand among the population. Siphons for in dividualusecouldalso befilledwithZelterwaterinoneoftheboothsontheTradeSquare (nowSoborna Square).OneoftheboothssellingZelterwaterwasonthesiteoftheGloryMemorial, onthecornerwheretherevolutionarieswereburied later.SeveralcopiesofbrandedsiphonswiththestampofVladislavMatkovsky'spharmacyhavebeenpreservedintheRadomyshlNationalEthnic Museum. After thees tablishmen tof Soviet power in the city in the fall of 1919, the pharmacy-factory continued to operate for some years. According to one legend, after the abolition of the NEP in the mid-twenties of the 20th century, taxes socrushed the owner, that Matkovsky closed the manufacture and left the city with his family. A grave with the name of Wladyslaw Matkowski has been preserved in the old Polish cemetery but there is no crossorepitaph on the grave. It I possible that this is the grave of the owner of the pharmacy. It is known only that Vladislav Matkovsky's privated rugstore ceased to exist. Some trade company filled the siphons with carbonated water and continued doing it until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. After the war, it turned out that the siphons disappeared. Thirty years ago the teacher of English Mykola Vorontsov lived in the room where the plant for the production of carbonated water used to belocated. During the over haul of the house workers dismant led the wooden floor and found more thant wodozen large coppervessels there. Theysold them forn on-ferrousscrap. House 23 in Velyka Zhytomyrska Street,where the pharmacy used to be located, has now been preserved. Nowadays it is an apartment building


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