Santa Maria Novella: A House of Fragrance Inheriting the Friars’ Apothecary

I’m in love with this shop.
Eugenio Alphandery

Eugenio Alphandery was ten when he first visited this shop in Florence, brought there by his great-grandmother. Even after he became a co-owner and took part in running the business, he said that walking through the door gave him the same sense of peace he had felt that day.

At Santa Maria Novella’s flagship on Via della Scala, choosing a perfume brings you into the remembered world of a monastic apothecary. The elaborate ceiling paintings and wooden shelves are more than decorations made for a perfume shop. Each retains traces of the years spent in worship, preparing medicinal herbs and welcoming customers.

Contents

The First Shop
The Thinking Behind the Store
1. Preserving the Work of Making
2. Renewing the Business Within a Tradition
Rooms to Visit
References

The First Shop

Its origins lie with the Dominican friars who arrived in Florence in 1221. Using medicinal herbs grown at the monastery, they made preparations to care for the sick in their community. In 1612, they opened the pharmacy to people from outside, connecting the work of the monastery with the life of the city.

Customers originally entered the pharmacy from the Great Cloister. A major renovation in 1848 marked a turning point. Under Fra’ Damiano Beni, architect Enrico Romoli remodelled the premises and created the present entrance on Via della Scala. A room that had once been a chapel became a large sales hall.

At the time, Florence welcomed travellers from Britain and Northern Europe on the Grand Tour. The shop sought to receive not only aristocrats and diplomats, but also writers and people who travelled to learn about other cultures. Its inherited work as a pharmacy now included a role as a place to welcome visitors from afar.

Production eventually moved elsewhere, but the historic shop remained. Rather than preserving the chapel and pharmacy simply as relics of the past, the company has continued to use them as rooms in which people can choose fragrances and soaps.

The Thinking Behind the Store

Preserving the Work of Making

A museum designed by architect Filippo Burresi was established in the flagship’s former production areas. What Alphandery wanted to preserve there was more than the beauty of the finished products.

to display the machines and equipment used in the past
Eugenio Alphandery, translated from Spanish

Stills, soap-making machinery, and mortars of bronze and marble were brought together: tools that reveal the work of distilling, grinding and processing hidden behind a perfume bottle. The ceramics collection also includes 42 maiolica pharmacy jars attributed to Montelupo. Looking at the vessels on the shelves, it becomes clear that, before this was a beautiful salesroom, it was a workplace where things were made, stored and handed over.

Renewing the Business Within a Tradition

Preserving historic rooms does not mean leaving every aspect of customer service unchanged. In 2012, marking 400 years since the pharmacy opened to the public, the flagship introduced a system that combined personal product advice with a card and ordering terminals.

After talking with a member of staff, customers received a card and selected products and quantities at a terminal. Once they had explored the rooms, they handed over the card and collected their wrapped purchases. Separating the conversation about fragrance from order processing was a way to preserve the time spent enjoying the historic interiors.

Gianluca Foà, who headed the commercial side of the business, summed up this approach:

We’re combining innovation with tradition
Gianluca Foà

Keeping an old building while finding new ways to conduct the business within it: Santa Maria Novella’s flagship has taken on both responsibilities.

Rooms to Visit

The Sala Grande at the Florence Flagship

The ceiling of the Sala Grande is one of the first things to look up at in the flagship. Paolino Sarti’s allegories of the four continents represent the products’ journey to distant lands. Beneath the medieval vaults stand Neo-Gothic walnut cabinets and counters. Of the eight cabinets, four have double doors and four have single doors. Although the architecture and furniture belong to different periods, they form a coherent salesroom.

This room was originally the Chapel of San Niccolò, endowed in 1332 by the merchant Dardano Acciaioli. Gratitude for his recovery under the friars’ care took the form of a place of worship, which would later become a room for choosing fragrance.

Illustration of Santa Maria Novella’s Sala Grande, showing pale yellow vaults, a round window and wooden display cabinets. — Interior of the Sala Grande (illustration)

The Antica Spezieria

In the old pharmacy, the main salesroom until 1848, the carved cabinets and counters make a lasting impression. Golden dragons decorate the ceiling; instruments and pharmacy jars fill the shelves. Unlike the expansive Sala Grande, this room offers a more intimate sense of the pharmacy where preparations were stored and passed to customers. It now serves as the Erboristeria, a space for traditional preparations, elixirs and liqueurs.

Illustration of the old pharmacy’s dark wooden cabinets, green shelf interiors, gilded carving and medicine bottles. — The Antica Spezieria (illustration)

The Sala Verde and the Sacristy

The Sala Verde, or Green Room, was once a working room for distillation equipment. In the eighteenth century it became a reception room, where visitors were served preparations such as Alkermes and chocolate. The wallpaper’s pattern still appears on the Pot Pourri packaging. Taking home a design seen in the shop in the form of a small box is one of the particular pleasures of this flagship.

The adjoining sacristy preserves frescoes of the Passion of Christ by Mariotto di Nardo. The room has also been used to store aromatic distilled waters and other preparations; restoration of its wall paintings was completed in 2013. A building for worship and a place for preparing fragrances: the two histories overlap within the same walls.

While choosing a perfume, you can look up at the ceiling, pause over the instruments on the shelves and trace the role of each room. Here, picking up a product and learning about the work that brought it into being become a natural part of the same experience.