Can a pharmacy be a tourist attraction? There is one that ranks first in the world in visits and has the particularity of being the only one in its country. It is, of course, the Vatican Pharmacy, which employs more than fifty staff members because they must attend to over two thousand customers daily and process more than ten thousand mail shipments, according to official data.

Although its roots go back to the service created by Pope Nicholas III in the year 1277, its true origin dates to 1874, in a context that decisively influenced it: the so-called Roman Question, in which Italy was embroiled and which revolved around a dispute over defining the Pope’s temporal power.

Let us recall that in 1849 the Papal States came under the control of the Roman Republic and a Franco-Spanish intervention was required to restore Pius IX’s authority, thus giving rise to the aforementioned issue. A decade later, after the Austrians withdrew from Italian territory, it was decided that the Papal States would be incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy, and the Holy See would be limited to Rome and its surroundings.

Vatican pharmacy
Pope Pius IX. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Naturally, the Pope did not take this well, and one of the outcomes of that controversy was the attempt to bolster his authority with the proclamation of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council, held between 1869 and 1870. But he lost the last of his possessions when France and Prussia went to war and the French garrison assigned to protect him had to leave. That same year, the Bersaglieri entered the Eternal City and, after staging a battle to show that Pius IX did not give in willingly (a farce that, incidentally, cost sixty-one lives), Rome was definitively annexed. Tensions eased somewhat when the Pope was granted honors and privileges similar to those of King Vittorio Emanuele, but successive pontiffs, confined to the Vatican, continued to refuse to accept the situation until 1927, with the Lateran Pacts, which granted it the status of an independent state.

Well, the Roman Question was at its height when Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, Secretary of State of the Holy See, approached Eusebio Ludvig Fronmen, a Fatebenefratelli monk (that is, of the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God) who ran the pharmacy of the San Giovanni di Dio Hospital on Tiber Island (the one in the Tiber, in the middle of Rome), asking him to take charge of supplying medicines to the Vatican, since neither the Pope nor the cardinals were willing to leave the grounds. Thus, Fronmen, who at first simply fulfilled the request as it was, decided to establish a warehouse with a permanent dispensary to avoid the constant comings and goings.

That was in 1892, and the brothers of his own order were the ones who managed the operation, which was initially mostly nocturnal. But in 1917, with the signing of the aforementioned Lateran Pacts, the situation changed; the Pope and the Curia could now move more freely and even leave their small borders, so the pharmacy was relocated to a more publicly accessible location.

Vatican pharmacy
Humorous cartoon about the Roman Question: Garibaldi and Vittorio Emanuele fire at the “clerical bats” while the gendarme Napoleon III defends Pius IX and Francis II watches the scene with two Britons. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

The chosen location, Porta Sant’Anna, is near the main entrance, which gave the establishment notable popularity, as its clientele grew beyond just priests. Because, being a very well-stocked pharmacy, it attracted those in need of medicines that could not otherwise be obtained in Rome—or at least not without a long wait—due to bureaucratic hurdles.

Thus, the Vatican Pharmacy’s unexpected commercial success forced a new relocation just two years after the previous one. This time, to the Palazzo Belvedere, behind the Poste Vaticane (postal service), created that same year, 1929. It remains there to this day, right in front of the Spaccio Annonario, the Vatican supermarket.

It primarily serves the nearly twelve thousand people who are part of the Health Assistance Fund, a private healthcare plan of the small pontifical state’s Health Service (created in 1958 by Pius XII and whose clinic is next door), which provides them with permanent care. But any Italian citizen can also purchase there, provided they bring the required prescription and an ID, with the added benefit that the medications at this pharmacy are significantly cheaper (between 11% and 25%) because they are tax-exempt; there are no taxes in the Vatican.

Vatican pharmacy
Location of the Vatican Pharmacy. Credit: Google Maps

It also dispenses creams, ointments, mouthwashes, lotions, tinctures, soaps, and similar items made in-house, although the best-selling product is Valium—by prescription—and, curiously, the most in-demand item is a hemorrhoid ointment called Hamolind, which apparently is not sold in Italian pharmacies. However, not everything is available; products considered contrary to Catholic morals—such as contraceptives, condoms, the morning-after pill, Viagra, or medicinal cannabis—are banned.

In the spring of 2019, the Vatican Pharmacy underwent restructuring and expansion, as the growing demand meant it was always full and required a dozen people attending to a large public in multiple languages, who already gather at the door before morning opening. This work included the specific creation of a department for cosmetics and natural products: perfumes, creams…

The Vatican Pharmacy, currently (at the time this article was originally written) directed by a Spanish monk, is accessed through Porta Angelica and is open Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (Saturdays until 1:00 p.m.), although it closes at 3:00 p.m. in summer. Its address is Via della Posta 00120 – Vatican City.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on October 23, 2025: La Farmacia Vaticana es la más visitada del mundo, con más de dos millares de clientes al día

SOURCES

Joan Vendrell i Campmany, La Farmacia Vaticana

Correo Farmacéutico, La Farmacia Vaticana “aconseja, acoge, sonríe y también dispensa”

L’Osservatore Romano, Per un servizio più accurato ed efficiente

Statto della Cittá del Vaticano

Wikipedia, Vatican Pharmacy

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