Via Della Scala 16, Firenze

The premises at Via della Scala 16 form part of the Dominican convent complex of Santa Maria Novella, founded in 1221. The building has operated as a public pharmacy since 15 October 1612, when a council of the convent voted to open the Officina to clients from outside. The rooms preserve the architectural and decorative layers of eight centuries of institutional use: medieval chapel structures, 18th-century carved apothecary cabinets, 19th-century Neo-Gothic joinery and frescoes, and a reception room whose green wallpaper pattern is still reproduced on Pot Pourri packaging today.

The complex has housed more than the Officina. In May 1434, Pope Eugene IV fled a popular uprising in Rome and took up residence in the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella. During his nine years here he consecrated Brunelleschi's newly completed dome of Florence Cathedral and hosted the Council of Florence (1439–1443), convened to reconcile the Eastern and Western Churches. For nearly a decade, this building served as an alternative seat of the papacy.

Approximately 3,000 visitors come each day.

The corridor connecting Via della Scala to the Sala Grande was opened at the end of the 18th century; the present entrance was designed by Enrico Romoli. Barrel-vaulted ceilings, paired columns and a geometric marble floor in a compass-rose pattern define the architectural character of the space. The original public entrance, in use from 1612 to 1848, opened from the Chiostro Grande through a shell-shaped portal designed by Matteo Nigetti.

The main sales hall occupies the former Chapel of San Niccolò, commissioned in 1332 by the merchant Dardano Acciaioli in gratitude for his recovery under the friars' care, and in honour of San Niccolò, venerated as the protector of merchants and apothecaries. A fire in 1574 severely damaged the chapel, which then stood closed and unused for nearly three centuries.

In 1848, Fra' Damiano Beni converted the space to receive the international clientele then arriving in Florence on the Grand Tour: the aristocrats, writers and travellers from Britain and Northern Europe for whom the city had become a fixed destination. Eight display cases were made between 1848 and 1858 by Florentine cabinetmakers in the English Neo-Gothic style. The vaulted ceiling carries frescoes by Paolino Sarti (1848) depicting the four continents, a declaration of the Officina's commercial reach at the moment of its repositioning for international visitors. Inscriptions above the doors name Fra' Damiano Beni as the author of the renovation and refer to the Officina by its Medici-period name, Fonderia. The room is called the Sala dei Principi, the Room of the Princes, after the aristocratic and diplomatic clientele it was built to receive.

The sacristy of the Chapel of San Niccolò was converted from 1612 into a dedicated storeroom for distilled preparations: rose water, herb distillates and aromatic compounds. Fra' Cosimo Bucelli's inventory of 1743 records the room under the name Stanza delle Acque and notes a considerable quantity of glass flasks for distilled and spirited waters stored within it.

Preparations were sold to clients who arrived with their own pitchers to fill, a practice that continued until the end of the 19th century. The restoration of 2012–2013 revealed frescoes attributed to Mariotto di Nardo di Cione (14th–15th century) beneath later layers, including a preparatory drawing left deliberately visible.

The Antica Spezieria served as the main sales room from 1612 to 1848, entered from the Chiostro Grande through the Nigetti portal. Its present form, defined in the 18th century, preserves carved apothecary cabinets housing original instruments, scales and jars from the monastic period. The vaulted ceiling carries stucco decoration of golden dragons, conceived as a direct reference to the grotesque motifs of the period's decorative ceramic tradition, reinterpreted in an 18th-century idiom. In each corner stands a putto, a spiritello drawn from the pre-Christian decorative tradition. The room houses the Officina's ancient preparations, elixirs and liqueurs alongside the archive collection. Today it serves as the Erboristeria.

Built between 1335 and 1337, the Sala Verde served from 1542 as a working room housing the Officina's distillation equipment: pyramid-shaped ovens, stoves and glassware. In the 18th century it became a reception room for distinguished visitors, where preparations including Alkermes, China and chocolate were served. Its distinctive green wallpaper pattern has since been reproduced on Pot Pourri packaging.

On one wall, the coat of arms of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella is set in a carved and gilded frame. On the opposite wall, a Medici stemma carries at its centre a portrait of San Pietro Martire, attributed to Lorenzo Lippi, encircled by a serpent and flanked by putti holding the Medici balls. Beneath the Dominican arms stands the marble bust of Fra' Tommaso Valori, director from 1788 to 1823. During the Napoleonic suppression, Valori bought the Officina from the French government in September 1813, at his own expense, to save it from permanent loss, and in 1817 he returned it to the Dominican Order. Above hang portraits of every director since 1612.