The ancient apothecary’s shop is a landmark in Padua and a national monument. The historical apothecary’s shop “Al Pomo d'Oro” is located on the ground floor and is thought to date back to 1496. The façade we see today is early 16th century and is mentioned in a document dated 4 March 1528, which names the “Apothecary at the Pomo d'Oro” as Giovanni Battista Meneghini.

According to a document issued by the prefecture of Padua, in 1914 the owner was Ernesto Carlo Spelta; in 1928 Spelta sold the business to pharmacist Sebastiano Barbo and then in 1932, ownership of the pharmacy passed to Antonio and Mario Godina. The pharmacy, which in the interim had changed its name to “al Duomo”, was inherited by Antonia Godina, Antonio’s daughter and mother of the current owner, Marina Riccoboni Marcon.

The furnishings and shelving in the pharmacy are in Venetian neo-Gothic style, painted using tempera and lacquered in gold. As soon as you enter, you see a long counter sitting on lion’s feet decorated with wooden panels with four rosettes with a four-leaf clover motif. There are four trefoil windows above the panels.

The shelves, which match the counter, are embellished with narrow twisted wooden columns which create round arches, each containing two pointed trefoil arches. On the top shelf are ancient ceramic jars of all different shapes. These jars are typically Venetian in production and are decorated with blue or coloured flowers and stylised vine leaves on a white background; the name of the medicine is written on some of the jars in Gothic characters. They are attributed to Pasquale Antonibon’s workshop in Nove in the Bassano area (1738-1774).