Franciscan Monastery and Old Pharmacy

The Franciscan friars were present in Dubrovnik from the medieval period, and the monastery complex near the Pile Gate was built and enriched across the late medieval and Renaissance centuries. The cloister, built in the Romanesque-Gothic style, is the finest surviving part of the medieval complex. The pharmacy was established within the monastery in 1317 and is commonly described as one of Europe’s oldest surviving pharmacy traditions, supplying medicines to the city across the centuries; it should not be claimed as definitively Europe’s single oldest continuously operating pharmacy, as several European pharmacies contest that distinction. The 1667 earthquake that devastated Dubrovnik damaged the monastery and its church, which were subsequently rebuilt and restored, leaving the Baroque elements visible alongside the older cloister. The complex remains an active religious house of the Franciscan friars.