Pharmacy "Jovo Dreč" in Cetinje  

Situated on Njegoševa Street 17 in Cetinje, it is the first state pharmacy in Montenegro and one of the two oldest in the Balkans. 

Brief history: 

The pharmacy is a cultural-historical, architectural and profane building. 

The first State pharmacy in Cetinje, and at the same time in Montenegro, was founded in 1878 within the "Danilo I" Hospital, and its first pharmacist was Jovo Dreč from Mostar. In 1881, it was displaced to a rented private residential house, and in 1891, it became the private property of Jovo Dreč, who managed it until he died (in 1902. ) 

The pharmacy was then taken over by Uroš Marić, a pharmacist from Dubrovnik, until 1913, when he handed it over to the first Montenegrin apothecary, Master Krsto Matanović, from Ćeklić. He placed the pharmacy on the ground floor of his house, in the former Katunska Street, now Njegoševa Street. He died in 1931, and the pharmacy has remained in that space to this day.

Description of the object: 

The entering door has metal eaves. There is also a glazed window with an old wooden pharmacy advertisement.

The pharmacy interior has wooden shelves and prescriptions with Latin inscriptions of medicines on ceramic elliptical tiles. Pharmacy has an authentic appearance and layout as in the time of Matanović, from 1913, which is why this significant interior is a protected, immovable cultural asset. 

There are yellow-brown and white square stone slabs on the floor in the reception area, laid in a checkerboard pattern

Wooden entering double-leaf doors, divided into regular grid ground-glass squares, are original architectural details.

The pharmacy is a rare example of preserved authentic business premises from the beginning of the 20th century.

Decision on introduction into the Register of Cultural Property - Pharmacy, no. 08-1126/4 of 10 December 1968.

References: 

- Main project, architectural part, done in 1981. Sig. 751 – 753

- D. Martinović and U. Martinović: Cetinje - monuments of architecture, Cetinje, 1980

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