Considered the oldest pharmacy in the world, Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella was founded in 1221 as a Dominican friars convent when the friars were granted the use of Santa Maria Inter Vineas ("Holy Mary Among the Vines”) — a small church just outside the city walls where they cultivated a botanical garden of herbs and plants to craft medicines, ointments and balms.
Santa Maria Novella has been producing Pot Pourri in its workshops for over three centuries. This mixture of buds, leaves and flower petals indigenous to the Tuscan hills is its most renown and traditional fragrance. The refillable terracotta jar replicates the historic vessels used to cure and prepare the Pot Pourri.
