Saint Charles Apotheke is a small Viennese empire producing all-natural, locally grown products specifically designed to make you look and feel better. Alfred Blumenthal founded the original pharmacy in 1886, and it has lived in Vienna, Austria’s 6th district since the early 20th century. For a long time and for reasons forgotten, it was known as “the pharmacy of the holy trinity.”
Since its early days, the pharmacy has expanded from the above Apotheke location, filled with herbs with fun-to-recognize names like “lavendel” and “kamille” and potions and elixirs, to include a Cosmothecary across the street with facial creams and body serums, as well as a calming spa treatment room for massages, facials and whatever else you’d like to experience in an all-natural, eco-conscious, uniquely Austrian way. Their Saint Charles label consists of products sourced from their own Austrian “refugium,” where everything is grown and concocted into health-improving tonics and elixirs according to extensive research in traditional European medicine and, most recently, phytotherapy. You can walk in, tell them how you’re feeling and get a full prescription of helpful remedies from digestive teas and skin-improving lotions to aphrodisiac “love potions.”
Furthermore, they have opened a small restaurant next to the Cosmothecary called the Alimentary, known as “Austria’s first pharmacy restaurant.” There, you can eat or take home locally grown foods designed to respect the environment and make you healthier. They even offer cooking classes.
To visit the pharmacy of the holy trinity, check out their Saint Charles Apotheke website here, and get yourself to Vienna. You can shop online here if you’d rather get the Austrian experience at home.
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My visit to Vienna was sponsored by the Vienna Tourist Board and Cool Capitals, but the opinions expressed in the article are 100% my own.