- Address: Antonijas 1, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1360, Latvia;
- Founded: October 1, 1957;
- Website: mvm.lv;
- Phone: +371 67 222 656;
- Working time: Sun. - from 11:00 to 16:00, Thurs. - from 11:00 to 19:00.
The Paula Stradynia Museum of the History of Medicine is located in a 19th century manor house in the Latvian capital on Antonijas Street. The mansion is built according to the project of the ingenious Riga architect Heinrich Karl Shel. He became the creator of more than four dozen different buildings, many of which today have the status of architectural monuments.
History of the Museum
The Paula Stradynia Museum of the History of Medicine was founded in 1957. Initially, his funds were formed from the personal collection of one of the most gifted Latvian doctors Pauls Stradins. His unique collection Pauls began to collect in the years writing the first doctoral dissertation. For more than 30 years, he painstakingly replenished his collections with new exhibits related to medicine of different time periods and parts of the world.
A year after the creation of the museum of medical history, it was decided to give him the name of Paula Stradynia. Three years later the museum was able to become public, opening its doors to all comers. Now its funds in Riga store more than 203 thousand exhibits, which makes it one of the largest museums in the world in this direction.
Exhibits of the museum
Permanent exhibitions of the museum are divided into five large groups: art, photo-phono-cinema materials, subject, manuscripts and documents, rare books and printed publications. In total, more than 163 thousand units of storage are constantly exposed.
The main task of the Museum of the History of Medicine named after Paul Stradynia is to arouse the interest of the inhabitants to the history of healing from ancient times to the present. The museum most clearly draws a parallel between the development of medicine, as well as its various orientations, with the history of civilization. The exhibition is created in accordance with the idea of the founder and occupies 4 floors. The Museum of the History of Medicine is deservedly popular, more than 42 thousand people visit its exposition annually.
Separate expositions cover such time periods:
- The beginning of the exposition tells about the origin of medicine : herbal treatment, wound dressing, simple operating procedures. There are also artifacts found during archeological excavations and handy items of shamans and healers.
- The previous exposition flows into the medieval hospital and pharmacy . Here are the bones of people with various lesions, listed the main diseases of the Middle Ages and the principles of their treatment.
- The collection of modern times absorbed the history of the progress of those years. X-rays were discovered, the effect of ethereal anesthesia was studied and the first operations were performed under its influence, many vaccines were found from diseases that had previously been considered incurable.
- The excursion is summarized by the story and exhibition about the achievements of Latvian medicine : the eight-century history of Riga, through the prism of development of health and medicine, Latvian healing spas, the restored memorable study of the founding father, and the contribution of Latvian scientists to space biology.
In addition, the museum offers library fund services, which include over 37,000 publications. This includes dissertations, catalogs, special literature, dictionaries, books with autographs and much more. To conduct scientific events in the museum building, a conference hall with an area of 100 m², with the possibility of connecting sound and presentation equipment. There is also free access to the Internet.
How to get there?
The museum can be reached by public transport, trolleybuses Nos. 3, 5, 11, 11, 12, 25, 37, 41, 53, N2 go to it, you should leave at the Mākslas muzejs stop.