ARTICLE
THE TRIOLET PHARMACY IN MATANZAS, A TREASURE OF CUBA
BY: JULIO A. LARRAMENDI
A cold wave, frequent in the Havana-Matanzas plain, where temperatures below 5 0C have been registered, hits the so-called Athens of Cuba and its surroundings, with the consequent increase in cases of colds, lung diseases and exacerbation of attacks asthma.
Dr. Triolet, concerned about the frequency with which customers come to his pharmacy looking for an effective remedy, sits in the laboratory and looks at the enormous number of bottles that contain plant extracts and mineral substances, among many other products. . It is very early in the morning and his second wife, Doña María de los Dolores de la Caridad Cleofás Figueroa y Marty, brings him a steaming cup of coffee, freshly roasted, ground and strained. As he tastes the infusion, he feels an injection of energy and optimism. He already has the solution!
Since its introduction in Europe, coffee has been present in pharmacies for the preparation of remedies, especially for headaches and hangovers from excess alcohol, and it is still possible to see bottles of caffeine in old pharmacies and pharmaceutical museums. From one of these containers Triolet extracted the raw material for its new and successful formulation: Compound Coffee.
Enrique Triolet Lelievre, a native of Lissy, France, obtained the title of Doctor of Pharmacy in 1860, after which he arrived in Cuba at the invitation of Dr. Juan Fermín de Figueroa Veliz, then called King of Boticas de Cuba, whom he had met in Paris, and also with the aim of visiting his parents, who had settled for some time in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, current province of Cienfuegos, in the center of the Island, where they already had a pharmacy.
Conquered by the possibilities that the country offered and the family presence, he revalidated his degree at the University of Havana on January 10, 1866, and together with his friend Juan Fermín founded the Nuestra Señora de Regla pharmacy in Sagua la Grande, already then a modern city, rich and in full development, today belonging to the province of Villa Clara.
With the aim of expanding the business, in 1880 the two friends visited Matanzas, known as the Athens of Cuba for its rich cultural life and flourishing sugar-based economy, and decided to build a pharmacy in the best possible place: in front of arms square. In less than two years they erected a solid and beautiful building with a central courtyard and three levels, in a neoclassical style, in keeping with the architectural trends of the late nineteenth century. The ground floor was dedicated to the manufacture and sale of medicines, a main upper floor for housing and a partial one on the roof level, with a wide view of the city and the bay.
Inaugurated on January 1, 1882, the success was immediate and the fame of its products, most of them with their own formulations based on natural components, spread throughout Cuba and other countries. More than 200,000 formulas that were made, packaged and marketed in its facilities between 1882 and 1900, are recorded in the books still kept at the Triolet pharmacy.
Given the recognition received for his work, the quality of his preparations and the affordable prices, in 1900 the French pharmacist was invited to the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he participated with 11 products worthy of a gold medal; Among these, the Compound Coffee created that cold Matanzas morning.
Ironically, a few weeks after the Exhibition ended and in view of the gold medal that he won with his recipes, Enrique Triolet fell ill with severe pneumonia that caused his death.
His heirs continued the tradition of the French pharmacy; first his widow Dolores and then his son, Ernesto Luis Triolet Figueroa, born in 1893 and graduated with a doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Havana in 1914.
As part of the process of socialization of public health developed by the Cuban Revolution, the establishment was nationalized on November 29, 1963, through a purchase and sale contract formalized in the presence of its owner and the workers. Shortly after, and with the approval of the family, it was proposed to turn it into a museum, which materialized on April 30, 1964.
At the inauguration, the historian Julio Le Riverend, representing the Cuban Academy of Sciences, said: "Matanzas will once again be, as in past glories, a city of high culture and will be recognized throughout the country." Dr. Ernesto Triolet, then appointed curator of the Pharmaceutical Museum, offered those present the first guided visit, during which he exposed the relevant history of his family and called for the conservation of all the heritage assets exhibited there.
Declared a National Monument in 2007 and considered by many connoisseurs as the most complete of its kind in the world, the Pharmaceutical Museum of Matanzas is on the Tentative List to be proposed to UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Between its old walls and beautiful shelves the atmosphere of the 19th century French apothecary is preserved, with its valuable set of pots, bottles, labels, recipe books, instruments for the practice of Medicine and for the elaboration of formulations…; Millions of pieces - in the same place chosen by their founders, 140 years ago very soon - illuminated by the tropical light that filters through the colored half points of the façade where a surname earned by Cuban science and culture remains stamped : Triolet.
Dr. Triolet, concerned about the frequency with which customers come to his pharmacy looking for an effective remedy, sits in the laboratory and looks at the enormous number of bottles that contain plant extracts and mineral substances, among many other products. . It is very early in the morning and his second wife, Doña María de los Dolores de la Caridad Cleofás Figueroa y Marty, brings him a steaming cup of coffee, freshly roasted, ground and strained. As he tastes the infusion, he feels an injection of energy and optimism. He already has the solution!
Since its introduction in Europe, coffee has been present in pharmacies for the preparation of remedies, especially for headaches and hangovers from excess alcohol, and it is still possible to see bottles of caffeine in old pharmacies and pharmaceutical museums. From one of these containers Triolet extracted the raw material for its new and successful formulation: Compound Coffee.
Enrique Triolet Lelievre, a native of Lissy, France, obtained the title of Doctor of Pharmacy in 1860, after which he arrived in Cuba at the invitation of Dr. Juan Fermín de Figueroa Veliz, then called King of Boticas de Cuba, whom he had met in Paris, and also with the aim of visiting his parents, who had settled for some time in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, current province of Cienfuegos, in the center of the Island, where they already had a pharmacy.
Conquered by the possibilities that the country offered and the family presence, he revalidated his degree at the University of Havana on January 10, 1866, and together with his friend Juan Fermín founded the Nuestra Señora de Regla pharmacy in Sagua la Grande, already then a modern city, rich and in full development, today belonging to the province of Villa Clara.
With the aim of expanding the business, in 1880 the two friends visited Matanzas, known as the Athens of Cuba for its rich cultural life and flourishing sugar-based economy, and decided to build a pharmacy in the best possible place: in front of arms square. In less than two years they erected a solid and beautiful building with a central courtyard and three levels, in a neoclassical style, in keeping with the architectural trends of the late nineteenth century. The ground floor was dedicated to the manufacture and sale of medicines, a main upper floor for housing and a partial one on the roof level, with a wide view of the city and the bay.
Inaugurated on January 1, 1882, the success was immediate and the fame of its products, most of them with their own formulations based on natural components, spread throughout Cuba and other countries. More than 200,000 formulas that were made, packaged and marketed in its facilities between 1882 and 1900, are recorded in the books still kept at the Triolet pharmacy.
Given the recognition received for his work, the quality of his preparations and the affordable prices, in 1900 the French pharmacist was invited to the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he participated with 11 products worthy of a gold medal; Among these, the Compound Coffee created that cold Matanzas morning.
Ironically, a few weeks after the Exhibition ended and in view of the gold medal that he won with his recipes, Enrique Triolet fell ill with severe pneumonia that caused his death.
His heirs continued the tradition of the French pharmacy; first his widow Dolores and then his son, Ernesto Luis Triolet Figueroa, born in 1893 and graduated with a doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Havana in 1914.
As part of the process of socialization of public health developed by the Cuban Revolution, the establishment was nationalized on November 29, 1963, through a purchase and sale contract formalized in the presence of its owner and the workers. Shortly after, and with the approval of the family, it was proposed to turn it into a museum, which materialized on April 30, 1964.
At the inauguration, the historian Julio Le Riverend, representing the Cuban Academy of Sciences, said: "Matanzas will once again be, as in past glories, a city of high culture and will be recognized throughout the country." Dr. Ernesto Triolet, then appointed curator of the Pharmaceutical Museum, offered those present the first guided visit, during which he exposed the relevant history of his family and called for the conservation of all the heritage assets exhibited there.
Declared a National Monument in 2007 and considered by many connoisseurs as the most complete of its kind in the world, the Pharmaceutical Museum of Matanzas is on the Tentative List to be proposed to UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Between its old walls and beautiful shelves the atmosphere of the 19th century French apothecary is preserved, with its valuable set of pots, bottles, labels, recipe books, instruments for the practice of Medicine and for the elaboration of formulations…; Millions of pieces - in the same place chosen by their founders, 140 years ago very soon - illuminated by the tropical light that filters through the colored half points of the façade where a surname earned by Cuban science and culture remains stamped : Triolet.
