Bohuslav Lavička was a talented Czech pharmacist who built his career in Slovenia. Over the years, he established a remarkable pharmaceutical collection. Even though he met a horrible fate during World War II, his legacy lives on.

Born in 1879, Lavička received his career inspiration when toured an old pharmacy as a child. After receiving a pharmacology Master’s Degree in Prague, he worked in several European cities. When he turned thirty, he moved to Slovenia and ended up working as a pharmacist in Idrija, Vrhnika, and Tržič.

He soon became a passionate collector of pharmaceutical items and books. His collection included first editions of European classics, and even a fragment of an original Gutenberg Bible. However, his medical and pharmaceutical collections were the most impressive. Inspired by a Swiss collector named Burkhard Reber, Lavička scoured the continent to obtain books written by leading doctors and herbalists. Other items in Lavička’s collection included pharmaceutical weights, precision instruments, gear used by alchemists, and two full-scale pharmacies, complete with drugs and apothecary tools. One even contained a ground-up human skull once use to treat fatigue.

When World War II broke out, Lavička was working in the town of Tržič. The area was occupied by German forces, who frequently carried out reprisals against the local population. On July 16, 1942, Lavička was taken hostage and executed. He was 63 years old.

The Nazis wanted to confiscate his collection and take it to Germany, but a historian named Josip Žontar intervened and managed to keep the valuables in Slovenia. Today, the Lavička Collection is owned by the Lek pharmaceutical company, which is making portions of it available online. In 2002, the collection became officially protected as a Cultural Monument, preserving Lavička’s life work and passion for future generations.