Santa Maria Novella

Santa Maria Novella is an Italian apothecary and fragrance house based in Florence, on Via della Scala. It traces its origins to 1221, when Dominican friars settled at the convent of Santa Maria Novella and began cultivating medicinal plants and preparing remedies [6]. That long, unbroken thread of activity on the same site is the basis for the house's central claim: that it is the oldest pharmacy in the world. The brand remains active and is owned by the Italian investment holding Italmobiliare [3].

Today the company makes perfumes, soaps, cosmetics, candles and traditional preparations, and frames itself around eight centuries of continuous craft. It is a small house with a long memory rather than a large one, and much of its identity rests on products and recipes whose histories are documented in its own archive.

The story begins with the Dominican friars who arrived in Florence and settled at Santa Maria Novella in 1221, tending herb gardens and distilling waters for medicinal use [7]. Out of that work came the apothecary's first preparations: balms, ointments and scented waters made from the plants grown on site. One of the earliest documented products is rose water, or Acqua di Rose. A receipt for it survives in the archive dated 1381, when the friars sold it as a disinfectant, and during outbreaks of plague, the company says, they distilled it to cleanse houses and treat the sick.

There is no single founder in the modern sense. The house presents itself as the work of successive generations of friars, and the date it gives for its beginning — 1221 — marks the founding of the convent rather than the opening of a shop. That distinction is what lets the company claim eight centuries of continuous activity: not one business operating without interruption, but an apothecary tradition kept alive on the same Florentine site.

For its first centuries the apothecary was a small operation run inside the convent walls. Rose water was being sold by 1381, and a documented record of a working convent pharmacy appears in 1508. The house's profile grew under the patronage of Florence's ruling families: in 1659 it received the title of "Fonderia di Sua Altezza Reale" from Grand Duke Ferdinand II de' Medici, a mark of standing that placed it among the suppliers of the Tuscan court.

When exactly Santa Maria Novella became a public pharmacy is the one genuinely disputed point in its history, and the brand's own materials and outside sources do not fully agree. The company dates its founding to 1221 and uses "Since 1221" as a tagline; Wikipedia's infobox records the same founding year [3][6]. The later date is where accounts diverge. The brand says the pharmacy doors "officially opened to the greater public" in 1542, the same year an autonomous administrative organisation and a first ledger appear in the records [3]. The year 1612, when the Grand Duke of Tuscany formally recognised the business under the name "Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica," is the date Wikipedia describes as "traditionally considered" the public opening [6]. The house's name still carries that title.

Between these dates sit the milestones the company likes to tell. In 1533 the Florentine perfumer Renato Bianco — raised, the brand says, by the friars of Santa Maria Novella — created Acqua della Regina, described by the company as its oldest fragrance and tied to a wedding gift for Catherine de' Medici on her marriage into the French court [2]. The editorial magazine AnOther goes further, calling it "the first perfume to use alcohol as the base instead of the traditional vinegar or olive oil — thus it is, arguably, the first modern perfume" [7]. Much later, the fragrance Angeli di Firenze was created to commemorate the 1966 flood of Florence and those who worked to save the city's cultural heritage.

In 2021 the house marked its 800th anniversary, counting from 1221.

Santa Maria Novella is owned by Italmobiliare, an Italian investment holding the company describes as one that "enhances important Made in Italy brands" [3]. The brand became part of the Italmobiliare group in 2020, and in 2021 Italmobiliare acquired the entire capital of the business [6]. In July 2025 Ludivine Pont, previously chief marketing officer at Balenciaga, was appointed chief executive officer [6].

The house positions itself almost entirely on heritage and continuity, presenting roughly 800 years of craft as the reason its products are worth seeking out. Its own language blends an "apothecary art legacy" with what it calls a "continuously-renewed alchemy of tales and wonders." Products are framed as part of a Florentine tradition of craftsmanship rather than as the output of a modern beauty company, and the firm consistently ties itself to the city: its eau de parfum L'Iris was offered as a homage to Florence, whose heraldic symbol has been the iris since 1266.

The catalogue centres on fragrance, with skincare, body care and home scents alongside it. Several products carry the house's history directly. Acqua di Rose, the rose water documented since 1381, remains in the range; Acqua della Regina, created in 1533, is still sold today. The brand groups a set of these under "Our Icons," including Tabacco Toscano, Melograno (pomegranate), Magnolia, Rosa Novella and the long-running Pot Pourri home fragrance. Recurring ingredients across the line include rose, iris and pomegranate.

For a house that leans so heavily on its archive, new launches are rare and treated as events. The company presented L'Iris as its first eau de parfum in 800 years [7], a framing that underlines how much of the range is inherited rather than newly composed.

Santa Maria Novella is a member of the United Nations Global Compact, which the company says reflects a "formal and substantial commitment" to sustainability [4]. It states that it applies the Compact's Ten Fundamental Principles and works toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals across sourcing, packaging and the lifecycle of its products, and it publishes annual sustainability reports. The brand's public sustainability page names no specific product certifications such as organic, vegan or cruelty-free, leaving that detail to its linked reports.

Santa Maria Novella is an active, expanding brand. Under Italmobiliare ownership and a chief executive appointed in 2025, it sells through more than 400 points of sale across more than 30 countries [6], alongside its historic boutique on Via della Scala in Florence.