Continuing the long-standing practice of researching the history of Rijeka’s industrial facilities, the City Museum of Rijeka opened an exhibition dedicated to the Alga Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Laboratory. It was a facility that operated in Rijeka and Sušak in the period between the two world wars. It has been remembered in the minds of many fellow citizens, even in the entire area of the country at that time, both for its medicinal and beauty preparations. And we know, one can never have enough of either of those. Alga laboratory was a pharmaceutical company named after its most famous product — Alga massage preparation, which was produced and sold by Dinko Budak in his pharmacy in Rijeka since the beginning of the 20th century. With the joint efforts of him and his fellow pharmacist Vladimir Kezele, a modern company based in Sušak was created, employing over 50 employees. The story of the Alga Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Laboratory is both a family and local story, at the same time a story from the national history of pharmacy that deserves to be museologically researched and presented in an exhibition. It is a story about the vision of the authors and founders of Alga laboratory, about the rapid development of the pharmaceutical industry in Croatia, as well as extremely advanced marketing ideas for its time. Finally, and by no means at the end, it is a story about the exciting history of the city that between two wars enjoyed the status of the most orderly in the Kingdom – the city of Sušak. The exhibition is organized by the City Museum of Rijeka and JGL Pharmacy Museum in Rijeka. The exhibition authors are Marin Pintur from the JGL Pharmacy Museum, and Kristina Pandža and Rafaela Ban from the City Museum.
The exhibition is open in the “Cube” building from March 7 to May 31, 2023.
