text: The Burchart (Burchard) family are those most closely associated with the pharmacy's history, having run the business for over 10 generations, spanning over 325 years from around 1582 to 1911. 
  Between 1579 and 1581, a Hungarian immigrant named Johann Burchart Both Belavary de Sykava, moved to Tallinn from his hometown of Pressburg (present day Bratislava) and obtained a lease from the city council to run the business of the pharmacy. He was to be the first in a long dynasty of pharmacists that were to run the Raeapteek. 
  He also started the family tradition of giving the firstborn son the name "Johann" who was always expected to carry on the family business. This tradition was carried on for eight further generations, until the late 19th century with the birth of the tenth firstborn son in 1843 called Johann X Burchart.
  The Burcharts were well-educated and often were not only pharmacists but also doctors. They played a significant role in the life of the town. 
  In 1688, Johann Burchart the IV finally was able to purchase the pharmacy from the city council for 600 thalers. In 1690, the Burchart dynasty and Town-Hall Apothecary's rights and obligations were confirmed with a privilege written by the ruling king Charles XI of Sweden.
  In 1710, Johann Burchart V started his career while Tallinn was being ravaged by the Black Plague. When Tallinn capitulated to the Russian army in the Great Northern War, he was one of the first to provide the Russian army with medicines. In 1716, he became the town doctor and the doctor of the garrison and the naval hospital.
  The fame of the Burchart family became so great that in 1725 even the Russian Tsar Peter the Great supposedly called for Johann Burchart V to attend to him on his deathbed, but he died before Burchart reached St. Petersburg.
  In 1802, Johann Burchart VIII established a private museum of local life and curiosities, calling it "Mon faible". Several items from his collection are now displayed in the Estonian History Museum. In 1802, he organized the first art exhibition in Tallinn.
  From 1880 to 1885 the first Estonian speaking pharmacist with a degree from  University of Tartu Oskar Mildebrath was hired by the Pharmacy. 
  The last two Burcharts were men of ill health, who could not supervise the pharmacy and leased it out to others again. The Burcharts rule over the pharmacy came to an end in the 1890s with the death of the last male heir of the named Johann X Burchart. The sisters of Johann X sold the property in 1911 to C.R. Lehbert, ending the family-run business which had lasted for ten generations.