Cure for broken heart costs only 1 EUR

Although most people think the only cure for love pain is time, an ancient pharmacy in the Estonian capital promises a sweet cure for broken hearts.

- Since the Middle Ages a special marzipan prescription has been prepared and sold here for the heart to relieve the pain of love. We keep making the special marzipan because the need for such a medicine has continued over the centuries, and patients with symptoms of love pain keep turning up seeking the cure - said Ulle Noodapera, a pharmacist at the Raeapteek drug store which first opened for business in Tallinn's old town square in 1422. It is believed to be Europe's oldest pharmacy, in operation for 588 years.

The ancient recipe is a jealously guarded secret.

- It's not ordinary marzipan, but one made using a medieval prescription containing 72 percent almonds and 28 percent other ingredients that we will not disclose - Noodapera said.

One dose of the wonder drug weighs 40 grams and costs just $1.50.

Stepping into Tallinn's ancient drug store feels like a journey in a time-machine. Along with the cure for broken hearts, a room in the store displays many other medieval potions used for centuries for their supposedly miraculous impact. Most of these remedies are not sold anymore, but the display on old shelves is impressive: dried frogs' legs, pike's eyes, powder supposedly from the mythical unicorn, black cat's blood, the grease of dirty sheep's wool, pieces of an overseas mummy, dew-worm in oil, burned bees, wolf's gut and rabbit hearts — the last prescribed to restore sanity.