Johann Maria Farina

Names: Johann Maria Farina (English, French, German) · Йоганн Марія Фаріна (Ukrainian) · Иоганн Мария Фарина (Russian) · Giovanni Maria Farina (Italian)
Born: 8 December 1685, Santa Maria Maggiore, Italy — Died: 25 November 1766, Cologne
Specialization: perfumer, founder of the world's oldest operating perfume factory — Farina 1709; creator of eau de cologne

Born in the Alpine town of Santa Maria Maggiore in northern Italy, he moved to Cologne as a young man. In 1709 he founded a business there that still exists today — Farina gegenüber, the oldest perfume factory in the world. He created a fresh citrus fragrance and named it Eau de Cologne — “water from Cologne” — after his new city; thus the name of a city became the name of an entire category of perfume. His “Cologne water” was ordered by the royal courts of Europe, and the fragrance itself became the benchmark of freshness for centuries to come.

Farina described his fragrance as “a spring morning in Italy after the rain”: bergamot, lemon, orange, neroli and herbs — a clean, bright, joyful freshness. It was a true revolution in an era of heavy perfumes. More than three centuries later his formula remains a symbol of impeccable, noble freshness — the classic with which all modern colognes began.