The Museum Armoury

The museum armoury displays weapons from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. These historical weapons thus include cold weapons: halberds, swords, sabres, knives and daggers, and hand-held firearms with flintlock and a percussion cap: pistols, rifles, and harquebuses. The weapons were made in different countries: e.g. in Italy, France, Austria, and Spain; a few items originate from the Balkan and Arab cultural environment and were brought to our territory via different routes. They had been used by different formations of various armies and countries and remained in our area as a silent witness to the numerous military victories and defeats.

In addition to the practical function (hunting, attack and defence, and sports), resulting from their use in wars and competitions, individual items also have a status and symbolic meaning, because they served as accessories to full-dress uniforms. Some items that had been used everyday are included in the permanent exhibition; these are gun powder containers (many of them had been used for hunting purposes), caps and uniforms that had been used on our territory and items that had been used to make lead bullets – projectiles.

In this collection, visitors can see the development of the rifle mechanism in the mid-19th century since there are four different rifles displayed that demonstrate the development of the rifle mechanism, which had been very fast in the two decades in the mid-19th century and had radically changed the velocity and method of firing a rifle. More than 150 items are on permanent display in the weapons collection – museum armoury, while the combined range of weapons kept by the museum numbers more than 260 items.