Austrian museum: Landeszeughaus Graz
 

Hy all

I recently had a work-related trip to Graz (Austria). I was lucky enough to have some time off for visiting the city. Guess what... Graz hosts one of the biggest collections of weapons and armoury in Europe.

The 'Landeszeughaus' used to be a weaponry (around 1642) where soldiers picked up their arms and armour. It has always be a hidden place - almost nobody knew what was hiding behind the walls of the building. In total, the collection hosts 32 000 mostly brandnew pieces. Entering the museum is like going back into time. Most of the exhibits are 'as they used to be'. I just have one word to discribe this museum: INCREDIBLE.

Some info / film can be found here: http://www.zeughaus.at/
The official website can be found here: http://www.museum-joanneum.at/en/lan...tyrian-armoury

Surely a great museum Tim.
Also very nice personel. I have once contacted them to identify the marks of one of my halberds and i was promptly atended.

The Graz armoury actually goes back the the 16th century as a storehouse for weapons and armour. The Styrian region of Austria was a boarder region with the regular incurssions by the Turks and thus needed to be fortified and equipped to defend against said incursions. Graz remained " as it was " due in part to this. After the defeat of the Turks at the seige of Vienna by Jan Sobiesky, there was a " just in case " mindset that led to keeping the place ready. By the 18th century it was obvious that Turkish military power was on the wane, but the place had started to become something of an attraction so was eventually kept as a museum.

Graz has preserved in large part the contract and purchase records for almost everything in it so it gives a rare view of who and how rennaisance munnitons armour was purchased from. Graz is and has always been what I picture in my mind when the term " armoury " is used. A building that is wall to wall arms and armour, rack upon rack of the stuff.

The book " Shiny Shapes " http://www.amazon.com/Shiny-Shapes-Z...=shiney+shapes is an " artistic " take on some of the contents of Graz. While the author tends to mix parts of different armours together, so some of the " context " is lost , to get his compositions, it does still serve to give a good impression how crude much of the munnitions armour of the 16th and 17th centuries was and the details of construction avalible from the phots is good.

" Imperial Austria, Treasures of Art, Arms and Armour from the State of Styria " http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Austr...arms+and+armor while not having the close up detailed photos of " Shiny Shapes" does go into the history of Graz and focuses more on some of the higher end elements of the Graz collection.

I'd love to have the chance to visit it someday.

By entering 'Graz armory' you will find a lot of of photos I have posted from that museum over the years.

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