A FAREWELL TO ARMS IN GRAZ

It’s the Landeszeughaus, called the Arsenal or the Provincial Armoury on the Herrengasse. By any name it’s famous as the largest and finest preserved collection of arms and armour throughout the world with 30,000 individual exhibits on five floors.

In the company of a local guide, Ursula Papadopoulos, a history lesson unfolds that is beyond comparison, one that becomes much more meaningful as we move from floor to floor. It’s an incredible experience to wander through this impressive collection of exhibits displayed so openly without barriers or cases. As curiosity gets the better of me, I am delighted when the guide dons special gloves to demonstrate the workings of some of these instruments of war explained in more detail below.

A long time ago

It goes back to the 15th century when the region came under siege by the Turks, first in 1471 by the Osmani Turks and later by the Akindsci Turks in 1480. With the ominous threat of invasion, Graz instituted tax reform that required the nobility to provide for troops and equipment. The provincial states of Styria began a campaign, supported by Emperor Maximilian and later by his successor, Ferdinand I.

Still, by 1557, there were only 19,400 items at the depository - mostly ball munitions, wall guns and tools for digging trenches. From 1578 the protection of the southern border territories of the empire was the responsibility of Archduke Charles of Inner Austria, and within years the inventory increased tremendously.

A new beginning

In 1645 Ticinese architect, Anton Solar, built the Arsenal in Graz. Entrance to the building on the Herrengasse is gained through an arched doorway, flanked by two statues, Mars and Minerva, made by Italian sculptor, Giovanni Mamolo.

Solar’s design for the arsenal was simple and practical: long, narrow rooms where the equipment could be hung on the walls or the guns stored on shelves. Initially, the ground floor was set aside for artillery, wagons, ammunition and cleaning equipment, while portable arms and equipment for foot soldiers and cavalry were stored on the upper floors.

The depot fulfilled its function when the Turks attacked Mogersdorf in 1664 and Vienna in 1683, during the Hungarian uprising (1703-1711) and until the Austrian War of succession (1741-1748), but a year later Vienna would take its place, and the Arsenal faced extinction when sovereign funding was withdrawn.

Almost no more

Thereafter the Arsenal was repeatedly under transition. In 1699 mounting costs favored selling part of the 185,700-item collection, then in 1749 the exhibits were displayed in the late Baroque fashion, discarding the original placements. Next came the invasion of Napoleon in 1797 that forced the removal of all artillery to Novi Sad and subsequently their sale, leaving the “room of canons” (the ground floor) empty.

In 1840 a proposal to renovate the premises to permit better lighting meant sacrificing more arms to raise funds, but fortunately it was abandoned. By 1882 the Baroque installations were removed and the exhibition continued.

A decade later the Arsenal’s affiliation with the Museum Joanneum became instrumental for its existence today. Fortunately, the administrators of the museum did not allow any of the valuable collection to be sold during the two World Wars. During the bombing of World War II, the collection was kept safe by transferring them into the country areas.

Today’s exhibits

The ground floor is now home to the exhibition, Zum Schutz des Landes, where life-sized models portray troops in period dress and documented information is available for visitors to understand the hardship these men endured in past centuries of war.

A variety of firearms are located on the first floor, including an amazing 1,188 flintlock rifles. They bearing the trademark of master gunsmith, Weiner Neustadt, and were used by infantry and dragoons.

On wall racks are 369 matchlock firearms that individually weigh between 10 and 30 kilograms. These “rampart rifles” all have recoil hooks forged onto the barrels, designed to be fired from a support. They each come with either a matchlock, a snapping matchlock or a wheellock and are equipped with German or French stocks, and some have forks with pivots that come in handy for boarding riverboats.

I have never seen five pieces of artillery exhibited together before. The field guns are a rare sight: two wrought-iron falconets (1500), two three-pound gun barrels, one from 1758 inscribed “in Ofen (Hungary)” and the third barrel with coat of arms from 1682.

Among the 20 bronze mortars are the 13 “alarm mortars” used to alert the locals of Turkish or Hungarians invaders in the area. Equally intriguing is the ceiling filled with burgonets, powder flasks made of wood or cattle horn, cartridge boxes, wooden priming flasks with brass spouts, round powder flasks with bullet bags and bandoliers.

Steelyards with weights from 1676 and 1706 and lifting equipment are located towards the back on this level.

The second floor is a showcase of Graz-made (16th-17th century) armor worn by infantry (footmen), and cavalry (Hussars, arquebusiers and cuirassiers.) Later imports from Germany closed several workshops, but of those who persevered and continued to make helmets and cuirasses, 3.250 of them are displayed here and on the fourth floor.

A collection of 2,900 richly decorated, cavalry pistols, are located on the south wall, the earliest originating in 1656 and the latest from the late 17th century period. Most of them were made in Aussburg, Nuremberg, Ferlach (Carinthia) and Suhi.

Look towards the ceiling for a bird’s eye view of 16th century pistol holsters, wheellock spanners, cartridge boxes, priming and powder flasks, court morions, marksman’s helmets and burgonets.

Up on the third floor is the most extraordinary lineup of armour including those imported from Augsburg and Nuremberg during the period when provincial German state funding stipulated that armour, equipment, firearms and accessories were to be made in Germany.

While the German imports were indisputably high quality, they were artistically outdone by the creative genius of Innsbruck’s Michael Witz the Younger who custom designed suits for his noble clientele. Two showstoppers bearing his signature “W” on the breastplates stand next to each other: a parade suit with an embossed leaf motif and an engraved tournament suit.

Beyond Witz, there was Konrad Seusenhofer of Innsbruck, who is credited with creating the armour for the horse in 1510, a one-of-a-kind exhibit at the Arsenal. The horse was protected from head to tail using guards made from steel, decorated with Gothic and Renaissance designs, and carried the coat of arms of the Styrian nobility on the front, the family Stubenberg-Wurmberg.

Other shining examples include highly decorated suits for troop commanders with breast plates showing a knight kneeling at a cross (popular during the period) and the rider’s burnished armour of Archduke Charles II, a 1565 creation of Conrad Richter of Augsburg.

More helmets adorn the ceiling, as well as burgonets from Augsburg and Nuremberg, wheellock spanners, power and priming flasks and powder flasks adorned with velvet and brocade and iron cutouts.

The top floor is a awash with weapons including 2,400 swords, sabres, broadswords, knives and daggers, plus 5,400 halberds, spears, partisans, couses and Morgensterne, most of them produced in Styrian and Upper-Austrian workshops at Weiz, Judenburg, Graz and Waldneukirchen. The 2,874 halberds originated in the 16th century in the workshops of Pankraz Taller and Peter Schreckeisen.

The two handed swords, as long as two meters, were made in Styria and Passau in the late 16th century. Shields from Nuremberg (1610) weighed between eight and 15 kilograms, with a diameter of 50 centimeters, were used for protection from firearms by infantry corporals and high-ranking soldiers.

Another rare collection is a set of mailed garments including 68 pairs of sleeves, 26 coats of mail and two collars, designed for Hussars and mounted arquebusiers.

Surprisingly there are only 58 musical instruments from the 16th to the 19th century in the Arsenal, however the drums, drumsticks, pipes and pipe sheaths remain in excellent condition.

The Landeszeughaus of Graz is the Arsenal to most visitors. It is not a foreboding place, neither is it terrifying. As someone who has fortunately never faced life in a war zone, it was an experience of a lifetime to come face to face with these instruments of war, and I salute the board of trustees of Museum Joanneum for their dedication to maintaining this astounding collection for future generations.