EXHIBITION OF HISTORICAL WEAPONS

HISTORICAL WEAPONS EXHIBITION from the collections of the Museum of South-East Moravia in Zlín

The exhibition was set up in previously inaccessible rooms of the castle, on the floor above the Painted Hall. The Painted Hall now offers a display of historical weapons and militaria from our museum collection.

Edged and firearms made in the 16th–20th centuries are presented in three halls of the castle. In the first of them, visitors can see Oriental and Balkan weapons, such as the armour and equipment of a Japanese samurai, kindjals, jatagans, Oriental daggers and pistols of the Balkan type from the 18th century. In the next hall are displayed sporting and dueling firearms together with painted wooden targets from the 1880s, which come from the shooting range of the Vizovice shooting society. The third hall houses the largest part of the museum collection, namely military, hunting and civilian weapons and militaria.

A selected set of edged weapons documents their development from the sword to the sabre, through the palash, broadsword and rapier. Firearms are represented by military and hunting muzzle-loaders and breech-loaders made in the 17th–19th centuries, and the selection shows their gradual technical improvement leading to greater effectiveness. In the group of military breech-loaders, rifles of the same systems but intended for different types of troops are displayed side by side for comparison. In hunting rifles, visitors can admire the decoration of stocks and lock plates. The presentation of firearms concludes with Maxim machine guns and Colt-Browning guns used by Czechoslovak legionnaires in Russia during battles of the First World War.