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Posts: 18 Location: United Kingdom

Sun 22 Jul, 2012 11:45 pm

Zbierka na Oravasky Hrad - Collection at Orava Castle

Came across this while on our family visit to Slovakia.

Interesting tour notes. According to the guide, the canon took 30 minutes to load and fire. The walls were 4 to 7 metres thick and Orava was never defeated. The great sword display is very interesting, defenders were paid extra to carry these beasts and as a result, their life expectancy was just 3 hours.

Na zdravie

Mark

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Last edited by Mark Gates on Mon 23 Jul, 2012 3:25 am; edited 1 time in total

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Arek Przybylok

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Posts: 112 Location: Upper Silesia

Mon 23 Jul, 2012 1:32 am

https://picasaweb.google.com/116379070585776810685/OravskyHrad
More photos
But I doubt if they are originals.

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Henrik Zoltan Toth

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Posts: 200 Location: Hungary

Mon 23 Jul, 2012 2:04 am

Weren't there any hungarian weapons? I saw the castle just from outside on the way to Poland, but it's looking awsome.

Zoltán

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Mark Gates

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Posts: 18 Location: United Kingdom

Mon 23 Jul, 2012 3:13 am

It was difficult to photograph everything as you are herded round by the tour guide. She would unlock one door and lock another behind her preventing anyone going back to take photos.

The Hungarian empire was master of the castle on and off such as the Palatine, Leustach of Jelsava, so I would say that there are certainly weapons of Hungarian origin. Check out Arek's earlier reply, the link shows more than I managed to get.

The picture here, taken in the citadel, shows roman or celtic artifacts found nearby.

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Henrik Zoltan Toth

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Posts: 200 Location: Hungary

Mon 23 Jul, 2012 6:55 am

:D I couldn't figure out who the hell that Jelsava was! Than I've recognized, that he was probably Ilosvai Leusták. :lol:

The castle after the early 1300's just became a military role in the late ottoman wars, during the uprising of Imre Thököly, in the 1680's. I guess this is the main reason of the lack of weapons.

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Mon 23 Jul, 2012 10:22 pm

Re: Zbierka na Oravasky Hrad - Collection at Orava Castle

Mark Gates wrote:

Came across this while on our family visit to Slovakia.

Interesting tour notes. According to the guide, the canon took 30 minutes to load and fire.

Mark

The canon carriage at least looks 17th/18th century and although it's hard to know it's exact size it doesn't look like a huge siege gun.

Loading this cannon would or shouldn't take 30 minutes, more like 1 minute or less with bagged gunpowder and canon ball.

The huge siege cannons of the late 14th and 15th centuries firing stone balls up to 2 or 3 feet in diameter would be slow to load just based on the weight of the projectile and I think early on the power was mixed from components on site and these huge canons might fire only once or twice a day.

Even when the collections are originals the " guides " giving the tours may be using a script more sensationalistic than accurate either for the benefit of tourism or in some case repeating mis-information or old discredited 19th century theories passed along from one generation of museum guides to the next ...... just guessing here and speculating.

In other words take what the guide was saying with a grain of salt. ;) :D :cool:

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Mark Gates

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Posts: 18 Location: United Kingdom

Tue 24 Jul, 2012 2:25 am

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Even when the collections are originals the " guides " giving the tours may be using a script more sensationalistic

Jean, I couldnt agree more with questionable tour guide knowledge. The canon in the picture is quite small, there is a triple canon next to this one, which probably was a handful to operate in its day.

I recall the tour guide saying that because of the powder all over the place and the canon having to be pulled back to load then moved into place, aimed and fired took the aledged 30 minutes. She also mentioned because of the recoil, the canon would often take out the canoneers legs, which would call for a replacement operator. All interesting points but as for accuracy, who knows?

Mark

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