[Jeremy V. Krause]

Hello everyone,

I am thinking of planning a trip to Europe and would love to see some famous weapons. I would be focussed on 1000-1350 or so. I really don’t have any interest in renaissance stuff.

You know I could only justify one city for my hobby as I can’t go dragging my partner around just based on my interests but certainly could see a museum or 3 if I am there already. So if someone had to choose one city where would you go to see high medieval weapons?

If the city is slightly less expensive overall that would be great but it seems the great collections lie in more expensive places. My partner knows someone in Madrid so that would be a nice less expensive choice but I don’t know if they have any cool stuff there.

Thanks for your help!

[Anthony Clipsom]

Leeds is quite cheap, if you wish to visit the Royal Armouries there. It is not, alas, a beautiful city but has decent shopping and restaurants. I don't think there is a lot in the collection from the time period you describe, though. Mostly 1350 onwards. It's also about 30 minutes from York by train, if you'd like medieval walled cities.

There - that's my bit done for regional tourism

[Henry R. Gower]

The Armeria Real in Madrid has some early swords on display, though most of the armor is a bit beyond your period of interest. So does the Musee d'Larmee in Paris located in the Les Invalides complex of buildings, where Napoleon has his tomb, as well. In Solingen Germany, there is a special museum devoted to swords, with some high medieval ones on display. There are also high medieval swords in Zurich, Switzerland, I have forgotten the name of the museum, though I remember visiting it.
Wherever you go however, you will see much larger numbers of the Renaissance weapons on display, for the simple reason that those are the ones that survived the most. My favorite museum from childhood, The Met, in NYC, is like that also. Yes, they have a certain number of early swords, a few early helmets, a suit of armor with a pointy visor bascinet, but most of their extensive and highly artistic collection is later.

[Iagoba Ferreira]

[Dan Howard]

Schloss Churburg. It has a good collection of both weapons and armour, many of which were actually used by the lords of this castle so you can see how things changed over time. There isn't much from the time period you are interested in but definitely worth a visit.
http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.36493.html