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Michal Plezia
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PostPosted: Wed 25 Jan, 2006 2:16 pm    Post subject: My visit to the Wawel's castle in Kraków.         Reply with quote

Few days ago I was in the armoury of Wawel Castle which was the king's residence until XVI century.Unfortunatelly i had no camera with me-but I have found some pictures in the internet.It should be quite interesting place for anyone who is interested in the specific mixture of the western and eastern style of the polish army in XVI and XVII century.

In the first picture is the most famous polish coronation sword -datet for XIII century.It is called Szczerbiec-because it has a scar on the blade(this funny hole with polish national emblem-the white eagle)Sczerba means the lack of tooth in the mouth Wink

In the second picture is the armour of late XVII c heavy calvary called Hussaria.It was a mixture of western heavy calvary of XVI century and Hungarian light calvary (Racowie).It was used as the shock unit-very powerfull but very expensive.They were using heavy lances-very uncommon in XVII century.Specialist belive that their breastplate could stop a bullet from musket.The famous wings were used during parades but there is a theory that they were used also in the battle-as a protection from Tartar's arkan-kind of lasso.Note the leopard's fur on the shoulder.Of course armour with ornaments and fur was used by towarzysze(comerades)-not by their man-at-arms(pocztowi).

In the last picture is the view of the castle-from the other side of river Wisla.

As soon as I find more pictures-I will show them with some comments Big Grin Greetings for Nathan who is interested in central Europe arms and armour Cool



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Michal Plezia
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PostPosted: Thu 26 Jan, 2006 4:12 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

And here we have very interesting sword-it was given to polish king Jan III Sobieski by the Pope after the king defeted Turks and stopped the siege of Vienna in 1683.It is very large-I think it has about 180cm or even more.When You see it it You feel like in some kind of fantasy story...but it is real.Personally I prefer battle swords -much more ascethic but the reproduction of this one woud be great to amaze friends:)

In the next few pics are some late medieval and early reneissance arms and armour..



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Wolfgang Armbruster





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PostPosted: Thu 26 Jan, 2006 7:07 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Thx for posting these pics Happy

I'm quite sure the Hussar-armour was made to be bulletproof, like most cavalry armour of that time. IIRC, the Hussars played an important role in the Turkish defeat during the second siege of Vienna.

The complex hilted longswords look simply awesome.
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Michal Plezia
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PostPosted: Thu 26 Jan, 2006 8:02 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Yes-Vienna it is one of Hussar's famous battles.The first one was the battle of Kircholm in 1605. 3000 of polish calvary destroyed the army of 12 000 Swedish troops.But later they have many problems with disciplined pikeman and musketeers...
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Iain Norman





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PostPosted: Fri 27 Jan, 2006 10:42 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Thanks for sharing Michael. Big Grin That one piece for Jan III is quite a sight!
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Tim Lison




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PostPosted: Fri 27 Jan, 2006 10:54 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Thanks for posting these! It's always nice to see museum photos from peoples visits. I really like the Hussar armor!
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Wolfgang Armbruster





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PostPosted: Fri 27 Jan, 2006 11:11 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I think I've spotted the two swords which albion uses for their Markgraf and Hauptmann swords Big Grin

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Hisham Gaballa





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PostPosted: Sat 28 Jan, 2006 3:01 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Thanks for sharing that with us Michal. I must say Poland has some exellent collections of arms and armour, with apparantly vast amounts of European, Turkish and Persian arms and armour. The other thing that impressed me is that a lot of these have very high quality catalogues. I was reading on another forum about a book called: Zdzislaw Zygulski, Stara bron w polskich zbiorach [Old weapons in Polish collections], Warszawa 1982. I myself own another Polish catalogue called Orez Perski I Indoperski XV - XIX Wieku Ze Zboiorow Polskich by Antoni Chodynski. The pieces in this collection are beautiful and the photographs of very high quality.

What impresses me most about Polish arms and armour is the way Western European and Turco-Iranian styles eem to coexist side by side. So presumably 15th-16th century Polish Armies would have had European style knights and Oriental style Horse-archers fighting together in the same army?
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Michal Plezia
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PostPosted: Sat 28 Jan, 2006 7:19 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Quote:
So presumably 15th-16th century Polish Armies would have had European style knights and Oriental style Horse-archers fighting together in the same army?


Well I am not a specialist of XVI century.But as far as I know during late middle ages-till the late XVcentury polish armies were in western fasion-german gothic armours,crossbows,cannons...That is why there is Albion's Hauptmann in the picture Wink But in XVI century we can see stronger and stronger influence of the East.An armoured knight is not the best against Tartars-he couldn't catch him in the wide steep of todays Ukraine. I've never heard of typical horse archers in polish army(but I can be wrong)-of course light or even medium calvary(pancerni) had bows but I think that it was secondary weapon.They also used guns.I belive that they would rather try some hand-to-hand fighting...
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Michal Plezia
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PostPosted: Sat 28 Jan, 2006 10:03 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

To illustrate the polish army from the first half of the XVI we should study this painting-it is battle of Orsza 8 IX 1514 Poles defeated Moscovian army.

There is heavy 'western' calvary and -in the river-light Racowie-hungarian style calvary.The painting was made not much later-so we can rely on it...

I found some other egzamples of Hussar armour-maybe not from Wawel-but who cares Wink I think You are quite interested.



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Hisham Gaballa





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PostPosted: Sat 28 Jan, 2006 12:37 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Thanks for those pics Michal. Happy

The Vambraces in the one of those pictures look a lot like Turkish and Persian bazubands from the same period. Of course Muscovite arms and armour had an even stronger Turco-Iranian influence.
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Michal Plezia
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PostPosted: Sat 28 Jan, 2006 12:50 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Yes they are.


I have more pics...If You are not bored with them... Wink



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Grzegorz Kulig
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PostPosted: Tue 27 Mar, 2007 4:05 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hello to all.
This is my first post here. So, I would like to introduce my self. People call me Thorkil. I think this is much easier than Grzegorz, for you either. I am armourer and artisan from Poland. Rest will be another time. Wink

I have some another photos from Wawel castle from our (mine and my wife's) trip to Krakow. Here you are.

P.S. Michał, how did you take the photos in Wawel castle? Wink



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NEW ONLINE SHOP : www.thorkilshop.com

NEW ADDRESS of my web site: www.thorkil.pl

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thorkil-Grzegor...7530780383
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Michal Plezia
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PostPosted: Tue 27 Mar, 2007 4:49 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hi thorkil-It's been a long time since we last meet. Cool You have some new nice stuff on your web page. Happy

You can try make some photos without flash by cell phone ore digital camera.And you can find some in the internet...

www.elchon.com

Polish Guild of Knifemakers

The sword is a weapon for killing, the art of the sword is the art of killing. No matter what fancy words you use or what titles you put to
it that is the only truth.
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Grzegorz Kulig
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PostPosted: Tue 27 Mar, 2007 5:03 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Yes, indeed, long time. Wink
Thank you for compliments. I didn't have time to put lately made helmet on web site, but will do it for sure as soon as possible. Wink

I made my photos thanks to nice lady, who allowed me do it. Wink

NEW ONLINE SHOP : www.thorkilshop.com

NEW ADDRESS of my web site: www.thorkil.pl

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thorkil-Grzegor...7530780383
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