[Michal Plezia]

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

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 Greetings for Nathan who is interested in central Europe arms and armour

[Michal Plezia]

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..

[Wolfgang Armbruster]

Thx for posting these pics

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.

[Michal Plezia]

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...

[Iain Norman]

Thanks for sharing Michael. That one piece for Jan III is quite a sight!

[Tim Lison]

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

[Wolfgang Armbruster]

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

[Hisham Gaballa]

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?

[Michal Plezia]

[Michal Plezia]

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 I think You are quite interested.

[Hisham Gaballa]

Thanks for those pics Michal.

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.

[Michal Plezia]

Yes they are.


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

[Grzegorz Kulig]

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.

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?

[Michal Plezia]

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

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

[Grzegorz Kulig]

Yes, indeed, long time.
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.

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