Weapons Collection

The Weapons Collection is among the most valuable holdings of the Split City Museum, notable not for its size but for its exceptionally rare and beautiful pieces, some of which are scarce even on a European scale. The collection spans the 14^th to the 20^th century and encompasses both offensive and defensive arms. Offensive weapons include firearms (such as rifles, cannons, pistols, and related accessories) and cold weapons (including swords, daggers, knives, polearms, and short-handled weapons), while defensive weapons comprise armour and shields. Most of the items were acquired through purchase or donation, with a significant portion coming from the Capogrosso-Cavagnin collection (City Library) and from Antun Lukanović (Archaeological Museum in Split). In 1945, additional pieces were transferred to the Museum from the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Maritime Museum, and the Ethnographic Museum.

The collection of cold weapons includes a wide range of polearms and short-handled arms. On display are halberds, partisans, spontons, spears, corseques, glaives, buttafuoris, axes, and other polearms, while the short-handled weapons comprise an important collection of daggers, sabres, and swords, among which the schiavona is especially notable. Defensive arms feature various shields, pieces of armour, mail shirts, and helmets, with particular significance given to two tarča-type shields and one ceremonial shield. Firearms on display include matchlock rifles once used by the poet Jerolim Kavanjin, wheellock rifles, and a variety of flintlock guns and pistols, together with their associated accessories.