The new and refreshed Wawel Castle Armoury takes you on a journey through the centuries of Polish and European military art - from medieval swords to artfully decorated firearms. The exhibition showcases the most valuable pieces from the Wawel collection in a modern and unique manner. It is a place where the history of arms comes alive – come and discover it yourself.
ON VIEW FROM NOVEMBER 28, 2025
The opening hallway of the exhibition at the Armoury showcases polearms and focuses in particular on the representative halberds used by court and town guards, as well as infantry officers and non-commissioned officers. A collection of weapons from the armoury of the Electors of Saxony from the House of Wettin, represented by the mid-16th century glaive with the figure of Lucretia on the tip, is distinguished by particular artistic beauty. A glaive with the coats of arms of Sigismund III Vasa and a set of partisans of the court guards of John II Casimir Vasa, Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, John III Sobieski, Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland is also associated with Polish history. In keeping with the tradition of bringing trophies to the Wawel Castle, organising triumphal parades and celebrating the anniversaries of the most significant battles, a monument in the form of an obelisk was erected here, on which weapons were hung to symbolise the defeat of the country’s enemies. It is accompanied by a painting glorifying the victory at Smolensk in 1634, the 18th-century flag of the Zamoyski family entail infantry, as well as a plafond design for the Polish Cavalry Hall by Felicjan Szczęsny-Kowarski.
A room in the Gothic Danish Tower from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries houses exhibits representing the golden age of knights - late Middle Ages and early modern period, with particular focus on swords, the most important type of blades, commonly used by both elites and common soldiers - not just in the battle, but also during tourneys as well as state, court and church ceremonies. A distinct group of exhibits showcases large two-handed swords designed for highly skilled professional fighters, also known as the landsknechts. Among the most noteworthy ones is the parade sword made in 1574, used by the guards of Julius II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Among the plate armours and their parts, two pieces stand out in particular. The first of them is the tourney armour made by Konrad Poler in Nuremberg in ca. 1490 at Artus Court in Gdańsk, and the other is the youth armour by Jörg Seusenhofer, designed in line with the fashion trends at the time, gifted to the 13-year-old King Sigismund Augustus in 1533 to commemorate his betrothal to Elisabeth, daughter of Friedrich Habsburg An important part of this section of the exhibition comprises artefacts related to the tourney culture, including lance tips found at the Wawel Castle, as well as tournament masks used in 1557 during a carnival in Prague organised by Archduke Ferdinand II.
Another room holds exhibits representing the armies of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the end of the 16th to the end of the 18th centuries, both national and foreign. Particularly noteworthy is the exquisite collection of Hussar arms, representative of the most famous Polish cavalry formation - heavy cavalry unit, whose role was to carry out breakthrough attacks, which had a significant contribution to numerous victories, including at Kircholm (1605) and Vienna (1683). Among the rarest of the exhibits are the karacenas - light scale armour, whose design alludes to the Antiquity, which were fashionable during the reign of King John III Sobieski and the Saxon dynasty. The exhibition also showcases the pieces of horse armour and sabres, which are reminiscent of the Eastern tradition, which highlights the popularity of this kind of weapons in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the historic relics is the blade of the sabre of Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Jabłonowski, who fought at Vienna. Among the foreign exhibits, in addition to 17th-century Western cuirassier and pikemen plate armour, the exhibition showcases an exquisite collection of rapiers and small swords. An important highlight in this room is the sepulchral banner of the Krakow Voivode Stanislaw Barzi (who died in 1571), brought from the Krakow Cathedral - the oldest relic of its kind in Polish collections.
The final room on the ground floor was devoted to small arms and projectile weapons - collectables, hunting weapons and weapons used for sports. Here, you can see some of the most exquisite rifles, arquebuses, petronels and pistols made by German, Silesian, French, Spanish and Polish factories in the period from the 16th to the early 19th centuries, characterised by bone inlays, as well as etched and engraved patterns. Other noteworthy exhibits include sporting and hunting crossbows, mainly German ones, with one particularly beautiful specimen built in 1725 in Saxony, most likely for Treasurer Stanisław Poniatowski. The exhibition showcases an important phenomenon of collecting weapons, which has been in vogue since the Middle Ages - not just for utilitarian reasons, but also for their material, artistic, symbolic and historical value. In the modern period, collecting weapons became an important - even necessary - element of building one’s prestige. The Radziwiłł family managed to amass a rather magnificent arsenal at Nesvizh. A small set of rifles from their collection, which is now dispersed and displayed in museums around the world, can be seen at the Wawel Castle. Another great example of a private collection amassed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Cieszyn is that of Brunon Konczakowski, a significant part of which, comprising more than 400 pieces, was purchased for the Wawel collection in 1961. Among the rarest exhibits is a pair of miniature wheellock pistols, which were likely manufactured in Nuremberg in the late 16th century.
The final part of the exhibition is arranged in three cellars - the 14th-century Gothic cellar, as well as two cellars built in the first half of the 16th century. The first of them showcases cannons, howitzers and mortars, which were built in the period from the 17th to the early 19th century. A representative collection of modern polearms, mainly halberds, is displayed along the walls. Under the vaults, one can see the reconstructed banners of the Teutonic Knights and their allies, which were captured by the Polish-Lithuanian army on 15 July 1410 in the battle of Grunwald and placed by King Władysław Jagiełło at the altar of St Stanislaus in the Krakow Cathedral. They were reconstructed in the 20th century and in 2010 based on the detailed descriptions by Jan Długosz in his work Banderia Prutenorum, as well as miniatures painted by Stanisław Durink.
The remaining two cellars, built during the construction of King Sigismund I the Old's palace, house the most valuable part of the collection of modern cannon barrels held by the Wawel Castle, funded by the king and the magnates alike, and built in major hubs, such as Krakow, Gdańsk, Warsaw and Riga. The oldest among them was cast at the behest of King Alexander Jagiellon in 1506. Among the most valuable are the two cannons cast in mid-16th century, most likely by Oswald Baldner in Nuremberg, on the commission by King Sigismund Augustus, who later invited him to Krakow. The barrel with the emblem of St Simon built in 1635 is considered to be the earliest example of the artillery reforms introduced by King Ladislaus IV. The most recent of the barrels on display was cast by Johann Zacharias Neubert in 1779, during the reign of King Stanisław August Poniatowski.
