Armoury

After the inauguration of a first Armoury core on the ground floor of the Ducal Palace in June 1992, the second and final part opened in October 1997, with almost all of the pieces from the collections in this area currently on display.

This exhibition is composed of two large sections, both installed in what was the original Palace, founded at the beginning of the 16th century by Dom Jaime, fourth Duke of Bragança, still featuring a Gothic architectural style with overt Mozarabic influence.

The first part integrates the best of the vast collections of the Bragança dynasty, the result of numerous gifts and orders that reflect the importance that hunting and shooting had for the Royal Family. In this first section, worthy of note are the pistols and reinforced rifle by FRANZ MAZENKOPF, the rifle signed by BARTOLOMEU GOMES (on private loan), the prototype of the six-barrelled BECKWITH blunderbuss, London (c. 1850) used for the defence of stagecoaches, the revolver fired by Prince Luis Filipe on the day of the Regicide, together with the sections made up of the exotic African and Asian weapons of King Ferdinand II’s collection, and the great variety of pieces from the Parisian gunsmith DEVISME, not to forget the significant collection of hunting weapons used by this monarch.

The second section, organised in a systematic way, evokes the weaponry and paraphernalia used in the various military campaigns over the last four hundred years, at sea and on land, in tournaments or in fencing rooms. Groups of exotic weapons, harnesses, ammunition materials and a brief note on bullfighting implements are also exhibited, which includes the estoque that the celebrated bullfighter Mazzantini offered King Carlos.