VojenskÝ HistorickÝ Ústav Praha. Military History Institute Prague.

VojenskÝ HistorickÝ Ústav Praha - Military History Institute Prague, Praha, Česká republika.

   Currently, the collection houses up to 4,000 bladed weapons of all types—cutting, thrusting, striking, side, and wooden—as well as a collection of historical armor and a small collection of mechanical firearms. The collection is richly represented by bladed weapons from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Russia, France, and Germany, with a much smaller selection of English, American, Balkan, and Nordic weapons. In recent decades, the collection has focused primarily on the 19th-century Habsburg monarchy's weaponry collection, which is undoubtedly one of the finest in Europe.

   However, the collection of bladed weapons also contains a large number of older examples, such as swords from the 11th to 15th centuries, magnificent swords from the renowned workshops of Toledo, Solingen, and Milan (works by Peter of Toledo, Pietro Hernandez, Joannes Hoppe, Antonio Piccinin, and others), remarkable short weapons from Italian and German workshops of the 15th to 17th centuries, a valuable collection of two-handed swords, and numerous examples of polearms from the 15th to 17th centuries.

   The collection of historical armor is relatively small, although even today it includes valuable and remarkable examples, such as a ring shirt from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, a Landsknecht cuirass from the first quarter of the 16th century, a full plate armor from the third quarter of the 16th century, excellent officer's armor from the 17th century, and others.

The museum displays the works of famous masters:

Pompeo della Cesa, Milan, Italy.