Old firearms, including hunting and sporting exhibits, designed for target shooting are on display at a temporary exhibition in the Museum of Hunting and Horsemanship. All the exhibits were acquired thanks to a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The exhibition is open in the Cantonists’ Barracks from Tuesdays to Thursday between 10.00 and 16.00, and from Friday to Sunday between 10.00 and 18.00. Entry: PLN 10 – normal ticket, PLN 5 – reduced ticket, PLN 1 – children aged up to 7 years and youth up to 26 years of age; the exhibition can also be visited with the combined ticket to all the Museum facilities (PLN 40 – normal, PLN 20 – reduced, PLN 1 – children aged up to 7 years and youth up to 26 years of age); on Fridays entry is free of charge.
Only individual tours are possible. A limited number of visitors can visit the exhibition at a time: 3. The visit duration time is limited to maximum 20 minutes.
18th and 19th century arms
The collection of hand-held hunting firearms presented at the Museum of Hunting and Horsemanship counts about 130 items. The core of the collection is formed of exhibits from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, featuring ignition systems closer to modern technological solutions. Therefore, the purchase of 40 items, including mostly rifles with a separate loading mechanism (front loading), constitutes a particularly valuable addition to the museum’s collection.
Most of the arms, which were purchased in 2019 thanks to the subsidy of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, were created in gunsmith’s workshops in Western Europe, mainly in Germany and France, however there are also rifles from Spain, Austria or pistols from Italy. The oldest of the purchased exhibits, the arquebuse with a circular lock originates from the turn of the 17th and 18th c., while the most recent, that is a breech loader needle hunting rifle with the Lefocheaux mechanism, dates back to mid-19th c.
The collection represents a variety of interesting design solutions typical of individual countries and date of manufacture. It is also rich in terms of the materials used, ornamental techniques and iconographic programs designed for decorating wooden butts and metal parts.
Handguns and sporting firearms – target shooting guns and practice rifles, single shot pistols – are new to the collection of the Museum of Hunting and Hunting and Horsemanship.
