The Palace Armoury

As a major point of reference for our research and practice, visits to The Palace Armoury have always been of course a must. The Palace Armoury is one of the world’s greatest arms collections housed in their original buildings. It was the pride of the order of the Knights of St.John and although after many of it’s original contents were stolen and misplaced after the arrival of Napolen and later by the British empire, it still holds an important selection of genuine artifacts.

Since our main focus are the swords and other edged weapons, in particular those which have been used and practiced here in Malta, the Palace Armoury gives us a very good array of specimens to view. Their origins vary from Italian, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, English and Maltese.

One can see a number of 16th and 17th century rapiers of different blade lengths and thickness, with a variety of different hilts.

From the very popular 3 ringed ‘swept’ hilt, to more elaborate and decorated varieties.

Also present are a variety of ‘cup’ hilt rapiers, ‘sail’ guard parrying daggers, and Sciavona swords.

A pair of 16th century hand and a half swords can be seen, both featuring two protective rings on each side of the quillons.






Other edged weapons exhibited include a huge variety of pole arms like Halberts, Partisans and Pole axes.

In the Palace Armoury one can also find examples of Ottoman Turk curved bladed Yataghans, together with body armour and conical helms.

One can find a huge selection of helmets such as Morions, Bourgonets and Sallets and many pieces of body armour like breast plates, pouldrons and gauntlets.








A very big section of the armoury is dedicated to suits of armour of the Knights who resided here in Malta.

One in particular is the beautifully adorned suit of armour made for Grandmaster Alof de Wignacourt (1610-1622), by the Milanese armourer Geronimo Spacini.














Of course an armoury wouldn’t be complete without a fine collection of fire arms and cannons and here one can find a good variety such as the matchlock arquebus, flintlock pistols, brass mortars and bronze cannons.

Since our interest and research is focused more towards edged weapons we won’t go into that.



Whether you are a practitoner of Historical fencing or simply an admirer of fine craft we highly recommend a visit to Palace Armoury.