A Balkan pistol with flints, the exhibit of the month at the National Museum of Banat in Timisoara

TIMISOARA. The people of Timisoara and the tourists who will cross the threshold of the National Museum of Banat will be able to see a superb piece from the institution’s collection, a pistol from the beginning of the 19th century.

READ ALSO: Military parade, music and theater performances and sports competitions on May 9, in Timisoara. Cezar Ouatu and Sonique will end the Europe Day concerts. Full program

The weapon is one made on the model of those that appeared in the Balkan peninsula during the Ottoman rule. In fact, skilled craftsmen from the East were the ones who taught the locals how to make portable flintlock firearms.

“In the Balkans, flintlock firearms used in most cases the mechanism with an external arming spring, the so-called Spanish, miquelet or Turkish mechanism, so named in the context in which it was used in the vast majority of oriental weapons.“, say the representatives of the National Museum of Banat.

The exhibit of the month is a zlatka pistol.

“In Kotor (Montenegro), the zlatka – a variant of the leden pistol – was probably known since the first half of the 18th century. Zlatka type pistols are plated with silver or brass and have damascened barrels with gold ornaments. These weapons were manufactured in workshops in Boka Kotorska, Risan and probably in Herceg Novi. in the second half of the 19th century, only decorations for this type of pistol were made in Cetinje. They were also decorated by jewelers from Risan and Perast. Considering the fact that goldsmithing in Boka Kotorska was quite developed, gold from this area had European, baroque and rococo decorative elements. The zlatka pistol was part of the standard equipment of Boka sailors in the 19th century. In Boka Kotorska, the manufacture of this type of weapon was abandoned around the middle of the 19th century.
Regarding the provenance of the Balkan weapons from the collection of the Timisoara museum, we can say with certainty that the vast majority of the pieces entered the inventory of the Museum Society of History and Archeology in the pre-war period, following donations or acquisitions. Most of the Balkan weapons in the museum’s collection today come from the Bosnian space, being donations of former Austro-Hungarian soldiers, participants in the summer of 1878 in the battles for the pacification of Bosnia.“, say the representatives of the Museum.

The National Museum of Banat in Timisoara will be closed until Tuesday, May 7, and the visiting schedule will be the normal starting from the following day. Visitors will be able to see the following exhibitions:

Exhibition “Oravitzan Spaces” – On the first floor, in the hall of the Maria Theresia Bastion, you step into the unique artistic universe of master Oravitzan, where space and color intertwine in a visual harmony.
Exhibition “Garana 2023” – Creative workshop – in the B2 attic, experience the creative atmosphere of the Garana 2023 creative workshop.
The exhibition “Objects. History. Museums. White weapons from the collection of the National Museum of Banat” – the attic B1 reveals an impressive collection of white weapons, witnesses of our historical past.
The exhibition “Weapons that made Romania” – continue the journey in the attic B1 to discover the weapons that played an essential role in the formation of Romania.
The “Military History of Banat” exhibition – The Maria Theresia bastion, on the ground floor.

Visiting schedule: 10.00 – 18.00.