Museum of
Ancient Weapons

Inside the Cesta

The museum occupies the Second Tower of Mount Titano, also known as Cesta or Fratta. The tower has a pentagonal plan, Ghibelline merlons and a large underground rainwater cistern. The current entrance was opened in the sixteenth century; the most extensive restoration of the building dates from 1924-25. Since 1956 its rooms have hosted the collection of weapons, which became a permanent museum over the following years.

The visit to the museum coincides with the visit to the building. The interior preserves medieval elements, original masonry structures and defensive openings. One enters from the external staircase and runs through the lower floor before climbing to the upper floor. At the end of the visit the terrace of the tower offers an open view over the Adriatic side, the Montefeltro and, on clear days, the coast as far as the promontory of Gabicce.

Pole arms, armours, unique pieces

Room 1 gathers pole arms from the 15th to the 17th century: heavy-bladed battle axes, seventeenth-century parade halberds, early roughly hewn examples of halberds and transitional variants documenting the rise of firearms at the expense of hand-held weapons. Room 2 is dedicated to armours and their components of Italian, English and German origin between 1490 and 1630. Among the rarest pieces, a child's etched and gilded steel breastplate made in England around 1540, attributable to the royal Greenwich workshop.

The other two rooms house firearms and historical curiosities: prototypes of experimental weapons, combined pieces such as the dagger-pistol of 1730, the nineteenth-century sword-pistol, miniatures, bayonets, pieces designed for hunting and parade. The thematic sequence relates weapons to their contexts of use, without strictly following chronological order.