Pauldrons Churburg S18

These pauldrons are replica of the pauldrons of the “S18”-armor in the Churburg armoury. These pauldrons have a unusual characteristic besagew directly attached to the shoulder. This is quite unique compared with the rest of surviving pieces as besagews are typically not fixed in but loose. Although the original is dated to the first part of 15th century some specialists maintain it might be also be dated to 1380-1410. The original armor pieces on which this set is based belonged to the Count of Matsch and were made in Lombard.

The Churburg S18 armor is a fine example of the early Italian style plate armour. The Italian style of armour was rounded in appearance and generally tended to be constructed of large single plates, and not as intricate and articulated as the German style. A warrior fully clad in plate armor was a walking tank and protected from almost all weapons of the day. Smooth round surfaces deflected the force of strong attacks away and weaker attacks did no more harm than scratch the armor.

Churburg Castle, built in 1253, is one of South Tyrol’s best-preserved castles, and particularly well known for its armoury, which contains 50 fully preserved suits of armour, all made for members of the Matsch family (from 1541 the Trapp family). This dynastic collection is of incomparable artistic and historic value. The collection is famous, among other treasures, for one of the oldest surviving transitional plate armours, the #13, as well as other gems of Milanese origin.