Museum of Weapons

On the tour around the autonomous City of Buenos Aires the Museo de las Armas de la Nacion can be discovered almost by chance. It is located on Avenue Santa Fe at 702, where the Circulo Militar operates. Thousands of people usually walk by this important building, but only a few know that there is an entrance to this amazing museum where you may walk amid the history of humanity through the weapons. After paying the entrance fee, we entered the museum only to discover the hundreds of weapons of different makes and calibers that are displayed in the big showcases, thoughtfully planned in order to travel through time from the XII century to these days. As we toured around each one of the 18 rooms, we came to understand the remarkable evolution of weaponry used by man. Thus, we found objects from the XII to the XX centuries, such as large swords, crossbows, spears, suits of armor, and an invaluable steel chain mail armor from Great Britain.

Then, there was an important collection of long sharp weapons. Among the many swords and sabers grouped by countries, we found some blades signed by distinguished sword makers. After visiting this room, we went along then next one where the evolution of long and shoulder firearms is described. A matchlock muzzleloader harquebus, rifles, flintlock carbines, then percussion and breechloader, single-shot and multishot weapons, and finally semiautomatic guns can be seen here. A true arsenal for the senses! As can be expected the country liberator, General San Martín, also has a special room in his honor here, where his bust and a replica of his glorious curved saber are displayed. Various pictures that recreate the Battle of San Lorenzo and Chacabuco can be seen as well as historical documents. We continued with our visit and before us, machine guns, old masks, pistols and revolvers of various calibers, mortars and even anti-aircraft weapons were displayed. We walked by a big display of world weapon industry which included weapons from the Desert Campaign, World War I and II and even from the current war in the Middle East. At the end of the tour, we saw the room of the “Weapons of the East”, where Chinese ceremony armor is displayed, the samurai kind, along with spears, sabers and daggers. A display of inestimable value. In this manner, we finished our visit to the Museo de las Armas de la Nacion (National Weapons Museum) which was created in 1904 by the then president of the Nation, Julio A. Roca, together with his Minister of War General Pablo Riccheri, from which the museum gets its name. In order to have a broader view of what is displayed here, we highly suggest a visit to this Museum. It is a different way of walking along the corridors of the, sometimes tragic, history of humanity.