24 museomag   03 ‘ 2020 
WAKING A SLEEPING GIANT? 
COUNTING AND CONDITIONING THE FORMER ARMS AND FORTRESS HISTORY 
COLLECTION 
Among the ongoing work on the collections of the 
museum is the project of re-inventorying, cataloguing 
and putting the weapons from the former Arms and 
Fortress collection of the National Museum of History 
and Art in the required state and place for conservation. 
In 1999, the main building of the National Museum 
of History and Art on Marché-aux-Poissons underwent 
a complete transformation. At the time, those objects 
from the collections stored in the nooks and crannies 
behind the exhibition wings and galleries of the mu- 
seum, hidden away from the public, were wrapped up 
for the time the remodelling would take. Fast forward 
ten years: The Documentation Center on the fortress of 
Luxembourg (CDF) is attached to the National Museum 
of History and Art and is preparing the opening of 
Musée Dräi Eechelen (M3E). 
The large majority of the arms collection has re- 
mained boxed or temporarily conditioned while several 
cut and thrust arms and firearms were unpacked to be 
put on display in the new museum. The guillotine of 
when the Duchy of Luxembourg was part of Revolutio- 
nary France, the executioner’s sword of the city of Lux- 
embourg, the jingling Johnny, a peculiar 19th century 
military instrument, and early modern guns burst back 
onto the scene and have since been an integral part of 
the permanent exhibition at M3E. 
EXHIBITIONS AND ACQUISITIONS 
That one part of the collection is lying dormant has not 
been a detriment to the expansion of the collection. 
Over the course of the years, specific acquisitions have 
been made to complete the collection and fill the gaps, 
amongst others, in the history of the armament of the 
fortress. Two wall guns, for example, have thus been 
bought in an effort to cover the technical development 
of siege firearms from the latter half of the 18th to the 
first half of the 19th century. Wall-guns are weapons of 
siege warfare. As their name suggests they are fired 
from the ramparts by the defending garrison. Their 
range of fire exceeds the range of regular rifles and 
even of light artillery. With a wall-gun, targets at a dis- 
tance of 500 to 700 meters could be engaged, even if 
© 
éric 
chenal 
We are not just dropping in to see what condition the objects are in, but, proceeding per weapon type, we are assuring their long- 
term conservation.