iMuseo Arqueológico NacionalRecoletos
La vida en la frontera. Finds from the Castle of Monreal de Ariza
Rare 15th-century arms and armour from a sealed room at Monreal de Ariza castle (Zaragoza): helmets, crossbows, a breastplate, a bell and artillery chambers.
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Sometime in the mid-1400s, large stone blocks fell from the upper enclosure of Monreal de Ariza castle, on the Aragon and Castile frontier above the river Jalón, and crushed a storeroom. It stayed sealed for more than five hundred years, until a 2017 to 2018 dig found what it held: two helmets, iron and bronze parts of two crossbows, two artillery breech chambers, a breastplate and a Gothic bell.
It all fits in a few cases in one room, with detailed labels and a short video that follows the pieces from the dig through laser cleaning. You pass the bascinet with its visor shown beside it, because restorers couldn't refit it. Next to the weapons sit a coin of Juan II of Castile and a public scribe's inkwell: a frontier arsenal still had paperwork, centuries before cita previa.
El Alto Jalón's reviewer called it small but with no filler. Entry is free, on floor 0 behind the ticket desk, between the Activities Room and the shop.
Look for
The barbute
A pointed helmet forged from a single sheet of iron, an Italian style the museum calls unique in Spain and links to Aragon's rule over Naples and Sicily.
The bascinet and its separate visor
An iron helmet with a movable visor and neck guard, decorated with silver flowers and traces of gilding, its visor displayed apart because it couldn't be refitted.
The Gothic bell
A bronze bell with its clapper, cracked down one side, carrying relief scenes of the Crucifixion, the Virgin and Child, and Saint Michael.
The brigandine plates
Small metal plates once riveted with brass to a cloth garment, some still holding scraps of linen.
The inkwell and the coin
A metal inkwell that belonged to a public scribe, shown with a billon blanca coin of Juan II of Castile.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You want a big show: this is a few cases of 15th-century metalwork in one small room.
With kids
A family visit, De caballeros, dragones y castillos, is for children aged 6 to 12 on 31 October, 29 November and 5 December. The legend-telling sessions and workshops are for ages 14 and up.
Also at Museo Arqueológico Nacional
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- La vida en la frontera. Finds from the Castle of Monreal de ArizaCourtesy of Museo Arqueológico Nacional
- Women Artists: Pathways through Pre-Raphaelitism (1850-1914)© Musée d’Orsay, dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Sophie Crépy
- The Other Face of the Avant-GardeCourtesy of Fundación MAPFRE – Sala Recoletos
- Minor WhiteCourtesy of Fundación MAPFRE – Sala Recoletos
- Museo Arqueológico NacionalCoralma*, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Fundación MAPFRE – Sala RecoletosBeautyriver1010, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Casa de AméricaCarlos Delgado (Kadellar), CC BY-SA 3.0
- Museo Nacional de Artes DecorativasLuis García (Zaqarbal), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Museo NavalFernando, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0