Thirty Years War cannon, Ceske Krumlov

[ChrisPer]

Eisenhammer asked for photos of cannon from this period, and I photographed some at Ceske Krumlov. These three bronze guns had two visible dates, two were the same at 1608 and the other 1644. You can see on the older two a five-petalled rose which is Rosenberg, the owners of the castle and town at the time; and the other has three birds holding a crown.

The furthest gun is a breechloader on wooden trail also with the name of the 19th-centtury owners of the castle on it. The pics I took of that are off topic.

Side view of trail and the spade/tow hitch - what are the right terms? I took these in case anyone wanted to build a scale model.

1644 on side

Three birds and crown

Mortar? Not sure what its design is. Maybe throws the stone shot stacked nearby.

Signal mortar inside in the museum. The stick arrangement by it is a gunner's linstock, to carry the slowmatch to the powder.

Second courtyard has the guns under a verandah

 

[ChrisPer]

House of Rosenberg owned Ceske Krumlov until 1611 and the five-petalled rose on the two older cannon is theirs.

After that the House of Schwartzenberg owned it until 1947. They mostly didn't live there, so the town stagnated somewhat - so now it is the most amazing 500-year-old town isolated on the bend of the river.

This castle has an excellent weapons collection in the museum attached and I photographed

 

[matthew.heilgmail.com]

Those are great! I can't thank you enough for digging all these great images out for me!

That said...you got anything else cannon-y? :rotf:

 

[ChrisPer]

Yes I have more, including some of those newfangled things that will never catch on (1850-1900 cast steel breechloaders).

I got a lot of Ottoman and European cannon pics in Istanbul.

I am a beginning cannon fan, and will appreciate the education from you all too. I can come up with a zip of all my cannon pics via ftp but I need to org and caption so they are more useful to everyone. Each who wants is welcome to everything I have, subject to some time to get it out.

 

[matthew.heilgmail.com]

Yes I have more, including some of those newfangled things that will never catch on (1850-1900 cast steel breechloaders).

I got a lot of Ottoman and European cannon pics in Istanbul.

I am a beginning cannon fan, and will appreciate the education from you all too. I can come up with a zip of all my cannon pics via ftp but I need to org and caption so they are more useful to everyone. Each who wants is welcome to everything I have, subject to some time to get it out.

Well, I'm a HUGE cannon fan, and I'll take everything you have, including the Turkish stuff. I'd be very glad to have a zip of the photos you've taken (even them newfangled things, waddaya call'em, "britches loaders?")

I have to warn you, though: Just as with muzzleloaders in general, if you get into cannon you are heading down a very slippery path indeed! I've been "into" cannon since I was a little kid and there's no sign of any let-up going into my 30th year - and somehow I doubt there'll ever be any let-up. And I'll be glad to answer any questions I can on your new path :haha:

On the guns in this post, though, do you remember if the cheeks and trails taper or are they parallel for their entire length? It's hard to tell from the photos. Thanks again!

 

[ChrisPer]

I didnt pay attention to taper at the time but they look very close to parallel to me.

I will get some more done on the photos later - my laptop just demanded a warranty claim and I cant do it at work here in the PNG Highlands.

 

[rescuemike]

Wow! Amazing pics! Thanks for posting them!