Armourer in Innsbruck
The Innsbruck armourer belonged to the most famous in Europe since the time of Emperor Maximilian I. After 1580 Archduke Ferdinand II caused a greater part of the armour on display to be crafted by his court armourer Jakob Topf. The second armoury hall shows tournament armour for the ‘Plankengestech’, the free tourney, and the foot tournament, created for Ferdinand II and his court.
The Plankengestech, or Italian joust of peace, was a tournament contest in which the combatants attacked each other on horseback and with lances. The free tourney refers to the sporting combat on horseback carried out first with sharp spears and then with swords. The foot tournament took place as a pair or in a group, in a fenced-off course. The weapons used were long spears and blunt swords.
