To the barrier! Single Combats and Duels from Achilles to Lifar

Pistol holsters, pair
Germany, mid-17th century
Silver, velvet, leather; embroidery, embossing, weaving
Saddle
Germany (?), 17th century
Wood, velvet, leather, galloon, silver, silver-gilt threads, copper alloy; casting, carving, needlework, weaving
Practice rapier (detail)
Germany, Solingen, late 17th century
Steel, iron, wood, thread, leather; forging

27.06.2025 – 02.11.2025

The State Hermitage Museum, Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace

Organized by:

The State Hermitage Museum

Participants:

The Library for Foreign Literature, Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineering and Communications Forces, The National Pushkin Museum, State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoye Selo", State Hermitage Museum, Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, The Moscow Kremlin Museums, Russian State Library, Russian National Library, Central Naval Museum named after Emperor Peter the Great

The Moscow Kremlin Museums participates in the exhibition project of the State Hermitage Museums “To the barrier! Single Combats and Duels from Achilles to Lifar” focusing on the history of single combats and duels.

Visitors to the show will have the opportunity to get acquainted with arms, decorative and applied arts, documents and books – fencing treatises and dueling codes, paintings and graphics illustrating the European history of duels. The exhibition covers a wide range of periods, from antiquity to the Middle Ages, with its traditions of divine judgment and knightly tournaments, to the duels of the XVI-XX centuries. Special attention is paid to the evolution of dueling arms, from rapiers and swords to specially designed dueling pistol sets.

The Moscow Kremlin Museums give on loan three pieces of arms: two practice rapiers and a sword, originating from the Preobrazhensky Palace. A pair of the rapiers for the training of fencing is clearly intended for the French school by its design and parameters. They could have been used for fencing training of Peter I himself, his son Tsesarevich Alexey and his grandson – the future Emperor Peter II. A unique sword has an interesting feature: the optional side blades were pulled out by pressing a special button. This allowed a fencer to gain an advantage over his opponent by grabbing his blade or breaking its edge.

The exhibition on equestrian duels is completed by a Baroque-style Western European saddle, decorated with silver-gilt embroidery, and a pair of pistol holsters with a special cover to protect the firearm's lock — all from the Moscow Kremlin Museums' collection.