Nasalhelm

A nasal helmet is a conic helmet with a projecting bar covering the wearer’s nose. This type of helmet was very popular during the high Middle Ages, especially in the twelfth century. In battle, a knight was equipped with a nasal helmet, a knee-length hauberk, and a large, almond-shaped shield. Under his helmet he wore a mail coif. In order to better protect his face, he was probably able to hook his coif to the end of his noseguard (note the small hook that has survived on this helmet).

Like a Spangenhelm (see inv. A 1996,), an high medieval nasal helmet could be composed of several pieces, though most were forged from a single piece of iron, which suggests a sophisticated metalworking technology. The helmet offered protection against blows from above without restricting its wearer’s vision and breathing. However, coeval changes in warfare technique and the advent of the mounted warrior armed with a couched lance meant knights now had to protect their faces with a shield. In the course of the twelfth century, the need for additional facial protection resulted in a broadening of the noseguard and eventually, around 1200, the development of the so-called great helm (inv. B 74).

This nasal helmet was discovered in 1864 in the course of building work carried out on the priory of the cathedral at Olomouc. The exact details of how and where it was found are not recorded, but a contemporary description tells us that it was discovered in a four-metre-deep foundation pit, together with animal bones, coal, leather, hazelnuts, millet, and other plant remains. Soon after it was found, the helmet was sent to Vienna and inventoried in the imperial collection as a ‘gift from Professor Hochstetter’.

In addition to the one now in the collection in Vienna, nasal helmets are also displayed in, for example, Lednogóra, Augsburg, and Mainz, while several more are in the Národní Muzeum in Prague.