For my birthday this year, I had the exciting opportunity to visit Buenos Aires. Of course, visiting all of the military museums this city had to offer was a must. Today, we’re talking about the Museo de Armas de la Nación, situated at the Palacio Paz, built in the 1890s as a house for José Camilo Paz and his family in a gorgeous French architectural style. The museum itself was founded in 1941 and today hosts 15 rooms full of firearms and general military history goodness. It also houses the Military Officer’s club of the Argentine Military.
Most of the collection comes from the CITEFA, nowadays known as the CITEDEF, which is a research and development agency for the Argentine army. Some pieces were also donated by private citizens. Interesting to note that the guns that came from CITEFA were certainly tried and tested by Argentina. Many prototypes are present, of course.
Entering the museum, you’re greeted with a beautiful circular room, covered in marble and with a statue of General San Martín, Argentina’s national hero and founder. To enter the museum, there’s a fee of 2,000 pesos, around $2 USD in 2024. The staff was accommodating, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Now to the interesting bit, the museum itself. After paying, you’re greeted with the first room, consisting of swords, some replica armor, and two very interesting crossbows. The room itself is very well decorated and mostly nicely presented. Next, you go down a ramp and you’re greeted with the first indication this museum is going to be worth it; a room completely filled with gun cabinets full of very interesting and unique firearms including but not limited to:
One of the first interesting prototypes this museum has to offer, the Criollo rifle. Despite its odd name, its inventor was Angél Chiesanova. Made around the late 1800s, it chambers the 7.65x53mm Argentine cartridge and it operates in a very unique manner.
A second prototype I wasn’t even aware existed; an Argentine pattern Rolling-Block rifle modified by the Buenos Aires Arsenal, using the system patented by one Costa de Argibel.
There’s a lot in this room to appreciate, some other things of note was the variety of rare single shot, breech loading rifles they displayed, like the Mylonas rifle from Greece, a Robert II prototype from France, and an extremely unique Herteleup patent underhammer rifle. Also of note were Dreyse rifles and carbines, two Hall breech-loading rifles, a Russian Karlé needle-fire rifle, a Gewehr 98 trench rifle, and a Gewehr 98 in a grenade launcher mount.
The next exhibit is a progression of the Argentine firearms throughout history. Present are many flintlocks, including a replica of the first manufactured firearm on Argentine soil. There are Rolling Block rifles and carbines of all sorts of lengths, patterns, and models along with Argentine Mausers, sniper rifles and prototypes, and, finally, the FAL. There were also a few other miscellaneous rifles like a Spencer carbine, some breech-loading/single-shot rifles used by Argentina, and a Berdan I, Albini-Braedlin, Robinson, B.S. Roberts, Tabatiére and a few others. Also present were some heavy-machine guns.
A wall of Rolling Block rifles, including many carbine variants used by different branches of the army.
Argentine Mauser rifles, complete with a sniper variant and a prototype carbine that uses a bayonet system, similar to the Carcano.
The next room is an exhibit about the Falklands war, or as the Argentines prefer to call it, “Guerra das Malvinas.” As it is still in recent memory in Argentina, I won’t delve much into the conflict or the exhibit. Of note, there’s a silenced Sterling submachine gun and a cabinet of the guns the Argentine marines captured when first landed in Port Stanley from the garrison stationed there. Here, the museum deviates into four rooms, only one of which I will be able to cover here. On your left is a room, again, full (from floor to ceiling) with gun cases, all with interesting pistols. Of note are a prototype 1911 pattern Steyr-Hahn in its case (complete with accessories), a prototype Astra semi-automatic dating to around 1921 in 9mm Largo, two Webley-Fosbery revolvers, a rare Celmi pistol from Uruguay, and many others including different patterns of Lugers, pocket pistols, presentation pieces, Spanish copies, etc.
Apart from pistols, continuing on you’ll have a couple of cabinets with submachine guns of various nationalities and dates ranging from the Villar Perosa all the way to the PAM-2, an Argentine copy of the American M3 Grease-gun. There are all sorts of other firearms, including a Vollmer V.P.K, an MP28, a ZK-383 and an MP-34, all used during the Chaco war. An original 1921 Thompson, complete with a selection of different barrels, and even a Maxim silencer! Possibly the exact gun that was tested by the Argentine military, an Italian FNAB-43, and a Walther MPK which was allegedly owned by Salvador Allende, Chile’s deposed president. And last but not least, there’s a Swiss MP43/44, a licensed copy of the Suomi KP/31.
At the back of this room, there are a couple of hand-operated machine guns including one I didn’t even know existed prior to visiting this museum, the Bavarian “Feld”. Dated to around 1870 and designed by Johann Feldl, it functions very similarly to a Nordenfelt as far as I could ascertain. It was chambered in 11mm Werder and being of such rarity that there hasn’t been a photo of an example on the internet yet published, so it is my pleasure to present this rare beast.
Also present are a collection of other European machine guns, dated to around the first world war. Included are an MG08/15, Fiat-Revelli M1914, and a Hotchkiss Mle 1914. Next to the machine guns, mounted in the wall, is a very interesting piece of Argentine military history, a locally manufactured Panzerfaust clone nicknamed “PAPI”, which stands for “proyectil anti-tanque para infantería.”
And finally, there’s a very out of place (in my opinion, but still interesting to check out) Japanese collection of Sengoku period armor and weaponry.
If you’re not sold already, look for a future article where we’ll check out the biggest room of the whole museum and briefly introduce another museum I visited while in Buenos Aires, the “Museo Historico Del Ejercito Argentino”.
