The Styrian Armoury (German: Landeszeughaus) results from the resulting need to store large quantities of armour and weapons, and was built from 1642 until 1645 by a Tyrolean architect called Antonio Solar. Among the 21 departments and institutions of the Joanneum Universal Museum, founded as the Joanneum in 1811, the Armoury is in a class of its own. It is the Joanneum’s most-visited institution without an exhibitions role. Moreover, as the largest historic armoury in the world, it is a living memorial to a chequered, conflict-ridden past, whose bogeymen and prejudices are still with us.