Since ancient times man has used knowledge and materials of the time attempting to neutralise the blows inflicted by the enemy.

Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans are only a few of the ancient cultures who, in the West as well as in the East, introduced and developed body armour, the shield and the helmet.

The 15th Century saw the introduction of the integral armour. The helmet, in its numerous variants and with function of protection as well as ornament, was a fundamental part of it.

However, the development of firearms in the 16th Century marked the beginning of the decline for the armour, which survived in its integral variant as a ceremonial garment for Noblemen and Royals.

The metal helmet continued to evolve its shape, but with time it too assumed an ornamental, rather than protective, function.

It is at the beginning of the 20th Century, at the outbreak of the First World War, that the idea of protecting the soldier’s head gains new momentum due to the high number of casualties caused by the new type of warfare, which is being fought on European fields, re-designed and transformed in a deadly lunar landscape by artillery fire.

After the experiment of the French cervelière and the German Army Group Gaede helmet, and despite the fact that it was impossible to join bullet-proof, functionality and comfort characteristics, the refined metallurgic techniques of the industrial era produced the casque M15 Adrian, the Brodie and the Stahlhelm M16.

Inspired by the past, these profiles will dominate the wars of the following decades, originating new shapes and new materials.

It is from the re-birth of the helmet, from man’s eternally frustrated desire to defend from himself, that this site begins to look at the collecting of combat helmets, even those that have not participated to the conflicts of the last ninety years.

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