Arsenal

An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (US spelling) are mostly regarded as synonyms, although subtle differences in usage exist.

Sub-armory is a place of temporary storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition, like any temporary Post or patrol vehicle which is only operational in certain times of the day.

Etymology

From Italian: arsenale, and French: arsenal, from Arabic: دار الصناعة‎, dār aṣ-ṣināʕa, meaning "manufacturing shop".

Types

A lower-class arsenal, which can furnish the materiel and equipment of a small army, may contain a laboratory, gun and carriage factories, small-arms ammunition, small-arms, harness, saddlery tent and powder factories; in addition, it must possess great store-houses. In a second-class arsenal, the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategic considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at the base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, and placed so as to draw in readily the resources of the country. The importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large fortress.

Arsenal (Central Park)

The Arsenal is a symmetrical brick building with modestly Gothic Revival details, located in Central Park, New York City, centered on 64th Street off Fifth Avenue. Built between 1847 and 1851 as a storehouse for arms and ammunition for the New York State Militia, the building predates the design and construction of Central Park, where only the Blockhouse (1814) is older.

The Arsenal was designed by Martin E. Thompson (1786–1877), originally trained as a carpenter, who had been a partner of Ithiel Town and went on to become one of the founders of the National Academy of Design. Thompson's symmetrical structure of brick in English bond, with headers every fifth course, presents a central block in the manner of a fortified gatehouse flanked by half-octagonal towers. The carpentry doorframe speaks of its purpose with an American eagle displayed between stacks of cannonballs over the door, and crossed sabers and stacked pikes represented in flanking panels.

The building currently houses the offices of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the Central Park Wildlife Conservation Center, but it has also served as a zoo and housed a portion of the American Museum of Natural History's collections while its permanent structure was being erected. During the course of its lifetime it has also housed a police precinct, a weather bureau, and an art gallery.

Kremlin Arsenal

The Kremlin Arsenal (Russian: Арсенал Московского Кремля) is a former armory built within the grounds of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia. Initially constructed in 1736, it has been rebuilt several times. It remains in military use to date, unlike the Kremlin Armoury, another arsenal within the walls of the Moscow Kremlin, which is now a museum. The building is off-limits to tourists, who can view a portion of its short southern façade upon entering the precincts of the Moscow Kremlin. The Kremlin Arsenal is currently home to the Kremlin Regiment, which forms the main security service for the Russian President, and the longer eastern façade is a high secured and restricted area closed to the public.

Building

The Kremlin Arsenal is a large elongated trapezoid two-story building with a large courtyard. It occupies most of the northern corner of the Moscow Kremlin, with its north-west and north-eastern sides directly adjacent to the Kremlin Wall parallel to Red Square, from Trinity Tower to St Nicholas Tower.