Grose Bochse
Encyclopedia
The Grose Bochse was a medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 supergun
Supergun
A supergun is an extraordinarily large artillery piece. This size may be due to a large bore, barrel length or a combination of the two. While early examples tended to have a fairly short range more recent examples sometimes had an extremely high muzzle velocity resulting in a very long...

 of the Teutonic Order. It was cast from June to September 1408 in several pieces and was presumably assembled by a screw
Screw
A screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread, often in the form of a nut or an object that has the...

 or plug connection. In terms of size, the cannon even superseded the slightly later finished Faule Grete
Faule Grete
The Faule Grete was a medieval supergun of the Teutonic Order. The bronze bombard was cast in 1409 in the cannon foundry of the Marienburg by the gunfounder Heynrich Dumechen...

 and may have reached the dimensions of the largest known bombard
Bombard
Bombard may refer to:*The act of carrying out a bombardment*Bombard , a type of late medieval siege weapon.*Bombard , a contemporary double reed instrument used to play traditional Breton music....

 by caliber, the Pumhart von Steyr
Pumhart von Steyr
The Pumhart von Steyr is a medieval supergun from Styria, Austria, and the largest known wrought-iron bombard by caliber. The cannon was produced in the early 15th century and could fire, according to modern calculations, a 690 kg stone ball around 600 m, loaded with 15 kg of powder and set up at...

.

Further known superguns of the 15th century are the equally cast-bronze Faule Mette
Faule Mette
The Faule Mette or Faule Metze was a medieval supergun of the city of Brunswick, Germany....

 and the wrought-iron Dulle Griet
Dulle Griet
The Dulle Griet is a medieval supergun from Ghent, Belgium. The wrought-iron bombard was constructed in the first half of the 15th century from 32 longitudinal bars enclosed by 61 rings...

 and Mons Meg
Mons Meg
Mons Meg is a medieval bombard which can be classed as a supergun, now located at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. There are conflicting theories about its origins, but it appears from the accounts of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy that it was made to his order around 1449 and sent as a gift 8 years...

.
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