The culture of Balkan peoples, who remained under the rule of Turkey for centuries, naturally combined European and Eastern traditions. And the art of gun making was no exception. The Albanian flintlock gun from the Gatchina Museum collection makes a perfect example. The barrel and the lock are made in Italy. The form of the fore-end resembles European guns. But the buttstock is covered in silver foil according to the Turkish tradition and is decorated with a gilded repoussé floral pattern. Italian barrels were very popular among gunmakers in the Balkans. Such barrels were not only imported but also faked and imitated (just like barrels from other countries). The barrel made of forged iron is octagonal at the breech end and round at the muzzle end with a narrow concave plane along the top. The gun has no sights. The tang of the breech is decorated with an engraved floral pattern. On the barrel by the breech end there is a square mark with an image of a horse. It is framed with ten gilded marks in the form of lilies. The gun has a French type flintlock mechanism. Unlike craftsmen of most German-speaking countries or Italy, gunsmith in the Balkans (just as in other regions of the Ottoman Empire) did not use locks which were difficult to make. The furniture consists of a silvered brass trigger guard and a gilded silver lock bridle decorated with a repoussé floral pattern. The flintlock gun used to belong to Count Grigory Orlov. From 1823 till 1941 the rifle was kept in the Arms Gallery. At the beginning of the World War II it was evacuated to the city of Sarapul in the Udmurt Republic. It returned to the Gatchina Palace from the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site in 1988. In different regions of the Balkans people manufactured firearms of different types. But the main difference lay in the stock form and decoration style. Usually the decoration was eye-catching and even showy, but the average quality of weapons and professional level of gunmakers were not very high. Decorations were abundant but could hardly be called refined and were often made of cheap materials.