Jousting
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The jousting games (or jousting tournaments) are an art form that developed from tournaments of the European Middle Ages .
With themes from the life of the knights of that time (and the knight's maids), they have survived to this day on popular stages and in impromptu theaters.
In some alpine regions of southern Germany and Austria , the knight games developed - in response to the audience and today also as an advertisement for some vacation spots - special features such as the repetition of particularly cheerful or "gruesome" scenes. Some audience favorites die up to five times at the Pradler Ritterspiele , and something similar was reported “at Tschauner” in the Ottakring suburb of Vienna .
In some places jousting games also take the form of consecration games, whereby they can also - as in the Middle Ages - become symbolic fighting games on special days of remembrance . For example, the Sinjska alka (August 1st to 3rd) in Croatia is a traditional knight's game in the form of riding a ring on two concentric circles marked out with iron bars, at which the participants on horseback aim at full gallop with the lance and in the middle circle the Achieve the highest score.
The knight games of the present are more opportunities for family outings, such as Ehrenberg - Die Zeitreise in (Reutte / Tyrol), Kaltenberg knight tournament in Geltendorf or knight games at Sommeregg Castle in Seeboden on Lake Millstatt. One of Germany's largest medieval events are the free Felser jousting at the foot of Castle Freienfels . Also Satzvey Castle in Voreifel uses the setting for such events .
The "Alka" is celebrated in Sinj as a reminder of the conquest of Croatia by the Turks from 1463 and by Sinj in 1536. Several unsuccessful uprisings failed until 1686 - three years after the second Turkish siege of Vienna - the liberation by Providur Cornaro succeeded. The fact that Sinj celebrates the jousting games in August has to do with an attempt at reconquest by the Turks in 1715, which, however , was narrowly repulsed on St. Mary's holiday on August 15th after the city was destroyed.
