Sinjska alka

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An alkar gallops with a raised lance to stab the ring hanging in the middle of the lane.
Alkare (middle) with their squires (outside)

The Sinjska alka (Alka of Sinj) is a ring riding that is named after the ring used, the so-called Alka [ ˈaːlka ] (from Turkish halka for ring). This tournament and folk festival takes place on the first weekend of August each year in the town of Sinj in Croatia . The participating lancer is called Alkar .

The Sinjska alka has been held annually since 1717 to commemorate the victory over an Ottoman army that besieged the city of Sinj during the Venetian-Austrian Turkish War from August 8 to 15, 1715 .

Due to its centuries-old tradition , the Sinjska alka is a cultural asset and was declared an intangible UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 .

procedure

Scoring when the Alka ring hits.

The preliminary runs for Bara and Čoja take place on Friday and Saturday and the actual Alka on Sunday. The iron Alka ring consists of two concentric rings that are connected with three rods. While riding on horseback, the participants must aim the lance at the Alka. There are three points for a hit in the central ring. Hits in the upper third score two points and the two lower thirds score one point each.

The Alkar who has achieved the most points after three runs is the winner. If two or more alkars have the same number of points, further rounds are run until one of them has the higher number of points. Such extensions have already taken place in the history of the Alka. Some dragged on for days.

According to the traditional statutes , only members of the local Alkaren community can take part in this jousting game. Another requirement is that the alkars and their parents come from Sinj and the area along the Cetina and live there. The most famous celebratory steward and leader of the Alkars ( Alaj- čauš ) is Ivan Zorica .

Others

Coat of arms of the city of Sinj

The city coat of arms of Sinj shows an alkar with a lance and a round shield on which the Alka ring is depicted.

literature

  • by Preradović: The ring piercing of Sinj in Dalmatia (The Halka) . In: Association for historical weapons (Hrsg.): Journal for historical weapons . tape 3 . Dresden 1905, p. 273 ff . ( archive.org - with extensive explanations of the history, the process and the rules).
  • Ana-Marija Vukušić: Suvremenost, tradicija i sjećanje: Sinjska alka . In: Narodna umjetnost: hrvatski časopis za etnologiju i folkloristiku . No. 2 , 2005, p. 93-108 (Croatian, srce.hr ).
  • Leopold Kretzenbacher: Ring riding, Rolandspiel and runners: sporty equestrian customs of today as a legacy from western cultural history . Ed .: State Museum for Carinthia (=  Volume 20 of the book series of the State Museum for Carinthia ). Publishing house of the history association for Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1966.

Fiction

Web links

Commons : Alka  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ unesco.org: Sinjska Alka, a knights' tournament in Sinj. Retrieved February 26, 2015 .