Medieval joust

To see the King's promenade click here - King, Queen, jugglers...

The county fairs weren't rare in the medieval village and happened every week. The bigger events happened monthly and were hosted in the small towns. But the best event one could attend happened in Fall, when the biggest annual fair was hosted somewhere in the county seat. And I assume it looked kinda close to what we were able to see at the Renaissance Festival. One could wander around and buy some stuff, could have some nice street food and enjoy some entertainment. But... the biggest and most interesting attraction was the knight joust.

 

That was a special event and attracted the people from all towns, villages and farms in the county. So we were slowly headed to the big arena to become spectators and finally felt like peasants who lived a few hundreds years ago and didn't have no TV, no Internet and absolutely no Youtube. The only way to see the performance was to see it in person...

You need to get early so you can find a nice place where you can see everything. It didn't change a bit so we had an opportunity to stretch our tired legs but also to see some preparations...

And also... we enjoyed the musical performance too. Have no idea what this bell-based instrument was, but the music was amazing and quite unusual...

Finally everything was ready and the royal retinue arrived...

The knights galloped and hot arguments were exchanged... The glove was thrown and the battle began...

And the winners were pronounced and the spectators began to disperse. The day was rolling to its end and we strolled back to the exit to leave. Just in time, because the weather turned to the storm and we were happy we didn't stay longer. It is always a nice feeling of the rain pounding the car roof minutes after you shut your door closed...

Pictures were taken on July 11, 2010.