Bed & Breakfast Poggio dei Pettirossi in Pettorano sul Gizio, near Sulmona

The European chivalrous joust

The European chivalrous joust

The event gathers many european cities in just one event which takes place in Sulmona: "The European Joust". Each city is represented by a delegation of extras wearing historical costumes, each of these delegations comes with its own school which could be: ancient dance, coat of arms, musketeers, musicians, falconers, flag wavers, theatricals, singers, lansquenetes, crossbows etc.

These delegations represent a split of social and cultural life of their countries. The miscellany of styles, idioms, colors and different representations creates a a suggestive and compound atmosphere unified by the will of all the people that take part of the event and the audience to connect in one commemoration and loyal competition under the modern european flag in order to win the prize.

Each european city is combined to one italian city that has a similar kind of tournament with rings, the italian city provides the european city a horse and a knight that will compete in the joust.

After the historical parade, that shows all the extras dressed in costumes (about 600), coming from the european and italian cities, the knightly joust takes place in the contest field during which the european cities challenge themselves.

The winner receives the Prize, which is an oil painting on a linen. The same prize is drawn by the european city that has won the joust of the past year, involving local artists. With some of the participating countries there are current cultural and economical exchanges, and also twin cities projects.