On Saturday, 16 July, at 3 p.m., the 25th jubilee re-enactment of one of the greatest military victories of the Polish armed forces will take place on the Grunwald Fields. The great open-air spectacle with the participation of thousands of re-enactors, co-organised by the National Cultural Centre (NCK), gathers tens of thousands of spectators every year.

Grunwald Days is a regular open-air event, taking place on the weekend of 15 July, on the fields of the Battle of Grunwald, spreading across the municipality of Grunwald in Ostróda County. The first knightly tournaments will start on Wednesday and last until Friday. Saturday is devoted to official ceremonies and the re-enactment of the great battle.

In 25 years, the re-enactment has become one of the best-known historical-patriotic-cultural events in Poland and has given impetus to the creation of other historical re-enactment events. However, it still remains the largest of them both in terms of the number of re-enactors and tourists. At the same time, it is the largest phenomenon in Europe concerning the historical reenactment of the Middle Ages.

More than 350 re-enactors took part in the first re-enactment. In 2009, there were around 1 500 people on the battlefield playing heavy horsemen as well as horse and foot archers, artillerymen and finally masses of knights. In 2010, the year of the 600th anniversary of the battle, more than 2 000 historical re-enactors took part in the re-enactment.

“The re-enactment commemorates one of the largest battles in the history of medieval Europe, which was fought on 15 July 1410 between the Polish-Lithuanian army and the forces of the Teutonic Order. It is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Self-Government of the Warmińsko”, said Mazurskie Voivodeship and the County Governor’s Office in Ostróda.

Adrian Andrzejewski