30. September 2023 will be the day when annual re-enactement of Battle for Bratislava will take place in famous Bratislava city park of Sad Janka Kráľa.

Battle for Bratislava is a historical and cultural event which focuses mainly on re-enactment of real local military event from 17th century.

As usually you can expect the historical camp, presentation of the daily camp life in 17th century, presentation of the regiments, a parade trough the Old City and of course the Battle of Bratislava – reenactment of a military encounter from 1619.

The day of the battle was 14th of October 1619. Gabriel Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania and leader of protestant rebelion against catholic Habsburgs is ruling all of upper Hungary. Only one city stands between him and Vienna, Pressburg – Bratislava. After uneven fight Bethlen’s men are victorious and Bethlen has taken Pressburg, castle and also Hungarian crown jewels aswell.

Organizers of the event are SHŠ Banderium and group Manu Forti.

Our group was founded in year 2000. Since then we have been regularly taking part in many historical battle re-enactments, parades, performances and other events. Thanks to this we frequently perform not only in Slovakia but abroad as well (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Netherlands, England, France…). We have even been organizing our own battle re-enactment in Bratislava since 2015.

The re-enactment group MANU FORTI is reconstructing history and martial arts of the Renaissance Europe, focusing on the Bratislava / Pressburg region. With many years of experiences in stage fencing and the reconstruction of historical European martial arts, we are organising and participating at fencing performances, presentations, historical festivals, re-enactment events and tournaments in Slovakia and abroad. MANU FORTI is a member of the Paridon fencing school and the Alblau Regiment, an international association of re-enactment groups reconstructing the history of the Thirty Years War.