The town of Samobor is celebrating 775th year since its founding this Sunday, March 6th, with a traditional reenactment of the battle at Vugrinscak meadow that took place in 1441. The celebration will take place on said meadow, beneath the feudal city of Samobor, and will feature medieval military encampments, archery ranges, duel fields, catapults, balistas, cavalry, firelock and blunderbuss troops, fireball springs, field kitchens that will serve foods and other time period attractions.
There will also be an old crafts fair next to the encampment, featuring hatters, basket makers, herbalists, healers, blacksmiths, fortunetellers, curse lifters, wine and mead makers and other craftsmen.
Samobor was recognized as an independent city by king Coloman in 1240, while gaining status of a free royal city in 1244, under the rule of Bela IV, excluding them from authority of royal judges and giving them the right to choose their own commander. The town has its own day in October, but it still has the largest celebration around the day the battle that could have shaped the future of Samobor, Empire, and Europe itself.
King Albrecht von Habsburg died in 1439, leaving his widow, queen Elisabeth (the only child of the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund), to defend the throne in battle against the polish king Wladyslaw III. Albrecht ruled for only two years, dying before his son Ladislav was born. Some Hungarian high nobles did not see the queen mother or the young child fitting of the throne with an impending danger from the east – the Ottomans. Samobor had a strategically important borderland fort, and both armies wanted to claim it for their own.
They’ve clashed on the meadow on Ash Wednesday, March 1st 1441, with the queen’s forces (led by armies of a powerful local earl Ulrich II of Celje) defeating the opposition, capturing their commander and winning the throne for Elisabeth. To protect the city Ulrich II has set up a military base on the meadow, and the people of Samobor have, in their gratitude, organized a grand celebration.
The queen, however, died the next year and Ladislav the Posthumous, then three years old, had no real power. Wladyslaw III may have lost on that Ash Wednesday, but claimed the throne still.
The medieval fair opens at 10 am on Sunday, with a march of knights trough Samobor to the meadow at 11 am. Archery, fencing, firelock and medieval cooking workshops start at noon, with the reenactment of the battle starting at 3 pm.
All events are free.