Batallas de las Salas de Armas 2026 - Rapier tournament in Budapest
Dear Fencers,
We are pleased to invite you to a historically inspired rapier tournament in Budapest! More about the background below, but first, here are the technical details:
Date: Saturday, May 9, 2026
Location: Keleti Károly Közgazdasági Technikum, Budapest, Hungary
Entry Fee: €40
Registration: Open
Ruleset: We will use the Bolognese ruleset (from Schildwache Potsdam / DDHF), modified for rapier. Full rules can be found here.
Categories:
Bonus Event: Figueiredo's ruleset Community Review Edition (Just for fun, no extra fee)
Exact format will depend on the number of the interested fencers.
The Portuguese maestro Diogo Gomes de Figueiredo wrote briefly about the rules used in friendly duels and competitions with blunt rapiers in his 1628 work Oplosophia e Verdadeira Destreza das Armas.
Last year we needed more time to develop a functional interpretation. Now we finally have a version ready — and we would love to test it together with you. So this Bonus Event marks the Community Review Edition(CRE) of our ruleset. Your experience and observations will directly shape its future.
We are pleased to invite you to a historically inspired rapier tournament in Budapest! More about the background below, but first, here are the technical details:
Date: Saturday, May 9, 2026
Location: Keleti Károly Közgazdasági Technikum, Budapest, Hungary
Entry Fee: €40
Registration: Open
Ruleset: We will use the Bolognese ruleset (from Schildwache Potsdam / DDHF), modified for rapier. Full rules can be found here.
Categories:
- Open (33 spots)
- Women (16 spots): This category will take place only if at least 8 fencers register. If fewer register, we will ask participants whether they would like to join the Open category instead.
- Open: Pools and leagues (no eliminations), with the top 4 proceeding to semifinals and finals.
- Women: Round-robin format, with the top 4 proceeding to semifinals and finals.
Bonus Event: Figueiredo's ruleset Community Review Edition (Just for fun, no extra fee)
Exact format will depend on the number of the interested fencers.
The Portuguese maestro Diogo Gomes de Figueiredo wrote briefly about the rules used in friendly duels and competitions with blunt rapiers in his 1628 work Oplosophia e Verdadeira Destreza das Armas.
Last year we needed more time to develop a functional interpretation. Now we finally have a version ready — and we would love to test it together with you. So this Bonus Event marks the Community Review Edition(CRE) of our ruleset. Your experience and observations will directly shape its future.
From the article Uses & Customs in Iberian Fencing Salles of the 16th and 17th Centuries (by Manuel Valle Ortiz and Denís Fernández Cabrera), we know that friendly duels and competitions with blunt weapons (espadas negras)—called batallas (or batalhas)—between the salles (salas de armas) were not rare. We wanted to recreate this spirit, minus the part where things occasionally turned into real fights (brigas).
Historical Background
RULESET
We needed a historical ruleset that encourages proper fencing behaviour. While the rules from Figueiredo still need further development to form a complete ruleset, we experienced at IRS 2023 that the Bolognese ruleset developed by Schildwache Potsdam (the original rules can be found on the DDHF website), with some small modifications, works very well for rapier. This ruleset also allows us to organize an event in a non-elimination format, giving everyone the chance to fence almost the same number of bouts against many different opponents.
Full Ruleset Our Partners
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please feel free to contact us.
