Name: Batallas de las Salas de Armas 2026 - Rapier tournament in Budapest
Start: 2026-05-09T08:30:00+02:00
Location: Keleti Károly Közgazdasági Technikum

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 09, 2026
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Entry Fee: €40
Registration Opens: Sunday, March 15, 2026, at 20:00 (CET)
Ruleset: We use, just like last year, the Bolognese ruleset (from Schildwache Potsdam/DDHF), modified for rapier. We post immediately the rules from last year, but we are still revising them (only smaller clarifications, corrections expected), and we will publish the new version before the registrations begins.
Categories:
- Open (33 spots)
- Women (16 spots): This category will take place only if at least 8 fencers register. If fewer, we’ll ask participants if they’d like to join the Open category instead.
Format:
- 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 CRE* (Just for fun, no extra fee)
Exact format will depend on the number of the interested fencers.
*Community Review Edition
Historical Background:
From the article Uses & customs in Iberian fencing salles of the XVI and XVII centuries( by Manuel Valle Ortiz and Denís Fernández Cabrera), we know that the 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).
To do this, we needed a historical ruleset that encourages proper fencing behavior. Last year we already used successfully the Bolognese ruleset developed by Schildwache Potsdam (the original rules can be found at the website of DDHF), with some modification. This ruleset also allows us to organize an event in non-elimination format, giving everyone an opportunity to fence almost the same number of fights, with a lot of different opponents.
About the Bonus Event:
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.