SIt’s almost unbelievable, but 40 years have passed since knights, horsemen, archers, dancers and countless traditionalists first graced the tournament grounds of the Royal Palace at Visegrád for the first time since the Middle Ages.

The first Palace Games were held in Visegrád in 1985, re-enacting the most significant event in the town’s rich history – the 1335 Visegrád Meeting of Kings. King Casimir the Great of Poland, King John of Luxembourg of Bohemia and the host, King Charles I of Hungary, as well as the Teutonic Order and the German electors, shaped the economic, political and cultural development of Central Europe for a long time to come. This spirit is still present at the historical festival to this day.

Today, performers come from numerous countries (including, alongside Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Poland), and the event has grown to become Central Europe’s largest traditional festival, attracting tens of thousands of visitors over the course of the three days.

It is also touching that János Papp, who remains the chief herald of the Palace Games to this day, was already hosting the programmes from that very spot back in 1985 – a spot from which he has done so consistently throughout the thirty-nine years since, and from which he will do so once again this year, for the fortieth time (as we have come to expect over the last twenty years or so, now together with his son, Dániel Papp).
Many have been with us on the pitch right from the start, and have gone on to pass on their love for this special world to their children and grandchildren; Many of them are now watching over us from above, and year after year new groups of children and young people arrive, who are magically touched time and again by the breeze of tradition sweeping through the castle walls and across the centuries-old stones.

Are you curious to find out what the first Palace Games were like? You can see for yourself in the period film footage below.
A little game for true Palotajátékok fans: who can you recognise?