The knight competitor! Sinjska alka is organized every year for the remembrance of the giorius victory of the people of Sinj. It is the pawn of an ever lasting tradition and the thankfulness to the heroic ancestors. The Alka originated from the heroism of our grandfathers and is enwove in the life of our generations. It is the victory i justice over the injustice and victory of freedom over the slavery. The Alka is a special tourist attraction of Sinj, of the Cetina region but alsc of whole Croatia and the civilized world. Therefore, let's celebrate it together. Let's meet every year on the first Sunday in August in Sinj.


Every year, on the first Sunday in August, a tilting competition takes place here, brilliantly costumed knights (alkari) competing according to tourney rules preserved over the centuries. This tilting ceremonies last for a three days. On the first day the "Alkari" (tilters) complete for "Bara" and on the second for "Coja", which is the pre-qualification stage for the main competition. "Vojvoda" (the Duke) puts three meter long "Coja" (red homespun) on the winners lance point. The competitors in knightly postures on galloping horses aim the ring target called "Alka" with their lances. "Alka" consists of two concentric iron rings linked by three bars dividing the space between the rings into three equal parts. A hit into the smallest central part ("u sridu") gives three points, the top part two and the bottom parts one point each. The winner is the competitor that has collected the maximum number og points. Vojvoda ties a threecoloured flag called "plamenac" to the winner called "Slavodobitnik" and gives orders for the Alkar`s name to be recorded in golden letters in the Chronicle of Chivalrous Alkar (Tilting ) Club, saying: "For the coming generations to remember". The Alka tournament presents symbol of victory of the people of Sinj and the Cetina district from Turkish attacking.


Grandstands on either side of the course seat spectators who come from all over the country and foreign parts as well. Dozens of different languages can be heard in the crowd surging through the streets of Sinj in the direction of the tournament field. Past and present are juxtaposed. On all sides roast lamb turns on a spit, tables laden with smoked ham and cheese, soft drinks and local wines flowing in copious amounts.

When the procession of knights and their escorts finally makes its appearance in the afternoon, a sudden hush sweeps through the crowd, as if in response to some ancient ritual. The silence lasts only a brief moment, soon broken by waves of applause and shouting, laughter and whistling. The company of squires, keeping step, march proudly along in time to the music: vigorous mustachioed youths, glancing neither right nor left, carrying over their shoulders long flintlock guns and tucked into their waistband, the "serpent's nest" it is called, a pistol and a dagger. Behind them ride the splendidly outfitted contestants (alkari). They are dressed in venerable aristocratic attire, their caps of sable flaunting the white feather of a heron. The caparisoned horses prance friskily, their hooves digging into the sand. Thus begins the annual Alka tournament, the only one of its kind in Croatia and in Europe. In August 1715 a battle for the fortress of Sinj, which had a strategic position on the main road to the coast, ended in a Turkish defeat. In commemoration of their great victory, the people of Sinj instituted the Alka tournament. The Alka tournament has long since, and particularly in recent times, ceased to be simply a picturesque local event. Drawing upon, in general terms, the medieval tradition of tournaments and horsemanship competitions (carousels), the Alka of Sinj combines several features that attract the attention of the general public: the costumes of the contestants and their escorts, the splendidly caparisoned horses, the commemorative, legendary and sporting aspects of the event itself, the heroic spirit and traditions of the environment in which it has been preserved.

The Alka tournament has survived with few interruptions until the present day, adapted in conformity with regional characteristics, yet making a vital contribution to the formation of the ethics of heroism and self-sacrifice that have always guided the people of the Cetina district. Although, strictly speaking, the Alka tournament is not derived from the local ethnographic heritage - its origins have a wider frame of reference: the traditions of west European and oriental chivalry - it has long been an integral part of it. As tournaments go, the Alka is perhaps the most outstanding blending of tradition with its actual setting: here, in a unique manner, the universal heritage of chivalric tourneying, its pageantry and ceremony, are combined with local color, thus giving pleasure to everyone, regardless of the tradition he may be familiar with.

For the foreign visitor, the Alka tournament is a picturesque remnant of the past, an opulently costumed pageant far removed from everyday life, a romantic flight from the traumas of our age; for the people of Sinj and the Cetina district, it is a recurring event, new each time. As such, it has become a kind of public manifestation, to be experienced every year a new, never aging, a part not only of history but of all time. The Alka tournament has also been declared a historical monument of the highest order. For centuries the Alka tournament had a commemorative function that also gave the people of Sinj - who have known the blessings of peace only in the most recent times - an opportunity to engage in contests of strength and skill. These formerly impoverished peasants and shepherds, exploited by the Venetian Republic mostly as soldiers to protect its trade with the Turkish hinterland, embraced the Alka tournament as the focus of their dreams and aspirations. One might even say that the Alka gave these people, who had come from different parts of the former Turkish Empire, something in common, helped them develop their own identity. Exposed to the perils of life along the border, accustomed to taking care of them- selves, the people of Sinj and the Cetina district were always ready to take arms, unwilling to let anyone else decide their fate.