Experience the magic of Lipizzaner horses at Croatia’s best of cultural festival
- by croatiaweek
- in Entertainment
Experience the magic of Lipizzaner horses at Croatia’s best of cultural festival
The “SVI zaJEDNO HRVATSKO NAJ” festival, celebrating the intangible cultural heritage, tourist attractions, and destinations of Croatia, is set to take place in Vukovar from May 5 to May 7.
This year’s festival, which focuses on Lipizzaner horses, has a special attraction in the form of the “Dance of the Baroque Horses of Eltz Castle,” a large musical and stage equestrian spectacle. The Lipizzaner breeding was recently added to the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, making this year’s festival even more significant.
The festival’s second day, May 6, features the “Dance of the Baroque Horses of Eltz Castle” in the Perivoj of the Eltz Castle. The show starts at 5 p.m., but visitors can also interact and take photos with the baroque horses from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Beautiful baroque horses, including Lipizzaner and Spanish horses, adorned with riders in women’s riding dresses, dancers, falconers, hunters, court gentlemen, and more, will be part of this unique show.
One of the attractions of the SVI zaJEDNO HRVATSKO NAJ festival
The show choreographer, Zvjezdana Klarić, who is also the president of the “Nobiles de Croatia” association, stated that “The Dance of the Baroque Horses of Eltz Castle” is an equestrian spectacle that takes the audience back to the great era of one of the most beautiful Croatian castles. Klarić also reveals that the court dances of the 18th and 19th centuries are skillfully incorporated into the show, and the audience will particularly enjoy the scenes of the baroque horses arriving at the ball.
The show will not only portray luxurious court life but also take the audience on a journey through Croatian legends, where fairies quietly entered the palace stables at dusk, took the playful imperial horses, and danced with them until dawn before returning them quietly in the morning.
The festival starts next week
Lipizzaners, the most prominent Baroque horses, are known for their musicality and easy, fluttering movements. Marina Sekulić, the director of the Vukovar Tourist Board, reveals that some of the Lipizzaners currently being bred in private pastures or studs in Đakovo and Lipik are direct descendants of the famous Lipizzaner studs of Count Eltz.
Besides the Lipizzaners, visitors to the “SVI zaJEDNO HRVATSKO NAJ” festival can also experience other Croatian cultural assets, of which there are 18 on the UNESCO list.
Lipizzaner horses in action
The festival also includes eno-gastro presentations, children’s programs, and educational workshops, presentation of tourist events and destinations, street theaters, various performers, and concerts by famous Croatian performers. Gibonni, a popular Croatian musician, is the ambassador of this year’s festival, and the Vukovar Tourist Board and the Agency Organizers without Borders organize the festival in cooperation with the City of Vukovar, which has provided a rich program for visitors of all ages.
The official website of the “SVI zaJEDNO HRVATSKO NAJ” festival provides a detailed program of this year’s festival at https://svizajedno.eu/#!/program.
(Photos: Petra Gospodnetić, Sanja Canjar, private archive)
