Stralsund Wallenstein Days

Northern Germany's largest historical folk festival, held every July in the Hanseatic old town of Stralsund since its revival in 1991. It commemorates the town's successful defence against Albrecht von Wallenstein's Imperial army during the 1628 siege, a turning point that ended Wallenstein's run of victories and opened the way for Swedish entry into the Thirty Years' War. Alongside the fairground and market, the historical content is substantial: a Landsknecht camp along the Muehlenstrasse town wall staffed by musketeers, pikemen, gunners and sutlers showing Thirty Years' War field-camp life, staged combat displays, a Friday historical parade, the Friday-evening Pestzug plague procession, mounted games on the Hansawiese, and a baroque firework display before the town hall on the Saturday night.