Alberio Kalavijas IV draws Baltic and Central European HEMA field

Alberio Kalavijas IV turned a compact 33-fighter card into a meaningful regional checkpoint, with mixed steel longsword alone accounting for 64 bouts and 27 entrants. In a field that also included women’s steel longsword and women’s steel sabre, the event gave Vilnius a competitive footprint that reached well beyond a routine local meet.

The tournament ran June 20 from 10:00 to 22:00 at Valdovų Rūmų kiemas, the Grand Duke’s Palace Courtyard in Vilnius, with entry listed at €30 plus €5 for additional categories. HEMA Scorecard handled the event results, which matters in a scene where ratings movement and cross-border comparison can change how a summer card is remembered.

The roster reflected that wider reach. Fighters came from Freifechter von Vilnius, HEMA Kaunas - Renesanso Kalavijo Mokykla, Hospitalierių Ordinas, Freifechter Revals, HEMA Riga, Mordschlag, Schwertspiel Dresden, Örebro HEMA, Akademia Szermierzy and Kardo valdymo mokykla Husaras, making the field feel like a Baltic and Central European collision point rather than a single-club showcase. Simas Balčiūnas, Raimondas Lisovski, Gabija Gorobecaitė-Jocienė, Martynas Airošius and Tyler Forsythe were among the named fighters tied to the event’s competitive picture.

The structure of the card mattered as much as the headcount. Mixed steel longsword was the anchor, women’s steel longsword added 24 bouts across 9 fighters, and women’s steel sabre brought 14 bouts for 5 fighters. That mix kept the tournament from becoming a one-weapon affair and gave it broader competitive value, especially for a ratings system that rewards meaningful cross-division and cross-border comparison.

The broader event listings also described Alberio Kalavijas IV as a fourth edition and still the biggest longsword tournament in Lithuania. A separate listing said the card included a reenactment-style sword-and-shield division as well, even though that division did not appear in the HEMA Ratings excerpt. Taken together with the series history, including Alberio kalavijas II in 2024 at Vilnius’s defensive wall bastion, the tournament has grown into more than a bout list: it has become a public-facing marker for Lithuanian HEMA, one that has already combined fighting with lectures, education and musical performances.

For Lithuanian competitive fencing, that is the key point. Even a 33-fighter event can punch above its size when it brings together Vilnius, Kaunas, Riga, Dresden, Warsaw and Stockholm in one courtyard and feeds the results straight into the wider ratings ecosystem.