Every year, two teams in Namur, Belgium, climb onto tall wooden stilts and try to knock each other to the ground in front of the city's cathedral. No ropes, no padding, no second chances. Once you fall, you're out!
Believe It or Not!, people in Namur have been doing this since 1411!
Yellow and Black vs. Red and White
The jousters split into two companies, and the colors tell you who's who. The Mélans ride yellow-and-black stilts and represent the old city. The Avresses ride red and white for the newer town and the surrounding villages. Drums set the rhythm, and roughly fifty jousters take the square.
The stilts themselves are purpose-built—beech wood, about six and a half feet tall, with a metal stirrup holding the foot in place at roughly waist height. The feet aren't strapped in; they are held in place. That's deliberate: when a jouster goes down, they need to come off the stilt cleanly.
How You Win
The fight runs in two acts.
First, the teams go at each other in open combat. Jousters use their shoulders, their weight, their stilts, anything to put an opponent on the cobblestones. One by one, the square empties out until a single team is left standing.
Then comes the part the crowd waits for: the survivors turn on each other. Teammates, suddenly opponents, joust until one person is still upright.
That last jouster takes home the Golden Stilt and holds it for a full year!
Not a Re-Enactment
This isn't a costumed revival of something that died out. It never stopped. The échasseurs have jousted for Charles V, Louis XIV, Peter the Great, and Napoleon. Kids start training as young as seven. In 2021, UNESCO added Namur stilt jousting to its list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
More than 6,000 people pack the Place Saint-Aubain to watch the Golden Stilt joust, which takes place on the third Sunday of September during the Fêtes de Wallonie.
More Where This Came From
The stilt jousters of Namur are one of the incredible traditions featured in Ripley's brand-new book, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Wired Into Weird!
Get up close with portraits painted with Barbies, suits made of cork, a guitar with a fish inside, and so much more! Order our brand-new annual book and see what amazing things you find!