28th NOVEMBER – 30th DECEMBER 2014
The main points of program will be the saturday battle re-enactement near the village of Tvarožná under the Santon hill (14:00), with approx. 900 participants in uniforms, 60 horses and 15 cannons; and the sunday act of piety, the place of the hardest fight of the battle of Austerlitz (12:00).
At Austerlitz the Emperor of the French Napoleon I has decided within a few hours the out-come of the campaign of 1805 and the war of the 3rd coalition. The defeated russian emperor Alexander I and his army have left the central Europe; the war between France and Russia would however continue untill 1807, the battle of Friedland and the Tilsit peace treaty. The austrian emperor Francis I has accepted the conditions of armistice signed on the 6th decem-ber 1805 at the Austerlitz castle and later also the conditions of the severe Presburg peace treaty signed on the 26th december. The severity of these conditions and Napoleon’s rising influence in Germany have led in three years to another conflict between Austria and France, the war of 1809, culminating in Moravia again, by the battle of Znaim. The Napoleonic epopee continued by the russian campaign of 1812, the war of the 6th coalition in 1813-1814 and culminated by the battle of Waterloo.
The commemorative events are not any celebration of Napoleon or his victory, and by no me-ans any celebration of war or battle. The international political and war events that, at their time, influenced Europe essentially, and divided it for a long time, are becoming ground for get-togetherness and common interest for many people from all around the world. The aim of the events is the commemoration and support of knowledge of the common european history.
The programs and detailed information on the event will be published at austerlitz.org; the Project Austerlitz offers the possibility of presentation of partners and sponsors. The events are organized by the Project Austerlitz every year since 1998. There are five to ten thousand visitors to the main battle re-enactement every year; in 2005, the bicentenary of Austerlitz with 3500 „soldiers” from 24 countries, about 30 thousand people have come.