On friday the participants in uniforms of the french, austrian and Duchy of Warsaw army have built their tents in the garden of the Friday, 22nd may 2009, was the anniversary day of the great battle of Aspern (as the Austrians named it) or Essling (as Napoleon named it, putting the name on the flags of his own regiments as french victory). The french infantry (8th, 18th, 30th line infantry regiments, guard marines battalions, 1st regiment of tirailleurs-grenadiers), artillery (5th and 6th regiments of foot artillery), austrian infantry (grenadiers of the 1st regiment Kaiser and fusiliers of the 20th regiment Kaunitz-Rietberg) and the polish infantry of the Duchy of Warsaw (2nd, 4th and 7th regiments) moved, on saturday morning, to the austrian village Gross-Enzersdorf on the Marchfeld, where a commemorative event was held at the occasion of the bicentenary of the battle of Aspern. The battle re-enactment with almost 400 re-enactors coming from many european countries lasted about 60 minutes. The french army has retreated, leaving the battlefield to the austrian troops of archiduke Charles, the first general who won a battle against Napoleon.

In the evening the units arrived to the austrian village of Drasenhofen near the moravo-austrian border, they were welcomed by it‘s mayor, Mr. Josef Studeny, in front of the church, and marched through the village to the Kaiserstrasse, a beautiful lane of bodegas, visited in the past by personalities like the empress Maria-Theresia, the emperor Napoleon or the tsar Alexander Ist. After a short but intensive skirmish between the french advanced-guard and austrian rear-guard an armistice was celebrated by both sides.

The main program of the event in Mikulov started on sunday morning by a line-up of the units in the castle garden and exercices on the square. The french, austrian and polish units practiced the maneuvres according to their regulations and prepared for the battle re-enactment that begun at noon. It’s scenario was inspired by the real combat from the 9th july 1809 between the general Grouchy’s cavalry and austrian rear-guard. The stronger french regiments have pushed the Austrians out of the square and Mikulov was in the french hands.