Buhurt (Armoured Combat)
A modern full-contact sport in replicas of armor from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It differs from the behourd, which was rather a training bout of squires and young knights.
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UkraineCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
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About Buhurt (Armoured Combat)
Buhurt is a modern full-contact sport in which fighters in armor replicas fight in earnest for victory. Semirchanova (2024) classes it among historical medieval combat (HMB), which she defines as a full-contact sport discipline with competitions in replicas of armor and weapons from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in it she uses buhurt for mass combat with many participants. It must be distinguished from the medieval behourd. According to Mereniuk (2022) this was rather a training bout of squires and young knights with lance and shield, and Whitbread (2013) states that Antoine de la Sale used the word behourt in 1459 as a synonym of the word tournois.
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According to the recollections of respondents collected by Semirchanova, HMB separated from other medieval reenactment as a distinct movement in the countries of the former USSR in the early 2000s. We have not been able to verify any founder as an individual in the sources. The first Battle of the Nations festival took place in spring 2010 at the Khotyn fortress in Ukraine with teams from Belarus, Poland, Russia and Ukraine, and according to Texty.org.ua it was organized by the Kharkiv entrepreneur Anton Trubnikov. In 2013, after a dispute with the organizers, the rival International Medieval Combat Federation (IMCF) was founded, which has held its own world championship since 2014. According to Semirchanova, a fighter wears armor weighing around 30 kg and an unsharpened replica of a weapon. Thrusts and sharp weapons are prohibited and the main technique is strong cuts to knock out and topple the opponent. The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine states that it entered medieval combat in the register of recognized sports in 2016.
History
According to Mereniuk (2022), the verb béhourder has been used in French since roughly the twelfth century. Behourd (buhurd, bohort, Latin bohordicum) meant, according to her, general military training, and Juliet Barker and Richard Barber described it as a limited form of hastilude for squires or knights in training, in which weapons of war were forbidden. Whitbread (2013) states that in June 1288 a bohort for squires, which knights were not allowed to join, was held at the market in Boston, and that Antoine de la Sale used the word behourt as a synonym of tournois in a treatise from 1459. According to the recollections of respondents collected by Semirchanova (2024), the modern movement separated from the rest of medieval reenactment in the early 2000s. English Wikipedia places the first large battles with steel weapons in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine at the end of the 1990s and the start of the twenty-first century. According to the organizer, a preparatory summit was held in Kharkiv in 2009 and the first Battle of the Nations took place in spring 2010 in Khotyn. In 2013, according to BuzzFeed (2014), fighters from Great Britain, the USA and other countries left HMBIA over accusations of cheating and corruption and founded IMCF.
How it differs
Semirchanova (2024) distinguishes HMB from theatrical reenactment with a script and a predetermined outcome. In HMB, she says, fighters fight in earnest for victory, and an ambulance service supervises at the fighting ground. In the Middle Ages, she says, thrusts with a sharp weapon at unprotected places prevailed, whereas in HMB thrusts, sharp weapons and hits outside the permitted zone are forbidden, and the main technique is powerful strikes to knock out and floor the opponent. Modern armour therefore withstands many times more blows than the medieval original. According to Mereniuk (2022), the medieval behourd was mostly an exercise with spear and shield in cloth armour. The English Wikipedia distinguishes steel buhurt from the combat of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which has used historical armour but rattan weapons since its first tournaments in 1966 in Berkeley.
Technique
According to Semirchanova (2024), a fighter wears a copy of European armour from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries weighing around 30 kg. The most popular torso protection is the brigandine, because mail does not provide enough safety and full plate armour hinders quick movement. According to the ISB Rossii rules (2021), modern protection may only be a hidden third layer under authentic armour. Replica weapons must, according to the rules cited by Semirchanova, match historical models in weight, but the edges must be rounded and at least 2 mm thick. The most common one-handed weapons are the Romanesque sword, the falchion and the one-handed axe, and of the two-handed ones the halberd, the glaive and the pollaxe. Shields are also used for striking with the edge, so they must be covered with fabric or leather and have rounded corners. According to AP (2026), some techniques and parts of the equipment derive from the writings of Fiore dei Liberi and Johannes Liechtenauer, and IMCF spokesperson Kamila Studencka called them a mix of modern and historical techniques.
Training
According to Semirchanova (2024), the basic unit of HMB is a historical reconstruction club, and new people come through acquaintances, through clubs and from ordinary sports clubs and gyms. In her account, the top level requires regular heavy training and large expenses, and a quality set of armour can cost 200 thousand rubles or more. According to DOU (2018), the Ukrainian national team member Artem Berehovyj trains five to six times a week, three of them HMB and two in the gym, and before major competitions adds wrestling or kickboxing. In a case study of a single fighter in a simulated profight, Mohammadalizadeh et al. (2024) measured an average heart rate of 170.3 beats per minute, that is 90.1% of the age-predicted maximum, and lactate rose from a resting 1.0 mmol/l to 8.2 mmol/l after the third round. The authors conclude that the sport places considerable aerobic and anaerobic demands on fighters.
Competition
According to Semirchanova (2024), Battle of the Nations was held in Europe every year from 2010 to 2019, and in 2019 it brought over 900 participants and 40 national teams, according to the organizers. According to Texty.org.ua, the first edition featured 5-on-5 duels, 40-on-40 buhurts in the evening and 21-on-21 the next day. Foreign Policy (2013) states that a fighter is out when three body parts, including the feet, touch the ground, and the side with the last one standing wins. According to this source, thrusting is forbidden, as are strikes to the feet, leg hooking, the groin and the back of the head. At IMCF championships, 1-on-1 duels have, according to AP (2026), two one-minute rounds, and a fighter is out after the third fall to the ground or after yielding, otherwise the marshals decide on points. Semirchanova states that HMB has a set of rules, tournament brackets, weight categories and a body of certified referees. According to the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the Ukrainian national team defeated the Russian team in the 21-on-21 final in Barcelona in 2017.
Today
The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine states that in 2016 it entered medieval combat in the register of recognised sports. After the All-Ukrainian Medieval Combat Federation was founded at the end of 2016, the ministry says it recognised it as a non-Olympic sport. The Government of Ukraine claims in a 2019 report that Ukraine was the first country to support medieval combat at the state level. According to the ministry, All-Ukrainian competitions were held on 12 April 2025 in Kyiv's Peremoha park even under martial law. Semirchanova (2024) states that since February 2022 the largest international events with Russian and Ukrainian teams have not been held and the international HMB community is in crisis, but at the national level training and tournaments continue. The English Wikipedia states that after the cancellation of the Battle of the Nations in 2022 its members created the Buhurt League, from which Buhurt International emerged. The agency AP (2026) records the growth of the sport in the USA, where Alex King's team grew in three years from about 10 to over 50 members. According to AP, the IMCF claims that the overall injury rate is comparable to common full-contact martial arts.
Did you know
According to Mereniuk (2022), the council of Albi in 1254 banned clerics from publicly taking part in a behourd with lance and shield. According to her, in the German version of Chrétien de Troyes's romance the behourd took place just after the wedding of Erec and Enide, three weeks before the great tournament. Mereniuk calls the word's origin disputed. H. F. Cripps-Day derives it from the Latin burdandum and Charles du Cange from the Saxon bord. Semirchanova (2024) describes the slang term bugurtooptimizace for adjusting armour for maximum efficiency in mass combat, often at authenticity's expense. According to her, tunics may bear historical heraldry and symbols of modern clubs and national teams, and the Canadian team wears a maple leaf. According to Texty.org.ua, a ticket to the first Battle of the Nations cost 65 hryvnias and an on-site smith offered armour for seven thousand hryvnias.
Frequently asked questions
Is modern buhurt the same as the medieval behourd?
No. According to Semirchanova (2024), modern buhurt is a full-contact sport in armor replicas, whereas the medieval behourd was, according to Mereniuk (2022), mostly practice with lance and shield in cloth armor.
When and where was the first Battle of the Nations held?
According to Texty.org.ua, in spring 2010 at the Khotyn fortress in Ukraine, and according to Medievalists.net with teams from Belarus, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. In 2009, according to the organizer, only a preparatory summit was held in Kharkiv.
What weapons are used in buhurt?
According to Semirchanova (2024), unsharpened replicas, most often the Romanesque sword, the falchion and the one-handed axe, and among two-handed weapons halberds, glaives and poleaxes.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.