Thousands of men and women in 19th-century uniforms, on horseback and on foot, battled on a field in the Czech Republic on Saturday, re-enacting Emperor Napoleon’s triumph over Russia and Austria 220 years ago near Slavkov, Czech Republic.
The large-scale performance featured cavalry, infantry and cannon fire, drawing tens of thousands of spectators to the battlefield.
The 90-minute re-enactment recreated key moments of the battle, which originally lasted more than 10 hours.
Mark Schneider, an American who has portrayed Napoleon for two decades, participated for the final time this year.
Napoleon led approximately 73,000 soldiers at Austerlitz, against more than 85,000 troops fighting for Russian Czar Alexander I and Austrian Emperor Francis I.
Four days after its defeat, Austria was forced to sign a truce at the castle of Austerlitz.
Later the same month, a peace treaty was signed in Pressburg — now the Slovak capital, Bratislava — which redrew the political map of Europe.
