Europe

The story of Europe

Falconry reached Europe in antiquity, and by the early medieval period it was an established pursuit among the nobility. The Bayeux Tapestry, made in the 1070s, shows King Harold of England carrying a hawk.

In the thirteenth century the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II wrote De arte venandi cum avibus, widely regarded as the first comprehensive book of falconry; he had also had an Arabic falconry manual translated into Latin.

The Book of Saint Albans, first printed in 1486, ranked birds of prey by social rank. Falconry in Britain and parts of Europe peaked in the seventeenth century, then declined from the late eighteenth century as firearms became the usual hunting tool.

Clubs revived the practice in the modern period: the Old Hawking Club was formed in Britain in 1864, and the British Falconers' Club followed in 1927. The International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey was founded in 1968.

Falconry in Europe

UNESCO inscribed Falconry, a living human heritage, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010, on a nomination by eleven states.

The inscription was extended in 2012, 2016 and 2021 and now covers 24 states, which makes it the largest multinational element on the list.

Fourteen of them are in Europe: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.

UNESCO describes the practice as the traditional art of training and flying falcons, and sometimes eagles, hawks and buzzards, with knowledge passed on through mentoring, within families and in training clubs.

National organisations such as the Deutscher Falkenorden in Germany, the British Falconers' Club in the United Kingdom and the Slovak Falconers' Club carry that work in their own countries.

Gatherings bring practitioners together each year, among them the international falconers' meeting at Opočno in Czechia, the International Falconry Meeting in Ettlingen in Germany, the British Falconry and Raptor Fair at Helmsley in England and the international meeting at Poľný Kesov in Slovakia.