PrintYou can’t deny that there’s something a bit magical about a merry-go-round.
Sure, now that I’ve grown up it’s not as fun to ride one of the dancing horses that seem to plunge and leap as the carousel spins around to outdated organ music, but when I was a kid? Oh man. I always wanted to ride the prettiest horse I could find, preferably on the outside so I could grab the ring as I went flying by and throw it at the opening a few feet further down the track.
Of course, carousels today are simply rides at amusement parks all over the country, but 1,000 years ago a “carosella” or “little war” was a game Arabian and Turkish horseman played on horseback.
When the Italian and Spanish Crusaders spotted the Arabian and Turkish horseman participating in this game, they brought it back to Europe and began playing it themselves. As the years went on, it transitioned into a fancy display of horsemanship that the French eventually dubbed “carrousel.”
One of the main events of the carrousel was the ring-spearing tournament. The rider or charioteer would gallop toward a small ring hanging from a tree or pole by ribbons, hoping to spear it with his lance.
About 300 years ago, a device was built in France that allowed people to train for ring-spearing. The device was “made of carved horses and chariots that were suspended by chains from arms radiating from a center pole," according to the International Museum of Carousel Art.
It’s more than likely that the carousel we know and love started there. In the late 1700s, there were many carousels around Europe that were built for pleasure. They were small and lightweight, and mules, horses or men powered the rotation.
The Oldest Existing Carousel
The world’s oldest carousel is located in Hanau, Germany, and was built in 1780. It outdates the carousels built in the United States by 100 years. It was built for Prince Wilhelm IX of Hessen-Kassel and was partially funded by supplying Hessian soldiers to England. A 1780 report stated "the ladies ride in gilded carriages of the gods, which Juno herself would not have been ashamed to ride, while the men ride on similarly outfitted horses."
The Hanau carousel originally featured two chariots with horses pulling them and two riding horses. It was rebuilt in 1882 and now has four chariots, each with two horses, and two pairs of riding horses. Men powered the original carousel, but after the 1882 restoration, the story goes that the power source switched to a horse and a blind mule circling under the platform.
