A castle near Rome hosted the ninth edition of the Battle of the Nations, the World Championship of the Historical Medieval Battle over the weekend.

The United Kingdom, France, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, United States and 27 other nations challenged each other to win the world championship title in medieval fighting at Santa Severa Castle.

From Thursday to Sunday, over 700 fighters from all over the world proved their strength in several disciplines as 1 vs 1 fighting through to the mass 21 vs 21 battles.

Women also took the field with their swords, spades and axes.

A real Medieval festival for everybody, visitors also enjoyed challenging themselves in archery or watching the blacksmith fixing in real time the broken armour and weapons.

Ukraine and Russia faced each other during the final match, in a battle that is already a classic in the young history of the Battle of the Nations.

It's the third year that the two teams challenged each other to win the title.

Three years ago the winner was Russia, while last year they were defeated by Ukraine.

This year, the Russians gained back the title with an impressive final battle where they dominated Ukraine.

Wounded fighters filled up the hospitals nearby: the battles are very cruel and no holds barred.

In the first day of this year's championship, around 80 people had to be taken to the emergency room for a checkup.

The fighters are very sportsmanlike, though.