An erratic boulder, granite, with a circumference of about 15 meters and a height of 2.8 meters, called "Devil's Stone" ("Teufelsstein") or "Krabat Boulder". Three concentric structures with circumferential holes of unexplained function are visible on its surface. According to Peter Haracz's conception, they are sacred in nature, as is the boulder itself, which served as a pagan altar in the prehistoric or early medieval period. Blood was supposed to flow
into the concentrically arranged holes during rituals, which may have had an auguric character. "Shields surrounded by holes" are supposed to symbolize the sun. Wooden imitations of the sun's rays were to be inserted into the concentric forcings. And the whole thing was associated with sunrise and sunset on the day of the equinoxes (March 2 and September 21). At the beginning of the 19th century, "pagan practices" were supposed to take place at the stone. The lack of traces of early medieval settlement in the immediate vicinity is said to attest to the existence of a "sacrum zone" and a pagan sacred grove at the site. The author also derives the name Trzebiel from the sacrifices made here - treb (Haracz 2012, 46-47).
It is possible that the concentrically arranged forging visible on the surface of the boulder are traces of attempts to break it down by forging individual fragments.
There is a legend associated with the boulder about a naive miller who had a beautiful daughter Elizabeth and a clever wife. The daughter was very fond of the devil, who, in order to get her, hired himself as a journeyman in the mill and took a liking to both the miller and his daughter. However, he was exposed by the girl's mother and in anger intended to destroy the mill by throwing a huge boulder at it. The clever woman, however, guessed the devil's intentions and when he crept toward the mill with the stone at night, she crowed like a rooster from hiding. The devil was frightened and dropped the boulder. The concentric depressions visible on its surface are supposed to be the marks of the devil's claws.
Geographic coordinates: 51.629981, 14.801775
Location on Google maps
Information sources: Czernicka-Chodkowska D. 1977, 37, fig. 13; Haracz 2012, 45-47; https://lipinki.zielonagora.lasy.gov.pl/diabelski-kamien (accessed March 15, 2023); information board set up at the boulder; field queries
Devil's Stone in Trzebiel
Information boards set up at the boulder
