Malopolska

Devil's stone on the charm - erratic boulder, pink-gray granite, measuring about 5 × 4.5 × 1.5 m. There are visible traces of digging around it. Associated with the stone is a local legend about five devils who lived in the "devil's charm". In order to attract new souls to hell, they decided to take a huge boulder and use it to demolish the church in Szynwald. When they carried it they were found by dawn and a hen crowed, after which they lost the powers of hell and dropped the stone. Under the boulder - crushed - is said to rest one of the devils, whose howling can be heard at night. Another legend tells of five devils carrying a boulder to destroy the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa during the Swedish Deluge. In this case, too, they were hindered by dawn and a crowing rooster. According to the third legend associated with the boulder, the local population erected a wooden chapel in Pogórska Wola in 1778. The devils did not like it very much so they decided to destroy it. Five devils lifted a huge stone in order to demolish the temple, but when they killed the church bells the boulder fell out of their claws, crushing one of the devils with its weight. By
today he is said to be resting under it and lamenting at night.

Geographic coordinates: 50.033156, 21.130537

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Czernicka-Chodkowska 1980, 42, Fig. 20; information board placed at the boulder; field queries

A sandstone spur called "Devil's Stone", mushroom-shaped, measuring about 2 × 3 × 2.5 m. Situated in the forest on the slope of Mount Wal, on the border of Lichwin and Siemienow, in a place called "Hell."
The rock is covered with contemporary graffiti. A characteristic element is a human face carved in its upper part with rather archaic features and a sign of a cross(?). It has not been possible to determine its origin or time of creation. There are rich natural deposits of ochre all around. Until 1943, a paint and varnish factory operated nearby.

Geographic coordinates: 49.880833, 20.903127

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Rożnowskie Foothills. Map 1:50,000. Kraków: Compass,
2004; http://www.plesna.pl/turysta/atrakcje-turystyczne/diabli-kamien (accessed May 1, 2023); field queries

The so-called "Devil's Stone" in Krzeslawice, a rock formation about 55 m long, 12 m wide and 25 m high. Adjacent to it is the complex of St. Benedict's Hermitage, which consists of a chapel, a house and a shrine. The place is also known as the hermitage of Mount St. John. Its origins date back to 1810, when the first hermit Andrew Grzybowski lived here. The current buildings were erected in 1886 by hermit Antoni Rap. The hermitage was in use until 1995.
According to an account recorded in 1897, a stone was carried by the devil to destroy the monastery in Szczyrzyc. When the rooster crowed at midnight, the devil threw the boulder and fled to hell. A fragment of it broke off and fell in the village of Bigorzówka (the so-called rock mushroom, today in the village of Zegartowice) (Udziela 1899, 193). Another legend tells of a local player who was paid gold by the devil to play at the devil's ball. The player donated the money to build a monastery in Szczyrzyc, which made the devil very angry. He decided to destroy the monastery with a huge boulder, but when he carried it the rooster crowed and the devil dropped the rock.

Geographic coordinates: 49.802600, 20.169612

Sources of information: Udziela 1899, 193; Udziela 1900, 33; Skoczek 2009; Oleschko 2021, 109-112; information board placed at the boulder; field queries

A rock formation located on the culmination of Mount Kotoń, between the villages of Stróża and Pcim. The height of the rock reaches about 7 m, and its width is about 15 m. The upper part shows graffiti and engravings depicting a cross, and a sun and a hand. The latter two are probably younger, dating from the 20th century.

In local tradition, the rock is called the "Devil's Stone." Fr. Kolberg noted a legend about it: "when they were putting up a church in Pcim, the devil was carrying a huge stone and wanted to drop it on the church to
demolish it, but he was late and the chickens had already started to crow, so the devil had to let the stone go. This one, too, fell on Koton and lies there until now."

In 1929, a legend about the stone was given by Jan Szczęsny Płatkowski: "When our holy Calvary will be built, and bee temu hola już roków, djeblisko - who was sitting on Krzemionki - gnashed his teeth and grumbled a lot, because it became cruel to him that the nation is not so easy to persuade to evil and many people will fall off the djebel tail. So he considers himself, and scratches his head: what should be done to prevent this construction. And so he realized that the best thing to do would be to mess up the work in progress and work it out in such a way that there would be no Calvary. So he flew with the wind towards the Tatra Mountains and snatched a cruel bundle from the winds there in order to move it towards Zebrzidowice and there from the top to piss on those chapels and cloisters, which they had already built. Well, what's not to be done - as he snatched that stone on his back, so he carries it and carries it, from Zakopane to Babiogóra by the shortest route over the halne scyths, without Obidowa, Strzebel, on and on, and siumnie a góry, in order to press it from a height and scratch everything to the ground. But, not bees ty bestyjalskie nosing with Lord Jesus in cards gro³, not bees, because bosko moc większyso anizeli złość cartosko. So what is not to be done, seeing what this smotroń is going to, there was issued up there such an order as needed. And, you see, it was so amazing that the closer the dejbbo³ was to Calvaryje, the stoner was getting heavier and heavier, and kept wanting to fall off his back. The djeblisko got frustrated, dried up, sweated to the point of exhaustion, but puffed up, groaned, and targo that hill above the clouds. But no advice. Kolo Kotunia kamiénia was no longer possible for him to carry. He grabbed it with his claws with all his might, holding it, groaning, moaning, trying to get it to him, but to no avail. Barely did he clobber him outside of Pcim, and here it was midnight, the cock crowed, and the bastard had to let him out of his claws and run away from where he came from. And when the stone fell to the ground, it caved in half, and the hollow you can see in it is crumpled with djebels' claws".

Near the stone is a grouping of earthen mounds, with terrain form referring to early medieval barrows.

Geographic coordinates: 49.769945, 19.938209

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Kolberg 1968, 533-534; Dyrcz 2021, 5; field queries

The so-called "Devil's Stone" on Styrk. Sandstone rock formation located on top of the Styrek hill. Dimensions of the stone height 2.5 m, length 5 m, width 3.5 m.
According to a report from 1896 noted in the village of Brzezowa: "in the fields lies a big stone at our place, which was given to us for the church in Szcyrzyc, when they were building it. But he didn't doniós it, because the rooster crowed at midnight, and the djeboł must have let the stone go. On both sides of the stone you can see the djobel's paws as he held the stone."

Geographic coordinates: 49.851961, 20.069568

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Udziela 1900, 33; field queries

A mace-shaped rock formation with a circumference of about 10 m and a height of 15 m, located on the northern slope of the Barnasiówka Range. Next to it is a rock wall about 30 m long and 5 m wide.
The stone is associated with a legend about the devil wanting to destroy the sanctuary in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska by dropping a huge boulder. However, the devil made a pact with St. Peter that he would leave the stone where the crowing of the rooster found him on the way. The stone was heavy and the devil carried it slowly. Dawn found him in the forest on the Barnasiówka Range, the rooster crowed and the devil had to leave the rock in the forest. A tourist trail leads to the boulder. Nearby is the so-called "little devil stone".

Geographic coordinates: 49.839326, 19.847381

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Zinkov 1993; field queries

Stefan Damalevich, in his Life of St. Bogumił published in 1714. (p. 288; after Sokolowski 1748, 110) gives information about a stone with the imprint of St. Andrew's foot, located "about eight miles from Krakow." The stone was said to be located in a cemetery, on the site of the former hermitage of the saint, who was said to have appeared on it to defend the faithful during an attack by heretics.

The event is said to have taken place on June 16, 1569.During the celebration of a mass in honor of the saint, in a chapel built on the site of the hermitage, heretics (Lutherans) attacked the gathered faithful, desecrating the holy place. The congregation turned in cries for help to St. Andrew Swierad, who appeared in the church, wielding a fiery stick, with which he banished the heretics from the temple and the nearby cemetery. Many of them were burned and blinded by fire, some died, while the rest, influenced by the apparition, were to convert to Catholicism. A stone lying in the church cemetery was to be a tangible testimony to these events. It was said to be a large, black, flat boulder with a smooth surface with two
carvings in the shape of St. Andrew's footprints - "a large, black stone, in a quadrangular shape as a flat table, three cubits long, on which the footprints of St. Andrew are expressed." The stone could not be located in the field.

The author does not give the name of the locality, but the hermitage of St. Andrew Swierad, who lived at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, located today in the village of Tropie on Lake Czchowskie, fits the quoted description. St. Jędrzej Zeroard (i.e., St. Andrew Swierad) was also supposed to be addressed by the faithful calling for help.

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Damalevich 1714, 288; Koehler 1895, 417; Baruch 1907, 42; field queries

Another stone bearing the footprint of St. Kinga is located in the village of Harklowa, near Lopuszna. It was another stone with "the imprint of St. Kinga's foot" after the boulder in Krościenko, which received attention during the period of beatification efforts. In 1684, during Kinga's beatification process, one of the witnesses testified that on the bank of the river called Dunajec, nearly 600 meters from the church located in this village, there is a trace of a human leg imprinted in the rock. In Polish, it is called "the foot of Saint Kunegunda." The bishop's commission further noted that: "the oldest tradition on the subject says that when the Tartars were prowling all over Poland and destroying the entire kingdom with fire and sword, they also threatened the town of Sącz and surrounding villages. At that time Saint Kunegunda, who was already a nun of the Sącz monastery, in order to avoid the consequences of the pagan invasion, together with her nuns went to the Pieniny castle, which had natural inaccessible surroundings and defensive walls. Hurrying on her way she miraculously imprinted a mark on this stone, which has been preserved to the present day" (after Kowalski, Fischer 1992, 142).

According to local tradition, the footprint is said to be on a rocky outcrop in a bend of the Dunajec River. A shrine to St. Kinga is located on it. The rock shows numerous traces of erosion and natural depressions interpreted as footprints of St. Kinga. A hiking and biking trail runs at the foot of the shrine today.

Geographic coordinates: 49.479080, 20.158264

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Baruch 1907, 44; Kowalski, Fischer 1992, 142; field queries

Local legends refer to the figure of St. Kinga (Kunegunda) and her escape from Tartar invasions to the impregnable Pieniny Castle. She was the daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary, married to Boleslaw the Chaste. In 1257 she received possession of the land of Nowy Sącz (Koper 2005, 9). In 1280 she founded the Poor Clares Monastery in Stary Sącz, which she later joined.

According to the account quoted by Felix J. Szczęsny Morawski: "(...) she walked weeping, and barefoot for the terrible rocks of the slope, where in footwear walking her foot keeps slipping. So she injured her feet, marking the path with blood and tears. And where she fell: a tear, grew a white carnation, and where the blood dropped: a red carnation. And at the foot of the Pieniny Mountains, right on the bank of the Dunajec River, she alighted when she stepped on a great stone: the hard rock softened and the trace of her foot remained clearly imprinted; and from beneath the stone on which she wept bitterly, a spring of bitter water gushed forth!" (Morawski 1863, 105-106). The stone was originally said to have been located in Kroscienko nad Dunajcem, next to a sacred spring that was a place of local worship. It was mentioned in 1849 by Jozef Lepkowski and Jozef Jerzmanowski: "on the other side of the Dunajec River, by the shore, lies a large stone, around which beats a spring. A story is attributed to this stone that St. Kunegunda from Hungary came to it and wrote down on it with her cane the unread voices" (Lepkowski, Jerzmanowski 1850, 46).

Today, there is a St. Kinga's shrine at the site, commemorating the crossing of St. Kinga and the Poor Clares of Stary Sącz over the Dunajec River during their escape from the Tatars in December 1287 to Castle Pieniny (cf. Janicka-Krzywda 1997, 12). The boulder was said to still lie here in 1850, when a "footprint" was found on its surface during surveying. At that time there was also a spring with water here, believed to have healing properties. Around 1861, according to F. J. Szczęsny Morawski, "a stone slab with a footprint chipped off and set in a frame, given to Kinga's monastery, still exists in Stary Sącz placed under an altar in the fifth monastery corridor" (Morawski 1863, 106). The stone itself
was supposedly damaged during the construction of the road from Kroscienko to Szczawnica, while the spring dried up soon after the incident.

According to an information board set up next to the chapel, it was built in 1860 "on the site of the miraculous imprint of St. Kinga's foot in stone (...) and near a famous, but now defunct, spring providing relief from many diseases (mainly eye diseases), as mentioned in 17th-century documents."

According to the account of a miller from Kroscienko, Wojciech Bisiowiec, from the beatification process of 1629, money was laid on the stone, which was then collected by the poor: "I saw with my eyes a well on the Dunajec River, between the town of Kroscienko and the village of Szczawnica, about which there is a legend from the elders that Saint Kunegunda used to go to it from Pieniny, and people always had this water in honesty, and when someone washes in it he takes comfort, which he asks from God, and people coming put alms on the rock, which the poor coming from Kroscienko take. Imć Pan Baranowski, starosta of Czorsztyn, who lives a mile away from this well, also visits there every Friday, and washes his
eyes there, leaving alms for which the poor come, watching when he goes to it. And he knows that this water has helped his eyes and other defects" (after Kowalski, Fischer 1992, 137; Koper 2005, 13).

In the same year, another witness Szymon Czapnik testified that he saw St. Kinga's footprints in stone near Sokolica on the right bank of the river: "as on wax expressed, which marks are the feet of St. Kinga, as people claim steadfast and the common voice such is among the people" (Kowalski, Fischer 1992, 137). Inside the chapel standing in place of the stone is an inscription from a poem by J. Gorzkowski from around 1900.

Geographic coordinates: 49.431434, 20.438352

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Lepkowski, Jerzmanowski, 1850, 46; Morawski 1863,
105-106; Baruch 1907, 38; Kowalski, Fischer 1992, 137-138; Janicka-Krzywda 1997, 9; Koper 2005; field queries

"The foot of Queen Jadwiga" is one of the most famous objects of its kind in the country, which used to be an object of worship and today is a tourist attraction in Krakow. It is associated with the person of Jadwiga Andegawenska. The carving in the shape of her right foot is located on a stone built into the wall of the corner of the chapel of Our Lady of the Sands, at the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Carmelite Fathers in Piasek. In the 19th century. "footprint" was covered with an iron grating, and the inscription "Footprint of Queen Jadwiga" was engraved above it. Next to the footprint there was also supposed to be an engraved date of 1390, now invisible. The footprint was once supposed to be much clearer, however, as a result of erosion and weathering, it has faded considerably. The chapel was founded in 1675, at which time the stone block with the footprint was also built in. There are two legends about the origin of the footprint. The first refers to the presence of Queen Jadwiga during the construction of the church. Having soiled her shoe in lime, she leaned it against the stone block. When one of the stonemasons was cleaning her shoe, the queen heard from him that despite her work she was unable to support her family. She took off the ring (according to another version of the legend, a gold shoe buckle) and gave it to the stonemason. The latter, as a token of gratitude, forged in a block of stone the imprint of her foot and the date 1390. The second legend says that after the chapel was built, an apparition was said to have occurred there. One of the old men appeared to the Virgin Mary in front of the altar, leaving a footprint in the stone block of the floor. The stone was removed and set into the wall of the chapel, adding the date 1390 to commemorate the event. Today, due to significant erosion, it is difficult to see the forging marks. At the site of the alleged heel, one can see a change in the structure of the stone with the following dimensions: 15 × 5 × 1 cm.

Geographic coordinates: 50.064909, 19.931957

Location on Google maps

Sources of information: Dydyński 1893, 10; Baruch 1907, 41-42; Wójcicki 1972, 313-314; Rydel 1984; field queries