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Stones with forged horseshoes

STARA BIAŁA, GM. STARA BIAŁA, POW. FLOCKI STARA BIAŁA, GM. STARA BIAŁA, POW. FLOCKI

STARA BIAŁA, GM. STARA BIAŁA, POW. FLOCKI

The miraculous spring, called "St. Roch's Spring" according to local tradition, is located among fields, on private land. It juts out from under a small elevation of the terrain. A wooden cross is set up right next to it. The erupting water collects in a depression in the area, forming a small pond.

According to the description of M. Uminski (2012), the tradition of worship of this place dates back to the 19th century. At that time, news spread through the surrounding villages that the water from the spring had the power to heal the sick. Drinking it was also supposed to protect both people and animals from the plague. The place was then said to be crowded with local people and pilgrims. According to a local legend, a landowner at the time, in order to stop the destruction of the fields by the faithful, decided to cover up the spring. In the course of his work, he lost his eyesight, which returned only after the holy place was cleared.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the site was thoroughly cleaned by the new owner of the field, Paulin Kosztny. From the spring, coins and devotional items thrown here in large numbers were selected and given as votive offerings to the church in Stara Biala. The spring was capped with a concrete well casing, a cross was placed next to it and a birch tree was planted.

One of the legends tells of the healing of an inhabitant of the village of Draganie, who, having miraculously regained her sight, founded a cross standing next to the spring. The date of 1920 can be seen on the cross. In the early 20th century, a pilgrimage of the disabled was organized from the nearby parish of St. Hedwig of Silesia.

Currently, access to the site is severely hampered, as no path leads here.


Geographic coordinates: 52.62345, 19.66785

Google map link

Information sources: M. Uminski 2012; https://www.starabiala.pl/gmina-stara-biala/aktualnosci/1652-zrodlo-swietego-rocha (accessed 15.05.2023).

SOBOLEW, GM. SOBOLEW, POW. GARWOLIŃSKI SOBOLEW, GM. SOBOLEW, POW. GARWOLIŃSKI

SOBOLEW, GM. SOBOLEW, POW. GARWOLIŃSKI

Boulder located on the border of Sobolev, on the right side of the road to Maciejowice. Currently next to a wooden church from 1708. In the upper part a basin-shaped depression where rainwater collects. A cross is embedded in the upper part of the stone, and remnants of red paint, with which it was painted in the early 20th century, are visible all over the stone. Two visible depressions are interpreted by local people as footprints. It is possible that the "bowl" present in the upper part of the stone was forged. According to Kazimierz Kulwieć (1910, 5), there was a cross engraved on the stone, which, however, I did not find during my field search.

According to tradition, the church, which originally served as a chapel, was built on a site considered miraculous, famous for numerous healings. The water collecting in the stone's hollow was said to have healing properties. The stone originally lay in a nearby marshy meadow. At the beginning of the 20th century, the boulder was extracted from the ground by local peasant Jan Lewandowski, who allegedly did it under the influence of a dream. The stone was placed next to a wooden chapel with a stone cross driven into its upper part. Local legend states that the stone originally lay at the site of a collapsed church.

Erratic boulder, height 130 cm; diameter: 180 × 130 cm. Material: pink granite.

Sources of information: Kulwieć 1910, 5; Gierlach 1984, 56; field queries

Geographic coordinates: 51.72866, 21.65771

Location on Google maps

PIECZYSKA, GM. CHYNÓW, POW. GRÓJECKI PIECZYSKA, GM. CHYNÓW, POW. GRÓJECKI

PIECZYSKA, GM. CHYNÓW, POW. GRÓJECKI

An erratic boulder of red granite (rapakiwi), located on the road from Pieczyske to Chosna. Three indentations resembling human footprints are visible on its surface, two of which bear shoeing marks and are interpreted by local people as Mary's footprints. Next to the boulder stands a small shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Pechersk. The stone was first mentioned in 1879, when an illustration of it was also presented, with footprints visible and a wooden cross standing nearby (Lubomirski 1879, LXX-LXXI). A photo of the stone surrounded by worshippers also appeared in the Illustrated Weekly of 1905 (Il. Weekly 1905, 100).

According to one of the legends, footprints on the stone were left by the Virgin Mary, who saved the villagers during the Swedish deluge. When Swedish troops approached the village, its residents took refuge in the nearby forest next to the stone. When the soldiers approached their hiding place a figure appeared on the boulder, they became frightened and fled. When the residents of Pieczyska came out of hiding there was no one on the boulder. There were only footprints on the surface of the stone, which were attributed to the Virgin Mary. Another legend is related to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Pieczyska. It was founded in the mid-15th century by three Frycz brothers: Rev. Nicholas, a Plock canon, Rev. Peter, a parish priest of Sochaczew, and Adam Frycz, heir to the Pieczychska estate. They were prompted to build the temple by a folk tradition about the revelation of the Virgin Mary on a stone, who, on her way to Pieczyska, left her footprints in this place. The parish was erected in 1452, and the temple contains an icon of Our Lady of Pechersk from the 16th or early 17th century.

Dimensions of the stone: 140 × 100 × 55 cm, circumference 7 m. On the surface of the boulder, two foot-shaped carvings measuring 40 × 13 cm and 25 × 10 cm are visible. Also visible are numerous circular depressions 2-3 cm in diameter, probably made with a fire auger. The lower part of the stone shows a tub-shaped depression (similar to a footprint) formed by erosion. In the upper part longitudinal depressions also of natural origin.

Sources of information: Lubomirski 1879, LXXLXXI; Tygodnik Il. 1905, 100; Baruch 1907, 27-28, fig. 1; Czernicka-Chodkowska 1977, 80; Herz 2012, 323; information board at the stone; field queries

Geographic coordinates: 51.92553, 21.03134

Location on Google maps

GŁUPIANKA, GM. KOŁBIEL, POW. OTWOCKI GŁUPIANKA, GM. KOŁBIEL, POW. OTWOCKI

GŁUPIANKA, GM. KOŁBIEL, POW. OTWOCKI

According to the description of B. Werner (1917), there was a huge stone called "Yost", on the upper surface of which bowl-shaped, elliptical depressions were visible, which, according to tradition, were traces of "the elbows, knees and beard of the Lord Jesus." In addition, the stone was said to have a cross and letters engraved on it. The stone had the proper name "Yost". According to locals, there were also footprints on the boulder.

Around 1907, on the orders of the local parson, the stone was destroyed, and the material thus obtained was used to build the steps of the church under construction in Kolbiela. Information about the considerable size of the boulder is confirmed by the fact that about 100 carts of stone were transported to Kolbiela after it was blasted. According to the description of B. Werner, the upper part of the stone with signs, the local population did not want to give it back and it was placed in front of the St. Anne's shrine, which had already been built in this place after the stone was destroyed.

On Easter, the local people gathered around the boulder and deposited leftover sacred food and money in the hollows. On that day, food was also brought - "pieces of pie, sausages, dairy products" and deposited on the stone along with money. These offerings were later taken by beggars trailing behind the procession. The water accumulating in the hollows was said to have healing properties. This rite, like the stone, was called "Yost".

A detailed account of its course in the 1980s was posted by T. Chludzinski (1981). Every Easter Sunday, a procession would set out from Glupianka and surrounding villages to the site, headed by women with a choir leader, followed by men and youths of up to 500 people. Until the 1970s, the procession was held without a priest. The procession reached a brick chapel standing in a field, after which Marian chants and prayers were said for an hour. After the ceremony was completed, its participants would return to the village, where a dance party was held at the local firehouse. Only elderly women stayed in front of the shrine, "who celebrated the rosary together loudly for some time."

Since the traditional "Yost" rituals around the stone, and later the shrine erected in its place, were held without the participation of the clergy until the mid-1970s, it seems that their origin may be much earlier (cf. Miechowicz 2010, 50-52). Since the 1970s, the procession to the shrine has been strictly church-based. A typical Catholic field mass is held at the "Yost" site.

During the first field search in 2009, the visible part of the stone on the surface was documented. In 2013, on the initiative of local people, the boulder was excavated from the ground, while its fragments were placed and displayed next to the shrine. The pit left by the stone was lined with cobblestones. Currently, the shrine as well as the cross standing near it are renovated. The stone with cavities is exposed near the cross.

Sources of information: Werner 1917; Chludzinski 1981; Jot-Drużycki 2002; Herz 2012, 323-324; Miechowicz 2010, 50-52.

Geographic coordinates: 52.05165, 21.57016

Location on Google maps

SLOJKI, GM. SZELKÓW, POW. MAKOWSKI SLOJKI, GM. SZELKÓW, POW. MAKOWSKI

SLOJKI, GM. SZELKÓW, POW. MAKOWSKI

A stone with the footprint of St. Rosalia of Palermo (c. 1130-1170), who is said to have stopped here during a joint trek with St. Roch along the Narew River. Until the end of World War II, it was located in front of the main altar in the 18th-century church (dating from around 1709) of St. Rosalia, in the St. Rosalia charm.

The stone was considered miraculous - according to informants, it had healing properties. The faithful knelt before it, kissed it, rubbed their heads and sick places against it. It was supposed to be famous for numerous healings. In 1944 the shrine was devastated and completely destroyed by Red Army soldiers. The miraculous image of St. Rosalia, located above the altar, was saved and moved to a new chapel after the war.

According to local accounts, the stone was then moved to a chapel built in 1946, while before 1952 it was taken and transported to an unknown location by local communist activists. Between 1991 and 1995 a new temple was built in its present form. It features a well erected on a "miraculous spring," whose water is also said to have healing properties. The charming village and the church are the center of local worship and pilgrimages. Every year on September 3-4, indulgence celebrations are held here.

The stone is missing - according to local informant Jadwiga Slowikowska (75), before 1952 it was taken from in front of the altar at night and taken to an unknown location by local communist activists.

Sources of information: Herz 2012, 194; field queries

Geographic coordinates: 52.81452, 21.27755

Location on Google maps

KAMION, GM. MŁODZIESZYN, POV. SOCHACZEWSKI KAMION, GM. MŁODZIESZYN, POV. SOCHACZEWSKI

KAMION, GM. MŁODZIESZYN, POV. SOCHACZEWSKI

An erratic boulder of red granite, according to tradition with an imprint of the foot of the Virgin Mary or St. Jack. It is built into a chapel standing next to St. Jack's church. Legend links it to St. Jack Odrowaz, a Silesian-born Dominican who visited Mazovia in the first half of the 13th century during one of his missionary journeys. In the vicinity of Wyszogród, together with the missionary brothers accompanying him, he crossed the swollen Vistula River on his own cloak "as in the safest boat". According to local lore, the footprint left by the saint is a reminder of this crossing (according to the Geographical Dictionary of the Polish Kingdom and the monograph by M. Baruch, the foot of the Virgin Mary was supposed to be imprinted on the stone). The stone is partially enclosed by a brick chapel topped with a cast iron cross; originally the boulder was the base for a statue of the Virgin Mary. Dimensions of the stone: front 125 cm wide, 127 cm high; back part 137 cm wide, 140 cm high; width 80 cm (the part enclosed by the shrine). Footprint on the left side of the stone, dimensions 18 × 5 cm, depth 0.5 cm. In the lower part of the stone a forging in the form of a cross, in the upper part a niche. The name of the village is said to derive from the stone (Geographical Dictionary 1902, XV, 51).

Sources of information: Geographical Dictionary 1902, XV, 51; Baruch 1907, 28; field queries

Geographic coordinates: 52.36733, 20.20171

Location on Google maps