Location
State: Latvia
Region: Kurzeme
County: Talsi
Parish: Vandzene
Other references to the location
1.25 km W of the Upesgrīva highway, in a fir tree forest.
Coordinates
lat=57.3692166667, lon=22.9304
57° 22′ 9″ N, 22° 55′ 49″ E
Description
It used to be a very large great stone, which in total could be so large as to be ranged in the list of first ten greatest stones of Latvia. From the former huge stone there are only remains left nowadays, of which the largest one is situated in its original place — now in a huge pit, which is mostly filled up with water. The remain of the stone in the pit is like a cliff island rising high above the water level, but it is so steep that rarely anybody succeeds in climbing it. The size of the largest split: length of 3.7 m, width of 3.0 m, height of 4.5 m, circumference of 11.4 m, volume of ~20–25 cubic meters. Other smaller splits of the stone can be seen in the forest all around the big pit creating a peculiar landscape, which looks like after some large blast. It is very likely that during the Soviet Times, when splitting the huge stone apart, it was also blasted and then the split parts were pulled out of the pit in all direction by some powerful machines. The signs of nature’s devastation are seen even now.
Narrative
During the Soviet occupation period, in the winter of 1953/1954, they tried to carve a monument to some left radical person named Sudmalis whose activities are evaluated as terroristic. The stone had been split into many pieces, the largest of which is about 20 cubic meters large, and it can be seen well that it is only one fourth of the once great stone. There is a tale about the stone that in the stone a werewolf lives who comes out at midnight and at midday and eats up people. It is assumed that there could be an ancient cult site.
Attraction
Average
Availability
Access hindered. There are no information signs. The object is situated in an overgrown forest. Reachable by walking about 300 m through a marshy forest from the Upesgrīva highway. The stone itself is situated in a small pit – in the water.
Infrastructure, management, facilities
There have been no facilitation and maintenance works performed within the territory, no indication signs. From the side of the Upesgrīva’s road wooden plank-ways have been arranged on the damp soil.
Local info
There is no information stand on site
Capacity
10 – 40
Publicity
Known
Legal Status
State property
Comments
The werewolf in Liv mythology is a popular creature being a human who, by making certain activities, turns into a wolf in order to eat up people or get oneself quickly wherever it wishes. In its looks, a werewolf is a wolf. An ancient belief tells — to become a werewolf, one has to crawl over a stone, through the roots of a tree stub or a pine tree, to turn somersaults three or nine times against the Sun or over the threshold of a bathhouse at watch-night. The werewolf acts at certain time — on Saturday nights, at all festivals’ nights, especially at Christmas night. If the werewolf does not return by sunrise, then the human will have to remain a werewolf for the entire life.
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