What happened
Łysa Góra (“Bald Mountain”), also called Łysiec or Święty Krzyż (Holy Cross), is the second-highest peak of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. A stone rampart about one and a half kilometres long runs around its summit, probably built in the 9th–10th centuries around a pre-Christian Slavic place of worship. In the 15th century the chronicler Jan Długosz wrote of a pagan temple of the gods that supposedly stood here. A Benedictine abbey was founded on the summit – according to tradition by King Bolesław the Brave – with relics of the Holy Cross, for centuries one of Poland's most important shrines. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, popular imagination made Łysa Góra a devilish place. In folk tales this is where witches from all over the country flew on brooms, shovels and goats on sabbath nights to dance with devils among the boulder fields. The sabbath on Łysa Góra became a staple of Polish folklore and literature.
Witnesses
Folk tales recorded by ethnographers, including Oskar Kolberg; mentions of pagan worship by Jan Długosz.
Explanations and hypotheses
Archaeologists confirm the existence of an early medieval cult rampart, similar to those on Ślęża and Radunia. Cultural historians explain that the Church often demonised former pagan sites, and ordinary people attached to them the images of sabbaths spread by demonologists and witch trials. The sabbaths never took place – the descriptions come from forced confessions and imagination. Many hills in Slavic countries are called “Bald Mountain,” including the famous Lysa Hora in Kyiv, and many have similar legends.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, t. V (1884) – Łysa Góra
- Góry Świętokrzyskie – Łysa Góra 595 m: Łysiec, szlaki i historia szczytu
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