"That was a long time ago. Our great-grandfathers still told this story. One night in the Carpathians the devil took a huge stone on his little finger and carried it to Pochaev. I wanted to fill up the laurel. But the road was not short. When I got to this mountain, the third roosters were already singing. And the devil could not keep the stone. He fell, and he ran away from there."
This story is told by a shepherd Vasily at the foot of a hill on the outskirts of the village of Podkamen, Brody district, Lviv region. He says that it is better not to go to the stone at night.
“It was as if there was once a place of sacrifice, and then a cemetery. Stone crosses and gravestones have survived to this day. The height of the stone is 16 m. On its top, local residents have erected a blue-yellow flag. The amazing block can be seen from afar.
- Many have heard about this strange stone. From a distance, it seems much smaller. And when you climb the mountain, you understand its greatness. Incredibly, this stone with a height of a 3-storey building will be, - says Oleg Danilyuk from Ternopil.
He came with his family to see the stone with his own eyes. Guides tell tourists that the stone is a unique natural monument. They call it a boulder, that is, one that has survived from the previous geological period.
- Not without mysticism. Probably, it looked more truthful that this stone survived to this day at about the foot. And then at the very top. As if, in fact, someone brought it here,”says Denis Barnak from Lutsk. - Before the trip I read that the stone was once like an idol for local residents. It has a heart-shaped depression on the west side. Probably, various rituals took place here, people brought valuable things or cattle as gifts to the gods.
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Graves and stone crosses with inscriptions carved on them have been preserved around the stone. In the village they say that there was once a church on the hill. Nearby there are two caves with a stone. A large cross was erected near one of them, and the entrance was blocked.
“Scientists came here ten years ago from the regional center. It was said that these caves had a church and a chapel. Then, 200-300 years ago, stone was mined for construction. As if a Dominican monastery was built from him on a nearby mountain,”explains a local shepherd.
It is better to go to Podkamen by car. The village is located 25 km from the regional center Brody. Since August 2007, the ethnographic festival "Pidkamin" has been held near a hill with a huge stone.