The Little Venus Folk

Among the most remarkable granite formations of the Žulová pluton are rock basins. Thirty sites are known; the largest are on nearby Smolný and Borový hills and the rock near the railway station. They are called Venus Basins, or Venusnappla. According to old German legends, the granite rocks and spaces beneath them were inhabited by a fairy-tale people called the Venus Folk, or Venusleute. Only slightly taller than dwarfs, they were neat in appearance, especially the beautiful women, Venusweibla. They were good-natured and rarely harmed humans. They fed children who strayed here and helped them in every way. They supposedly cooked and boiled laundry in the rock basins and bathed in them on clear nights. Like other heroes of German legends, they also had caps of invisibility.