Alžběta and Her Stone Companions

Two granite menhirs once stood here. One, called the Petrified Woman or Alžběta and bearing human features, was associated with many local legends. It was removed as early as 1659 from the place now called Kamenná baba (555 m). A legend about its origin tells of a pregnant woman who behaved disrespectfully towards a priest carrying the sacrament to a dying person. He cursed her and she turned to stone. An illustration of the stone appears in M. B. Bolelucký’s Rosa Boëmica (The Bohemian Rose, 1668), accompanied by Latin text which translates as follows: “Not many years ago, the town of Strakonice saw and admired a certain idol… Beside the road to Volyně, near the forest called Hole or Hůl, stood for many years a roughly worked, elongated boulder, somewhat taller than a man… The stone has an enormous belly, as if carrying a child, which gave rise to a superstition. People believed this goddess helped women in childbirth, and the common people called her Alžběta in their own language… This error persisted among uneducated peasants until 1659, remaining unknown to the authorities all that time… I myself, when administering that parish, often saw the loathsome sight…” (after Sklenář). Curiously, the naïvely drawn illustration appears alongside supposed images of ancient Slavic gods. The second stone stood on the northern slope of neighbouring Hradiště Hill (605 m), above the Volyňka and below the outer rampart of an ancient hillfort. Belief in its miraculous powers once prompted an extensive investigation. It was removed in 1913 and used for stonemasonry. Nearby, on Kbíl Hill (664 m) above Smiradice, is a dolmen. These stones may also be related to the menhir now in the nearby Prachatice museum.