Devil's Town (Đavolja Varoš) - Serbia

in #travel6 years ago (edited)


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Natural rock formations in southeastern Serbia.
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It is located in Southern Serbia, on mount Radan not far from the town of Kuršumlija. It comprises of more than 200 stone formations, 2 to 15 meters high and up to 3 meters wide, with strange stone caps.

Top level of the soil was harder than the lower lovels, so, over many hundreds of years rain and running water shaped it like stone people with caps.


There are many legends about this place, but the best known one is this is the Devil's Town, mainly because of redish color of the soil (caused by acidic water) and because of the specific sound made by wind running between these rocks.

First legend says that Devil played tricks on local people, so they were praying and staying all night in the church of Saint Petka. In the morning, all the devils stopped bothering people and have become stones.

Another legend mentions a weding party which was turned into stone:
One of the most famous legends said that a long time ago there were living kind and generous people. Devil didn’t like the harmony between folks, so he was making a plan how to harm them. He ordered to locals to marry brother and sister. They set out to the church where the ceremony was planned. Didn’t know what to do to prevent incest, fairy prayed to the God to help her. The God listened to her request: he made cold wind to blow very fast which also brought rain and then the storm flip wedding guests into stones.

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Great pictures, fascinating how legends develop. We have one near where we live in England called the Devil's Dyke.