Devil’s stone is a natural phenomenon caused by rock erosion. Houses made of stone, mud and wicker, a dozen stone piles fifty meters high and a church. Nobody lives there, nobody gets married in the church, and all because of the legend that it is a cursed place and, as people from this area say, “the devil’s work”.
The inhabitants of Gornja Pcinja recount one legend, according to which the devils intended to reverse the course of Pcinja to flow towards Bulgaria, so they tried to connect the banks of this river. The local people tore whole rocks from the surrounding hills, but failed to tame the moody river. Seeing that even they were helpless, and they were running out of stones, they headed towards Kosovsko Pomoravlje, to the Konculj gorge. And that’s where they came across the biggest rock. They turned it backwards and returned to try to conquer nature once again. Along the way, they often stopped and rested, because the rock was too heavy for the tired people. When they reached the village of Klinovac in the morning, fearing that people would reveal their intentions, they threw a rock next to a mill. That is how, according to one legend, the Devil’s Stone was created.
Another legend tells that the people of Pcinja were trying build a church by the river for years, but everything that they would build during the day, the devils would take away during the night and leave on the Devil’s Stone. This is how the church was built on the 60-meter-high hill itself.
And the people of Pcinja also have an explanation for the fact that no one gets married in the church.
In ancient times, a boy and a girl from Donja Trnica fell in love, and their parents, did not approve or wanted to give a blessing to their love. The young man was the only son from the best house in the village, and the girl was a beauty like no other in the whole area, but very poor. Despite the anger of the parents, the two young people decided to make their love official. The parents had nowhere to go, so they decided to organize the wedding as it should be. The wedding took place in the already mentioned church on Devil’s Stone. When they came out of the church, the bride and groom rode, as usual, decorated horses. However, his horse, frightened by the shouts and whistles of the bride and groom’s entourage, rushed towards the abyss and fell, together with the groom on his back. Seeing that, the bride jumped off her horse, ran towards the cliff and jumped without thinking. So the joy instantly turned into sorrow.
Since then, the people of Pcinja claim, no one has been married in this church, nor has any child been baptized. Due to its great importance, the church is now under state protection. Despite the legends and stories about how this place was haunted, the belief that staying in this church cures infertility has spread among the people.
