The Devil's Mountain seems unnatural, in front of Mrzygłód, but on the other side of the San. It's as if she's lost here, leaving behind her mate's slopes and peaks. Legend has it that a devil brought her there. Once upon a time, in the place where the mountain is today, there was a town. Almost halfway between Tyrawa Solna and Tyrawa Wołoska. It was called Tyrawa Królewska. Tyrawa Królewska was located near the salt mine. Merchants from ever farther and more distant countries came to this one, for salt. They bought salt and sold their goods. Trade served the Tyravians well. They enriched themselves so much that they easily built a stylish, stone church, and a brick town hall in the market square. The city, however, was given defensive walls. The people living there were getting better and better, but the richer they were, the less they visited the church. It happened that only a few inhabitants appeared at the masses. The rebukes of the priest or the missionaries coming did not help. This, in turn, pleased the devils more and more. For one Midnight Mass, no one appeared in the church. The enraged priest then cursed disgustingly: let this city be devoured by hell! The devils heard such a challenge! They grabbed one of the mountains, several dozen kilometers away, pulled it from the ground, lifted it into the air and threw it with a chuckle at the town! The mountain covered everything, pushing walls, buildings, people into the abyss of hell. Old people also say that from the village of Dobra there is an entrance to the interior of the mountain. It leads to a tunnel, and this one to fallen houses, Tyravians full of treasures. But no one has yet dared to follow the black corridor into the distance.
When the Tatar invasions swept through the Sanok region, the Srogów population always fled to the forest. They hurriedly took all the more valuable things, especially the golden cross from the local church. Once, however, in a hurry and confusion, people lost this cross somewhere along the way. The regret was huge, but also the hope that maybe at least it did not get into the hands of the invaders. Years have passed. Some say several, others say several dozen. Once upon a time, old Jaśko was plowing his land near the forest. Suddenly the plow blade caught on something and it didn't want to go any further. Although the oxen were strong and they still had a lot of strength, because this was only the beginning of the plowing, they could not overcome the resistance in any way. Anger began to overwhelm the host, but what could be done. He has pulled the plow out of the ground, he is looking, and there a shiny cross is sticking out of the furrows of the ground. He fearfully took it in his hands, looked at it, and it shone as if it had just been made and was polished. The plowman carried the cross to the village. The elders sat down, pondered, and the verdict was reached. We will build a chapel where we found the cross! This was also done, and the found cross was placed in it. With time, on the site of the chapel, the church was built, and the cross took the main place on the altar. It would probably be there today if it weren't for the thieves. One night they broke the door to the church, stole the cross and other valuables, and while escaping, they turned over the baptismal font and poured out the holy water. However, the news and their deed spread quickly, and no one wanted to buy them back from them. Finally they buried them somewhere in the forest. They did not benefit from it themselves, but they gave the Biesa Biescs a chance to show off with their evil deed. As soon as the holy water soaked into the ground, they flocked to the church, robbed of all the holy symbols, and began the devil's party. They howled, burst out with fire, frightened people in a nearby village, chased away the cattle, and destroyed the crops. The folks didn't last long, they moved out of Srogów. The village was deserted, the huts collapsed, razed to the ground. Then the demons also left, because there was no one to scare anyone. After many years, new settlers appeared in this place. They started building huts, barns, and granaries. Local news carried the legend of devils that might return. The settlers feared their sternness, but somehow lived by caring for each other. These fears, however, remained in the name of the village, Srogów.
The first mountain that rises beyond Trepcza is Horodyszcze. It is clearly visible from the nearby village of Międzybrodzie, which lies on the left side of the San river. Covered with deciduous forest, it used to support the settlement existing here between the 10th and 13th centuries. However, to this day, the oldest people remember a legend, passed down from generation to generation for centuries. About an Orthodox church that plunged into the abyss of the mountain with people when an evil woman cast a curse. She was going to the Sunday mass, out of duty and shame in front of her neighbors, and not out of human need to talk to God, cursing all those who built the church in Horodyszcz. Cursing like that, she approached the temple. When she entered the church, the gates suddenly slammed shut behind her, and outside the sky was blackened, cut by lightning. The wind broke enormously, lightning began to strike around it with incredible power. Devilish rain poured out, looking like a huge lump of water falling only on top. The church began to tremble and to slide down the soggy earth with the people. There was no help for anyone. The interior of the temple was torn apart by shouts of despair, and the mountain was plunging the church more and more into its depths, covering it with heaps of mud and stones. When the mountain completely covered the temple, suddenly the storm subsided, the wind stopped, the clouds fled and the scorching sun appeared, which quickly dried the peak of Horodyszcz. And in the place of the temple, only a small depression was left. For some time, people who appeared near the mountain heard lamentations, screams and cries seemingly coming from inside it. But suddenly everything went quiet. As if no one believed in the possibility of salvation, every spirit of people buried alive gave up, accepting their fate. The inhabitants of the town who remained alive, those who did not manage to reach the church before the cursing woman, and thus survived the pogrom, left this place. The stronghold was deserted. Over the years, a forest grew in this place, covering the church basin with its roots and tree crowns. Among other things, the descriptions of the non-existent church included in this legend meant that in the 90s archaeological searches were started on the Horodyszcze hill. The effects were amazing. This is because traces of the hillfort have been found (the first location of Sanok), the place where the church functioned.
The nineteenth-century folklore researcher Oskar Kolberg writes a legend about the miraculous spring in Zwierzyń: “The village of Zdwiżyn, known today as Zwierzyn (near Lisko) from the elevation of the holy cross. According to a legend given by Kolberg, the woman found a cross of a well (today's spring), which was later donated to the church in Zwierzyń. Oskar Kolberg writes that people used to come to the spring for water, which helped with eye diseases. Once upon a time, a tall cross stood at the well of the spring, a memorial of finding the cross in the church. After the war, the spring was forgotten, although many people working in the fields to harvest crops used the water flowing out "under the keels". After a long period of oblivion, the issue of the spring revived until 1994, when a new well was built into which water flows from the spring.
When the construction of the temple was being prepared, the building material was placed under the slope of the mountain, where it was to be erected. However, some invisible hand mysteriously carried the material to the top of Mount Dubnyk. The wood was taken down three times and it returned to the top three times at night. Therefore, it was finally decided that God Himself indicated to the faithful a nice place for the temple, and the church was erected on the top. In the place where an attempt was made to assemble the material for the construction of the church, there is a chapel today. Miraculous water with healing properties was also supposed to flow from the slopes of the mountain, which was the reason for pilgrimages of sick people from all over the area. The miraculous water, however, departed from here along with the former inhabitants of this land. Another legend says that the first Uluck church collapsed underground and only during the Ascension one can hear the sound of the bells coming from the underground.
The text comes from the study "INVENTORY OF CULTURAL RESOURCES OF THE BORDERLAND - THE ETHNOCARPATHIA PROJECT" realized by the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University for the District Museum in Rzeszów.
Author: Mr. Marcin Krowiak.
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