Kamenný pastýř

Kamenný pastýř is an isolated menhir standing in a field about one kilometre northwest of Klobuky in the Kladno District of the Czech Republic. It is the tallest menhir in the Czech Republic. An educational trail leads to it from Kokovice to Klobuky.

The unworked pillar is made of dark, iron-bearing chalk sandstone and is three and a half metres high. Its height is about 340 cm, with 70 cm embedded in the ground; it is roughly one metre across at its widest point and weighs about five tonnes. It is considered one of the few stones in the Czech Republic that can be regarded as a genuine prehistoric menhir.

Its prehistoric age is likely but unproven. A typological estimate places it between 2800 BCE and 1800 BCE. In 1898, J. L. Píč had digging conducted beside it and showed that it had been deliberately erected in a sandy layer above bedrock. The oldest known record dates from 1841, and a chronicle from 1852 recounts that a storm overturned the stone before it was raised again.

Kamenný pastýř is also called Zkamenělý pastýř, Kamenný muž, Zkamenělec and Zkamenělý slouha. Local legends say that it once stood with a flock of smaller stones, or that a shepherd petrified after losing his sheep. Another tells that the stone takes a step toward the church whenever its bell rings, but returns when the bell at Telce rings instead.

Kamenný pastýř is a menhir (standing stone) in Czech Republic. A typological estimate: 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Czech article "Kamenný pastýř", shown in the original language.