Case file · Sacred site
The Blue Stone that came back from the lake
In 1788 the church tried to use the Blue Stone, an old pagan sacred boulder by Lake Pleshcheyevo, for the foundation of a new church; the sledge carrying it broke through the ice and it sank, and decades later it was found back on the shore.
1788 CE · 56.78, 38.82 · status: legend
The account
The stone near Pereslavl-Zalessky had been venerated with ribbons and offerings; earlier clergy had it buried in a pit, from which it also 'emerged'. Local newspapers discussed its 'wonderful property' in 1850. Geologists explain the movement by ice push and frost heave. It is still a place of folk pilgrimage.
The sceptical view
Lake ice and winter storms are known to push heavy boulders ashore; frost heave lifts buried stones.