Natural Monument Krzywy Las [the Crooked Forest]

The Crooked Forest is a surface natural monument. Several dozen pines of characteristically curved trunks grow at the area of less than 2 hectares. They were planted in the 1930s. Thanks to research in the number of grains knots, it is known that when the trees were approx. 7 years, tops and side branches were damaged at approx. 20 cm from the ground. This caused that the only side branch took over the role of the trunk. Natural inclination to an upright position made that this 'new' trunk bent archwise and northwards at an angle of 90° and continued to grow vertically. The bends have from one to three metres in length. Pines are relatively low for their age, the highest ones do not exceed 15 m in height.

There are numerous theories on the origin of deformation of these pines. One of them says about the tanks which reportedly ran over young trees that consequently froze to the ground and revived in this form after the thaw. Some people try to find extraterrestrial forces or interference in gravity. A slightly more credible story is the one about special mechanical damage to young trees by man. The aim of this is making unnaturally bent specimens for special applications. Such a tree could be used to build furniture, boats, sledges, barrels, and maybe even harps. Unfortunately, the genesis of the Crooked Forest is likely to remain a mystery. No information on this subject has been found in any foresters' documents, and the foresters who planted these pines are already dead.