The Crooked Forest ( pl, Krzywy Las) is a
grove
Grove may refer to:
* Grove (nature), a small group of trees
Places
England
*Grove, Buckinghamshire, a village
* Grove, Dorset
* Grove, Herefordshire
* Grove, Kent
* Grove, Nottinghamshire, a village
* Grove, Oxfordshire, a village and civil ...
of oddly-shaped
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...
trees located in the village of
Nowe Czarnowo near the town of
Gryfino
Gryfino (german: Greifenhagen; nds, Gripenhagen; Kashubian: ''Gripiewò'') is a town in Pomerania, northwestern Poland, with 21,393 inhabitants (2017). It is also the capital of Gryfino County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (since 1999), previou ...
,
West Pomerania
Historical Western Pomerania, also called Cispomerania, Fore Pomerania, Front Pomerania or Hither Pomerania (german: Vorpommern), is the western extremity of the historic region of Pomerania forming the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, Weste ...
, in north-western
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
. It is a protected
natural monument
A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance.
Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, na ...
of Poland.
This grove of 400 pines was planted in the village of
Nowe Czarnowo around 1930. Each pine tree bends sharply to the north, just above ground level, then curves back upright after a sideways excursion of three to nine feet (1–3 m). The curved pines are enclosed by a surrounding forest of straight pine trees.
It is generally believed that some form of human tool or technique was used to make the trees grow or bend this way, but the method has never been determined, and remains a mystery to this day. It has been speculated that the trees may have been deformed to create naturally curved timber for use in furniture or boat building.
Others surmise that a snowstorm could have bent the
trunks, but there is little evidence of that.
The forest was featured in season 1, episode 4 of ''
The UnXplained'' on the
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
channel titled "Unnatural Nature" that first aired on 9 August 2019.
The site is open to the public and serves as a notable tourist attraction in the region.
See also
*
Dancing Forest
*
Drunken trees
*
Tree shaping
*
Wood warping
References
External links
Polish tourism page for the Crooked Forest{{in lang, pl
Forests of Poland
Gryfino County
Natural monuments of Poland