The Friday Stone is a massive sacred boulder with a deep hollow on top that never dries out. It lies about a hundred kilometers from St. Petersburg, in a field by the road between the settlement of Volodarskoye and the village of Konezerye.
Because of this natural basin—known as a “bowl”—researchers classify such megaliths as chashichniki. These stones fascinated ancient people with their unusual form and mystical functionality. Traditionally, water collected in the bowl was used in healing rituals: people washed with it, cleansed sore body parts and eyes, or even drank it. Locals believe that “the water never dries up, even in the hottest summers—the stone itself pushes out eternal water,” as one old description puts it.
The cult of the Friday Stone most likely dates back to the Middle Ages and was practiced by local Finno-Ugric peoples. Stories say that a small chapel once stood on the stone, destroyed by militant atheists in the 1920s. In the 1960s, during a new wave of anti-religious campaigns, activists even planned to blow up the boulder, but for unknown reasons, this never happened.
Today, the site still bears signs of ritual practice—small coins and tangles of red woolen threads lie scattered around the stone. Whether this is a continuation of ancient traditions by local descendants of the legendary Chud people, or the handiwork of modern “esoteric seekers” and New Age visitors from St. Petersburg, remains a mystery.
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