The Nazi Temple of Pomerania: Exploring the Mysterious Odry Stone Circles

Odry is a small village in Pomerania in the north of Poland. This location became famous with the discovery of the second biggest site of stone circles in Europe. It is also known to be the home of at least 600 Neolithic burials, but is still holds many secrets.

The site is in a beautiful forested area near the Wda River. For many centuries, these kinds of places were damaged in Poland. The worst devastation took place during the 19th century, when people destroyed old kurgans (prehistoric burial mounds or barrows), stone circles, and other Neolithic constructions to prepare farmers’ fields. Nowadays, most of the Neolithic sites are located in the forest. It could be said that the caring tree roots saved them and protected them over the centuries. 

A Forgotten Neolithic Site

Odry was first investigated during the second half of the 19th century by two amateur archaeologists – Wilhelm Stryjkowski and Abraham Lissauer. They concluded that the structures they discovered came from the Neolithic period.

Fragment of Circle IV of the cemetery of Odrach, Gmina Czersk. (CC BY SA 3.0)