Łysiec, czyli sacrum. Wokół nazwy i boskiego patrona. Pytania i sugestie

Cultural adaptation of Mount Łysiec is one of key issues in the study of the history of the cultural heritage of one of the highest peaks of the Holly Cross Mountains (Świętokrzyskie Mountains/ South Poland). It concentrates on the question concerning sacred function in pre-Christian times, its nature, origin, ethnic origins and dependence on the surrounding natural environment. The present views are somewhere between acceptance and cognitive scepticism. However, only some researchers reject the sacred background of Mount Łysiec. The majority of them subscribes to the hypothesis that the plateau of Łysiec was used as a mountain sanctuary dating back to the times before Slavic settlements. The present chapter is a summary of the current state of research and an attempt to evaluate it. The author is inclined to subscribe to the interpretation of the summit as a former mountain sanctuary with features of the so-called sacred grove, a secluded sacred area, enclosed with a stone wall from the turn of the 8th and 9th centuries, or a natural temple similar to a nemeton, a sacred space of ancient Germans. The author suggests that in Slavic times Łysiec might have been devoted to Perun, the god of sky, thunder and lightning. The original reason for the sacralization of the peak and the object of separate adoration and the source of the name of the hill was the “gołoborze,” a natural rock formation without a forest (bare of forest), which influenced the formation of the name of the entire peak “Łysiec,” from the adjective “łysy,” meaning “flashing mountain” with a white spot – a “gołoborze” as a luminous (burned by light?) mark. Author also suggests that Łysiec could have been a Perun mountain in Slavic times, dedicated to Perun, the god of the sky, lightning, thunderbolts, storm.