Crooked Forest - Wikipedia

Forest of unusual pine trees in Poland

Crooked ForestPolish: Krzywy Las
Map
Geography
Location	Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland
Coordinates	53°12′50″N 14°28′30″E / 53.21389°N 14.47500°E / 53.21389; 14.47500
Administration
Status	Natural monument of Poland[1]
Ecology
Dominant tree species	Scots pine

The Crooked Forest (Polish: Krzywy Las) is a grove of oddly-shaped Scots pine trees located in the village of Nowe Czarnowo near the town of Gryfino, West Pomerania, in north-western Poland. It is a protected natural monument of Poland.[1]

This grove of 400 pines was planted in around 1930. Each pine tree bends sharply to the north, just above ground level, then curves back upright after a sideways excursion of one to three meters (3–9 feet). The curved pines are enclosed by a surrounding forest of straight pine trees.[2] The trees grow to about 50 feet (15 m) in height.[3] At the time of planting this location was part of the German province of Pomerania.[3]

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.[4][5] Others surmise that a snowstorm could have bent the trunks, but there is little evidence of that.[5][6]

The forest was featured in season 1, episode 4 of The UnXplained on the History channel titled "Unnatural Nature" that first aired on 9 August 2019.[7]

The site is open to the public and is a tourist attraction in the region.[8]

See also

[edit]

• Dancing Forest
• Drunken trees
• Tree shaping
• Wood warping

References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Krzywy Las koło Gryfina". Nadleśnictwo Gryfino (in Polish). Retrieved 10 April 2022.
2. ^ "What Could Have Caused Poland's Crooked Forest?". IFLScience. July 2014. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
3. ^ a b Yang, Yvette (4 March 2020). "The Mystery of the Crooked Forest". Discovery. Retrieved 26 July 2025.
4. ^ Cieśliński, Piotr (15 January 2014). "Kto odkryje tajemnicę Krzywego Lasu" (in Polish). Wyborcza.pl. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
5. ^ a b Klein, Joanna (21 March 2017). "In Poland's Crooked Forest, a Mystery With No Straight Answer". The New York Times.
6. ^ Quick, Stefania Rousselle, Joanna Klein, Samantha; Jaffe, Logan (31 March 2017). "Puzzle in Poland: Who Bent the Trees?". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. ^ "The UnXplained Pictures & Galleries: Unnatural nature". HISTORY. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
8. ^ Wroniewski, Sebastian (3 August 2020). "Krzywy Las koło Gryfina zostanie poddany rewitalizacji". światrolnika.info (in Polish). Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2020.

External links

[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Krzywy Las (Nowe Czarnowo).

• Polish tourism page for the Crooked Forest (in Polish)