Barstyčiai Stone

This is the largest stone in Lithuania. Dimensions: length 13.4 m, height 3.6 m, width 7.5 m. It weighs about 680 tonnes. It is a coarse-crystalline rock of igneous origin that lay in veins and lenses among other rocks and formed as the magma was cooling, saturated with vapours and gases. The stone consists of feldspars and quartz and also contains mica and rare minerals. It originates from the Fennoscandian rock massif in Scandinavia, the Kola Peninsula and Karelia. The stone used to lie buried in the ground, with only its ridge sticking out. In 1958 land drainage workers dug it out. It turned out that most of the boulder lies in glacial deposits – a light brown loam full of boulders. The glacier that brought the stone melted in the Barstyčiai area 13–14 thousand years ago. The stone lies with its long axis pointing south, roughly the direction in which the glacier moved at that spot. The Barstyčiai Stone lies in a drained field. It resembles the tapering deck of a ship. Many birches, rowans and an apple tree grow beside the stone... The Barstyčiai Stone is scientifically important. From the direction of its movement and its structure, scientists can draw conclusions about climatic and geological changes in Lithuania more than ten thousand years ago. In 1964 the stone was declared a geological natural monument, and in 1985 it was classed as a monument of national significance. The Barstyčiai Stone is listed in the Lithuanian Book of Records.