Guardian of Eternity

The Guardian of Eternity, also known as the Gray Man or Stone Man, is a stone statue depicting a man wearing a hat, located at the beginning of the Eternity Road in the Bystrzyckie Mountains. It was erected at the site of a tragic incident in which a resident of a nearby village froze to death during a blizzard, an event believed to have occurred in 1872, as commemorated in the sculpture. The statue once served as a signpost directing travelers to the village of Pokrzywno, with the German name of the village and an arrow indicating the direction carved into the muff that the figure holds in its arms. It is worth noting that the sculpture suffered degradation in the 1960s, and its destruction culminated in the theft of the remaining fragments. In 1989, the statue was reconstructed by Andrzej Pękalski with the assistance of members of the Sudeten Student Guides’ Circle – Zbigniew Osiński and Jacek Pawłowski. The Guardian of Eternity remains an important element of local culture and history, serving as both a symbol of tragic past events and a tourist attraction in the region.