The Stone Wedding of Kuklica
Near a village in North Macedonia, more than a hundred stone figures stand on a hillside. People say they were a wedding party, cursed by a bride left behind.
What was reported
Kuklica, 'the little dolls', is a field of more than 120 stone pillars near Kratovo, many of them with rounded tops like heads, so they look like people standing in groups.
The legend tells of a young man who promised to marry two women and chose to wed one of them on the same day the other expected him. The jilted woman watched the wedding procession from a hill and cursed it, and the bride, the groom and all the guests were turned to stone.
Explanations offered
The pillars formed from volcanic tuff that was eroded by rain and wind over tens of thousands of years, with harder stones on top protecting the rock beneath. The site is a protected natural monument.
- When
- Told for generations
- Where
- Kuklica, near Kratovo, North Macedonia
- Witnesses
- Macedonian folklore
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.