The boulder comes from the Gandstock in the Glarus Kärpf region and is made of melaphyre, an ancient volcanic rock. It was left behind around 15,000 years ago when the Linth-Rhine glacier melted between Herrliberg and Erlenbach.
With around 1000 cubic metres of visible rock, the boulder rises high out of the ground at around 560 metres above sea level. Since 1832, a linden tree has been growing on the western slope of the Brocken in honour of Uster Day. In 1939, the canton of Zurich placed the stone under protection on the national holiday, thus preventing it from being demolished. The linden tree is also under protection.
Rare mosses, lichens and ferns that are rarely found anywhere else in the Mittelland grow on the Pflugstein. This is why not all sides of the rock are open for climbing and bouldering.
World of legends
Once upon a time, a strange magician lived on Lake Zurich. He had a beautiful daughter who was in love with a handsome man. The father did not like this liaison and forbade the daughter to continue to be with her lover under penalty of death. But love was stronger than the father's command. The old man looked into his magic mirror, which showed him the two lovers, just as they could not tell each other enough about their affection. Enraged, the magician called together his mighty band of spirits and ordered them to destroy the two lovers. A storm descended upon them and lightning struck. The earth opened up and swallowed the couple. On dark nights, the two lovers rise from the earth, embrace the stone and sigh softly into the night. But when the morning breeze blows down from the Alps, the spirits' lamentation falls silent and the stone stands alone in the field again. Since then, the stone has also been called the "cursed stone".
poem
To his only child, full of anger, Mr. Hartmut said:
«No longer shall you sully my old age with shame!
Your heart may renounce the love of vile lovers,
If both are not to happen, the impending death blow will strike.
I will seize you with the steel of my wrath,
I will destroy you both in body and in soul;
I will swing the scourge of vengeance around your head,
Since you allow yourselves to mock the Father’s will!”
The virgin stands calmly before her father’s fierce anger,
She does not speak a word, but a spring flows in her breast
Of unnamable love, of everlasting truth,
Who are not used to asking what death and dying are.
The father directs the steps to the lonely chamber,
Where the magic's weapons lay stored up high.
He has banished the host of spirits in his cell,
Who was always waiting for his master's signal.
And he turned his seer’s gaze to the magic mirror,
The silver-clear surface reflects his gaze back to him:
He saw his daughter at the blooming rose garden,
Forgetting his father's word, he lay in his lover's arms.
Then his blood turned to flames, glowing with hot anger,
And slowly from his mouth came the terrible word:
«So you wanted it? Well, let it be finished!
Come, come, you strong, you dark spiritual power!”
From all sides the host of spirits rushes towards us,
And stands, listening in awe, around the master.
Then he gave his command to the demons,
And in a flash, ruin overtakes the lovers.
They were still holding each other, still lying chest to chest,
And they drank heavenly joy from the eyes of love;
Then black clouds enveloped them more and more closely,
Heralding death and destruction, the weather lights envelop them.
He opens the earth’s mouth with a crash,
And the subterranean abyss greedily grasps both of them;
And where the father's vengeance ray struck them,
There the demons build a mighty rock monument.
The legend says that often in the silent night
Ghostly life secretly awakens on the rock there.
The lovers embrace and then walk around the stone
And call out quiet lamentations into the night.
From sin and from remorse, from heavy curse
At midnight one can hear there.
But morning breezes blow in from the Alpine range,
The spirits' lament falls silent and the stone stands alone.
(The Curse Stone above Herrliberg, Paul Corrodi 1951)
Vicinity
Near the Pflugstein is the restaurant of the same name, which is known for the best boiled meat in the canton of Zurich. The building alone is worth a trip: it was built in the typical wine farmhouse style around 1750 and has been lovingly restored and preserved time and again. This is also the starting point for numerous beautiful hikes with an impressive view of Lake Zurich and the Alps.
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