Bakers Cross + Tobias Pine
It is a place where foresters, lumberjacks, smugglers and traders from both sides of the Czech-Saxon border met. Both places, not too far apart, have their own legends. In this case, however, unique ones that have not migrated anywhere and are locally authentic. According to legend, the Baker's Cross was supposed to commemorate a baker from Hradec who was murdered and robbed on his way to the market in Jablonné in Podještědí.
Merchant Tobiáš Kunze from Dolní Sedl narrowly escaped a bullet from a wood thief near a pine tree, which only damaged his hat. As an expression of gratitude, he left the tree standing when the forest was cut down around 1800. On the trunk he hung a picture of his patron saint, Saint Tobias, after whom the pine tree is named.
Tobias' pine was a memorable tree in the Three Lands region, in the eastern part of the Lusatian Mountains. The pine, which died in the 1990s and whose trunk was cut down in December 2012, was a reminder of the smuggling era for about 250 years. It stood on the Zittau Road (Border Road) about 300 meters NE of the peak of Loupežnický vrch and the ruins of Větrov Castle. A number of marked hiking trails intersect at the crossroads at Tobias' Pine.
