An expressive, about 10 m high hill located in the rugged highland area. From the Vanagkalns Hill there are nice views of the surroundings not overgrown densely with varoius decidious trees. From the Vanagkalns one can see also the highest hill of the highlands – the Kamparkalns Hill.
Narrative
There is a tale that it is an ancient sacrificial hill. Nowadays it is used as a neo-pagan cult site. It is also a favourite Jāņi festivity (summer solstice celebration) place. From literature sources it is known that in the southern part of the hill, there is a hillock of a peculiar form — the so-called David’s Hillock (Dāvida kalniņš), which also, probably, is related to ancient cult traditions. According to the tale, nearby there used to be the Dreams’ Grove (Sapņu birzs) where fortune tellers in ancient times explained dreams. Older people say that in ancient times there was an ancient burial ground by the Vanagkalns Hill.
Sacrificial hills for the ancient Latvians had different names — Hawk’s Hill (Vanagkalns), Sacrificial Hill (Upurkalns), Gods’ Hill (Dievukalns), Devil’s Hill (Velna kalns), etc. There are several Vanagkalns Hills in Latvia. Often cult hills are situated next to hill forts. Small sacred places in ancient times were in every farmers’ homestead and in every county where people gathered from all the hill fort’s area. Worshipping and offering was usually made by the kin’s elder.
