Hill of Crosses
written by a_lab
on April 27th, 2008
(1 vote)
Welcome to mysterious hill of crosses! The sacred, religious and touristy place, consists not only crosses, but giant crucifixes, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, statues of the Virgin Mary and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries which have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The old story tells the first crosses were built in 1831 by people who lost their relatives in fight with the Russian Czar government, later with USSR. The Hill of Crosses was used as a place for Lithuanians to pray for peace, for their country, and for the loved ones they had lost.
Nowadays many religious people and tourists come and leave their crosses small and big all with their own stories – personal and social. You may find there cross commemorating the disaster of the ferryboat Estonia. What the numbers say about the hill of cross? The last enthusiastic guy counted crosses about 15 years ago and it was 14387 big crosses and 41000 small ones. You may need thousands of films to document each cross in summer and maybe only one in winter as the snow covers most of them and only the biggest will meet your eyes.
- How to go: The hill of crosses is situated 16 km from city Siauliai, Lithuania. You could reach it by bus, car or on foot with the cross in the pocket.
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