Hill of Crosses

Bulldozed three or four times by the Soviet authorities the Hill of Crosses in Northern Lithuania always came back. Today, over 75,000 crosses of all sizes are found at this site which occupies perhaps 2,400 square metres of land, spread over two hillocks, 12km north of the city of Siauliai, Lithuania’s 4^th largest city.

The crosses are mainly placed here by devout Catholics who regard the Hill of Crosses as a place of pilgrimage largely because in 1993, Pope John Paul II held a mass at the site. The status of the Hill of Crosses changed forever after this visit. The Pope was extremely touched by the cross with the prayer for his health that was planted after the attempt upon his life in 1981. He was so taken with the place that in 1994 during his visit to a Franciscan monastery of the mount of Verna (Italy), the Pope encouraged the brothers to build a monastery by the Hill of Crosses. This building was consecrated on July 7, 2000 and is built 300 metres away from the Hill and has sixteen cells. It serves as a novitiate of the Lithuanian Franciscan province of St. Casimir, but the monastery is also open to visiting pilgrims who are just looking for solitude. A new convent of St. Clara is also planned. In 1997, the Catholic Church revived devotions on the Hill, which take place every year on the last but one Sunday of July.

Approaching from the main Siauliai to Riga road, visitors to the site will probably first notice the large wooden statue of Jesus with his arms wide apart in welcome. A set of steps neatly bisect the hillock and from the top visitors can see the new monastery and also better appreciate how densely packed the crosses are together. The crosses are not all in orderly rows as in a neat cemetery, but are sown over the ground as though sprouting from a special kind of spiritual seed spread by a divine hand. Many of the larger crosses have hundreds of smaller crosses made from metal, wood, and even pink plastic hanging from them. There are occasional images of Jesus amongst the crosses too and it’s hard not be moved by the acts of faith that placed them here, especially when the breeze blows through them and turns the crosses into a kind of spiritual wind-chime.

Part of the fascination of this place is watching visitors to the site. Some people are obviously bored, browsing the stalls in the parking lot and buying a cross which they take away with them. Some individuals read the prayers on the crosses and touch them as though they are trying to connect with the reason the cross was placed there. Some others, like me, buy a cross at a stall and then can’t decide where to place it, because there is so much choice. Finally, a few groups bring large crosses and plant them in the ground.

The planting of crosses originally started in the 1860s, though the exact reason for this has been lost in clouds of incense and piety. The patriotic version says proud Lithuanians planted crosses on the hill to commemorate their fellow freedom-fighters whose bodies couldn’t be found in the surrounding forests after they had been hunted and killed by the Russians. Folklore says that a 19^th Century peasant became ill one day and immediately felt he was going to die. He wanted to live and planted a cross on the hill to try and persuade God to let him live. Miraculously, this is what happened. The story spread about this great happening. Soon other crosses were placed there, all planted with fervent prayers for the preservation of a life, but no record has been kept as to their success.

Perhaps the real miracle is that the Hill of Crosses is here at all, given the Soviet bulldozing and before that the Nazi invasion of World War II. In 1961 the authorities burnt wooden crosses, sold the metal ones for scrap, and broke the stone crosses. The crosses still reappeared each night, despite the Hill being guarded by both the Soviet army and KGB. In 1978 and 1979 there were even some attempts to flood the area.  Nowadays, the Hill has to be protected from only those with good intentions. Signs at the site indicate that no candles should be lit, because as most of the crosses are wooden and become tinder dry during the summer season, a carelessly placed candle could become more effective than a mighty Soviet bulldozer ever was. Around 60 square yards of the hill were burnt by a carelessly placed candle in December 2006. The area covered by the crosses is growing and seems to be expanding towards the new monastery. When I visited large crosses had been added in recent days by visitors from Brazil, pilgrims from Radom in Poland, and the Maltese youth of Hamburg.

In a way, the Hill of Crosses symbolizes Lithuania. The country survived being part of the Russian Empire in the 19^th Century, being part of a greater Poland in the 1920s and 1930s, and being occupied firstly by the Nazis and then by the Soviet Union. The Hill of Crosses survives and flourishes to this day, whereas the bulldozer that destroyed crosses, historic manor houses, and other symbols of Lithuanian independence has long since rusted into dust.