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Hill of Crosses
Hill of Crosses


While browsing around here for images to use in a previous post, I was reminded of the Hill of Crosses near the city of Siauliai, Lithuania.

Hill of Crosses


Hill of Crosses


From the Catholic Church of Lithuania: “In the beginning of the 20th century the Hill of Crosses was already widely known as a sacral place. In addition to many pilgrims visiting, it was also a place for Masses and devotions. The Hill of Crosses became of special importance during Soviet times – this was the place of anonymous but surprising persistence to the regime. The Soviet government considered the crosses and the hill a hostile and harmful symbol. In 1961 wooden crosses were broken and burnt, metal ones used as scrap metal and stone and concrete crosses were broken and buried. The hill itself was many times destroyed with bulldozers. During the 1973–1975 period about half a thousand crosses used to be demolished each year without even trying to do this secretly. Later the tactics became more subtle: crosses were demolished as having no artistic value, different 'epidemics' were announced forbidding people to come into the region or the roads were blocked by police. The Hill was guarded by both the Soviet army and KGB. In 1978 and 1979 there were some attempts to flood the territory. Despite all these endeavors to stop people from visiting the Hill, crosses would reappear after each night.”
5 COMMENTS —
  • Anonymous
  • February 9, 2006 at 12:13:00 PM CST
  • Trevi: You of course remember a former colleague of yours used a fellowship to study and see these sights don't you? You may have already been gone from university by its presentation though.


  • Alexander Trevi
  • February 15, 2006 at 2:01:00 PM CST
  • I remember it very well, not the presentation though - as I've already left East-Central Illinois by then - but when she was planning her trip. And if you google-image her name, you'll see photos of her on the hill - along with another one showing her sporting a Scandinavian midsummer virginal head wreath. That's hot.


  • Robert
  • March 16, 2006 at 8:02:00 AM CST
  • he, very nice... today is more crosses...


  • Anonymous
  • July 16, 2007 at 7:29:00 PM CDT
  • To whoever wrote the original post: did you intend to have a porn site linked to your word "here" in your post "While browsing around HERE for images to use..."?

    If no, you might want to fix your URL.


  • Alexander Trevi
  • July 16, 2007 at 8:59:00 PM CDT
  • Yikes! The link is now fixed.

    Thanks, Anonymous!


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