Creepy Hill Of Crosses In Lithuania

DiamondSmiles · #1 ● 04-18-2014, 10:22 PM

Not my words!

By Lazer Horse
sickchirpse.com

April 10

I like looking for creepy travel destinations, I never actually go to any of them but, I’d like to imagine that one day I will.

I might give this one a miss though. This Hill of Crosses is situated about 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai, in northern Lithuania and it’s completely awash with crucifixes and crosses of all sizes.

Catholics visit the Hill of Crosses as a pilgrimage and everyone that makes the holy trip leaves a religious knick-knack behind.

It looks pretty awesome in the morning mist doesn’t it?:

The place has been covered in crosses for at least 100 years. The reason why the collection began isn’t known 100%, but, many believe it was after the bloody November Uprising of 1831 that people started to bring crosses to the spot.

The November Uprising involved a bunch of down-trodden troops in Lithuania rebelling against the might of the occupying Russian force. They made a heroic stand along with other fighters from Poland, Ukraine and Belarus but were crushed in less than a year. At least 60,000 people were killed or injured in the 11 months of fighting.

It seems likely that the heavy losses in the November Uprising’s were the starting signal for the swarm of crosses. People were often unable to locate the bodies of their friends and relatives lost in battle, so this spot seems to have been chosen as a general shrine.

Catholic pilgrims also bring rosaries, Virgin Mary statues and other religious tat. An estimate in 2006, put the number of items at 100,000.

The site has become a symbol of Lithuanian independence and peace, so despite looking pretty creepy, as far as Lithuanians are concerned it’s got a hugely positive and defiant vibe about it.

From 1944-1990, Lithuania was once again taken over by the Soviets. The hill became a shrine to silent, peaceful rebellion. People continued to make pilgrimages there to quietly pray that the Russian’s would bugger off once and for all.

The Russians didn’t like the hill one bit, they knew how important it was and what it meant to Lithuania. So, they removed any new crosses that were placed there to try to trim down the number of visitors and keep its size down. That didn’t really work, so they completely bulldozed the lot at least three times. But, the people just started bringing the crosses back again, despite the dangers.

There were even rumours that the Soviets were considering damning a river so that the entire Hill of Crosses would be submerged. That’s how much they hated this simple symbol of resistance.

Nowadays, the hill is officially under no one’s jurisdiction, so people are free to plonk their crosses or whatever they fancy there whenever they like. On September 7, 1993, Pope John Paul, II even graced the hillock with his presence. I bet he loved it. He’s well into all that religion stuff apparently.

When I started out writing these short words on the Hill of Crosses, I thought it was going to be a spooky tale, but it wasn’t at all, was it? The hill was a massive middle finger to the Soviet interlopers and a place to mourn their dead.

On top of all that, it looks pretty cool and would be the perfect venue for the most epic game of hide and seek of all time.

I might not rock up there after dark though.