Kryžių Kalnas. Lithuania. Mono with an incey wincey tiny bit of bit of colour!
Published on HivePostify by @grindle · Wed Jul 22 2026
Soak up the atmosphere as you wind your way up the hill, through an avenue of huge and architecturally magnificent crosses as well as spying smaller more discreet bits and pieces of religious paraphernalia. Most of these crosses are devotional, whilst others are memorials, many for people deported to Siberia, they will NEVER forget "The Great Purge".
UNESCO actually recognises cross-making as an intangible cultural heritage of Lithuania, being a “symbol of national and religious identity."
The exact origins of Lithuania's Kryžių Kalnas, remains a mystery it is first mentioned in writing in 1850, but it is believed some crosses appeared earlier, left by mourning relatives of the victims of revolts against the Russian Empire in 1831. You see, the inbred Romanov dynasty suppressed national identity and religious expression; families were forbidden to honour their dead with proper burials in cemeteries.
Fucking strong vodka is drunk in these here parts, because an alternative belief is that an apparition of the "Virgin" Mary holding baby Jesus popped up and asked the believers to cover the hill with crosses.
A Traditional Lithuanian koplytstulpis, wooden sculptures of figures topped with a little roof.
If you are inclined to add your own tat, in the nearby car park, there are many stalls set up by enterprising souvenir traders.
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