I stumbled across this place when researching unusual sacred places and browsing through Flickr. Not many places immediately draw me to them but this place was so peaceful yet dark at the same time, so considered and full of dedication yet completely chaotic and almost violent in its history and layout.
Located in the north near the small town of Siauliai, it has represented Lithuanian spiritual identity since medieval times. It is built by ordinary people going there and leaving a cross. The Soviet regime raised it to the ground three times - burning the crosses, levelling the hill, making scrap metal from the remains, covering it with sewage, but the spiritual devotion of the Lithuanian people rebuilt it again and again. It has rested peacefully since the mid 80s and now contains hundreds of thousands of crosses. I am always fascinated by memory and place - how one contains the other and in general how woefully inadequate monuments are in truly containing a sense of collective memory - for me it is the personal memory that is the more powerful and truly defines how something was. Yet due to its personal nature private memory can be virtually impossible for others to detect - for me the hill of crosses is one of the few places containing a genuinely powerful collective memory - it is not trying to define a specific event in one object but has been built up in layers of personal history and national identity over many years. It is a true place of pilgrimage as you can leave a part of yourself behind - each person adding a new layer to the power and memory of the place. It is also extraordinarily beautiful...
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