People are awesome: A hill covered with thousands crosses

Situated among lush green hills of the countryside of Lithuania, on the outskirts of the city of Siauliai, a strange scenario is obvious visitors: tens of thousands of crosses, large, small, made of metal, wood or granite, stacked one above the other.

The Hill of Crosses is a site of pilgrimage about 12 km north of the city of Siauliai, in northern Lithuania. The precise origin of the practice of leaving crosses on the hill is uncertain, but it is believed that the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaiciai or Domantai hill fort after the 1831 Uprising. Over the centuries, not only crosses, but giant crucifixes, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, statues of the Virgin Mary and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The exact number of crosses is unknown, but estimates put it at about 55,000 in 1990 and 100,000 in 2006.

Over the centuries, the place has come to signify the peaceful endurance of Lithuanian Catholicism despite the threats it faced throughout history. After the 3rd partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire.