Last week I've read Wickman's Pupils [1] by Jaan Kross [2]. The book is about life, attending Wickman's private school, graduating from high school and growing up, and even though there are a lot of funny parts in the book at first, the end is as sobering as adulthood. For example, it reports on deportations. The book is set largely in Tallinn, i.e. Estonia and not Lithuania, but all three Baltic republics have suffered a similar fate: centuries of foreign rule and then, especially under Stalinism, deportations and interference in the religious and national feelings of their inhabitants.
In Lithuania there is the Hill of Crosses (Lithuanian: Kryžių kalnas) [3], a national memorial site that is covered with crosses. The place is about 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai [4]. These crosses commemorate deportees, deceased or missing persons. Interestingly, this is not a new project, but began about two centuries ago. But more on that in a moment. When we got there, I was surprised that you had to go under a road from a parking lot and that was the first time I saw a sign prohibiting begging. Apparently the pilgrims were harassed so much on their way to the memorial that one had to stop it.
The German Wikipedia article tells of a legend: A father fell asleep at his daughter's sickbed. A white female figure appeared to him and told him to put up a cross on the hill. The man did as he was told and put up a cross there. When he returned home, his daughter had recovered.
After the uprising of 1831, the first crosses were put up, but statues of the Virgin Mary, rosaries and other devotional items were also brought there. It is believed that there are more than 200,000 crosses there, a more modest estimate for 2006 was more than 100,000 crosses. Let us remember that the majority of Lithuanians are Roman Catholic [5]. In 1961 and 1975, during the Soviet era, many of the old crosses were destroyed. In the Wikipedia article you can see what the KGB and Soviet Army did against this hill, the faith and the people, laymen and priests alike, to prevent the erection of crosses.
Pope John Paul II visited the place in 1993 and a stone with an inscription commemorates this. UNESCO named Lithuanian cross-crafting in the lists of good safeguarding practices and intangible cultural heritage. A little away from the hill there is a church with a monastery on a hill. One can easily walk there. And now to something completely different, one could see storks in the surrounding meadows.
If you are travelling via Šiauliai on the E12 towards Riga (Latvia), you can easily make a detour on road 4033. This site shouldn't be missed.
Links and Annotations:
[1] Jaan Kross: The Wikman Boys (Original title: Wikmani poisid; 1988). I've read: Wikmans Zöglinge. Aus dem Estnischen von Irja Grönholm. Mit einem Nachwort von Cornelius Hasselblatt. Osburg, Hamburg 2017. ISBN: 9783955101299.
[2] Jaan Kross (1920-2007) was an Estonian writer. He won the 1995 International Nonino Prize in Italy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaan_Kross
[3] Hill of Crosses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Crosses and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berg_der_Kreuze
[4] Šiauliai: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0iauliai
[5] More on this topic: Religious Affiliation in the recently visited States of the Baltic Sea https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/09/religious-affiliation-in-recently.html "According to a census of 2021, 74.2% were Catholics, 4.4% Orthodox, 0.6% Lutherans and those without a religious affiliation made up 13.7%." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Lithuania
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