The Hill of Crosses is a very unusual sight and definitely worth a visit. We stayed the night for free in the car park, you just need to go into the tourist information and ask and they give you a ticket. This meant we could visit this amazing place at sunset and sunrise.
It also meant that we missed alot of the people visiting as it gets very busy during the day, the coaches turn up in droves.
It is a remarkable symbol of Lithuanian peaceful resistance to the Soviet occupation. People used to bring crosses to a hill once crowned by a medieval castle. The atheist Soviet government used to tear all the crosses down and persecute the pilgrims, but very soon the crosses would spring up again, restoring the number to hundreds and thousands.
In 1990 when Lithuanian independence was restored 14,387 large crosses and 40,944 small crosses were counted, covering an area of 4602 square meters. By 2007 the number surpassed 200,000 crosses.
The atmosphere in the Hill of Crosses is surreal. Alot of the crosses bear inscriptions with names of the people and their reasons for erecting the cross. The inscriptions are largely Lithuanian, but you will find inscriptions in a lot of different languages.
