Hill of Crosses in Lithuania- Where Hope Is Planted

No one really knows how it began.

When I saw the picture of this place on the internet, I was curious. Who started placing cross here? And how come it became a tradition?

Well, I didn’t have an answer. I don’t think Lithuanian people know the reason for sure. Although it is said that people lost their family members who rebelled against the Russian. And so people placed crosses here. Russian people would take the crosses down the next morning, and because of this more people would place more crosses the next day!

Well, it’s quite a interesting story.

Entrance Fee: Free (although you need to pay for parking). 

My Experience

I went there in the morning, and saw some vendors selling crosses at the entrance. It was very cheap. A small cross would only cost you about 2 euros.

In the entrance there was also a young band playing Amazing Grace and other songs. It was beautiful. They played Lithuania’s traditional instruments. When I told the female musician that there’s also a similar instrument in China (and India), she said she knew! Yet this was still Lithuania’s instrument. So cool!

While there’s no entrance fee to this place, it is not flooded with tourists. Part of it because it’s far from the capital, and part of it because there aren’t many tourists in Lithuania in the first place……..

So, the hill of crosses. The pathway will take you to heaps of crosses. All kinds of crosses.

With small crosses available for sale and increased number of tourists, I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I say there must be a million crosses there! You’d also see names written in many languages. People bring their prayers here, and leave a cross.

There is also a monastery nearby although I don’t think it’s open for tourists like us. And is this place Christian (because it has so many crosses here)? My answer it didn’t remind me anything about Jesus. It feels more religious and cultural. 

So yes, it would be fun and cool to see so many crosses. But for me, hmmm…. if you are short on time…it’s not a must see.

On the other hand, the Father of Modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was a Lithuanian Jew. He was born in Luzki, Lithuania in 1858. He revived the Hebrew language and made it a spoken language again as he moved to Palestine in 1881 (occupied by Ottoman Turks at the time). The Jews from all over the places spoke about 70 different languages, and the Jews in Israel spoke Yiddish. And his baby son was the first child in 2000 years that grew up in a Hebrew-speaking family. in So if we talk about hope, yes, see this example, there is always hope 🙂

Final Word

There’s nothing to see in Siaulial (where Hill of Crosses is), so does it really worth a day to come here? The transportation is not easy. It means you’ll need to take a bus (at least 4-5 hours) from Vilnius (the capital of Lithuania) to Siaulial, and then if you are lucky, you may take another bus to get there on the same day. For this reason, I don’t think it’s worth it.

So Why Did I Still Come Here?

I rented a car, and I figured it was only 2 hours drive from Kemeri National Park in Latvia to get there. And I found a couchsurfing host in Siaulial. So it wasn’t too out of my way. But I’d say even Kaunas (another city in Lithuania) or even staying in Vilnius for another day will be more rewarding than Hill of Crosses.