In 1795 Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire. Poles and Lithuanians unsuccessfully rebelled against Russian authorities in 1831 and 1863. These two uprisings are connected with the beginnings of the hill: as families could not locate bodies of perished rebels, they started putting up symbolic crosses at a former hill fort. In 1914 about 200 crosses stood on the hill.
The Soviets bulldozed the site at least three times and worked hard to remove new crosses, but they came again and again. Finally the Soviets gave up. In 1993 Pope John Paul II visited the Hill of Crosses, declaring it a place for hope, peace, love and sacrifice. Nowadays there are more than 100.000 crosses an this little hill.
In the 17th century, the castle was damaged and gradually fell into disrepair. In 1951 a thorough reconstruction made the castle into a tourist attraction on this nice lake.
Everybody can place a cross up to 3 metres |
On the way to the coast we had also visited the Trakai Island Castle not far from Vilnius. It was built in the 15th century and was one of the main centres of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.