Back in 2017, we decided to drive around Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on our own for few days and came across this site of pilgrimage in Lithuania on the day of easter!
We actually landed in Riga, capital of Latvia, late evening, a day before easter. As quite usual, this was a sudden plan, hence we asked at the aiport information centre as to where would be best to go on the easter day as we knew there are lot of tourists attractions are closed on the easter day in European countries.
We were advised to go to "Hill of Crosses", which is in Lithuania and is about 2 hours drive from Riga. This time we had already booked a car in advance to drive around these three countries and hence it just for in put plan perfectly!
We quickly headed to our accomodation, which we booked quiet near to the airport for an early morning start for Hill of Crosses.
Hills of Crosses is basically a major site of Catholic pilgrimage, which is said to be set up in early 18th century wherein the first cross was placed here on the hill. Since then and over the generations, people and pilgrims are not only leaving the crosses, but also statues of virgin Mary, crucifixes, garlands etc. here. These crosses, statues and crucifixes are of all sizes ranging from a pin sized to as large as a small hill!
I saw the pictures of the place on the internet a day before we visited this place, so I actually didn't had anything in my mind on how actual it would be! However, as soon as i reached there, it gave me a feeling of a spooky movie site, with a jungle of holy crosses and statues hanging on there in thousands, lot dating back to century!
I asked if the site is open late in the evening to visit, just to get a feel of how it would be like tp visit in the evening, but were told it is closed early evening.
This site itself is not inside the town and is around 12 kilometres from the nearest small town, hence will definitely give you a very different feeling of being somewhere at the alien land for sure 😊
How to reach
Driving is the best option. You can drive from Vilnius, capital of Lithuania or Riga, capital of Latvia. The place is a 2.5 and 2 hours drive respectively.
There are tour companies as well who take a bus tour to this place, if you are not renting a car you can take one of these tours!
Cost:
You can rent a car as cheap as 20 usd a day in any of these countries, which will be quiet cheaper and much flexible
I will be writing further on what else we did in our trip in Latvia and Estonia soon, so stay tuned!!!
