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Witness / Attend in Siauliai
Hill of Crosses
A city in northern Lithuania best known as the gateway to the Hill of Crosses, the country's most famous pilgrimage site, set among the flat farmland and small towns of the Samogitian borderland.
No overall organizer. Siauliai Diocese anchors the event; the rest belongs to the streets.
Dates & details verified against: The institution itself ↗
Why here
The Hill of Crosses is one of the strangest and most moving sights in the Baltics. On a low mound sixteen kilometres north of Siauliai, pilgrims have planted crosses since around 1850, first for the dead of failed anti-tsarist uprisings, later as quiet resistance under Soviet rule when authorities bulldozed the hill several times and the crosses simply reappeared. Today more than fourteen thousand large crosses and tens of thousands of small ones cover it, still growing as visitors add their own. You can come any day and walk the paths in near silence, or time a visit to the annual feast in late July when the site fills with pilgrims and open-air Mass.
Best months
The hill is an open-air site, freely accessible year-round in daylight, best from late spring to early autumn when the paths are dry and the light is long. The main annual feast (atlaidai) falls on the penultimate Sunday of July, with an outdoor Mass and the largest crowds of the year; the rest of the time it is quiet.
Getting there & around
The Hill of Crosses is about twelve kilometres north of Siauliai near Jurgaiciai, off the road toward Joniskis and Riga. There is no train to the site itself; most visitors drive, take a taxi, or use the seasonal local bus toward Meskuiciai and walk the final stretch. Entry is free and there is a small car park, a cross-sellers' stall and a Franciscan monastery nearby.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Siauliai Diocese
OrganizerThe Hill of Crosses, sixteen kilometres north of Siauliai, is a folk pilgrimage mound first recorded around 1850 and now carrying more than 14,000 large crosses and tens of thousands of small ones. The Siauliai diocese, established in 1997, oversees the site, where Soviet authorities bulldozed the crosses in the 1960s and 1970s only for them to reappear. A Franciscan monastery was consecrated nearby in 2000, and the diocese holds the annual feast on the penultimate Sunday of July.