Because I’ve been reading about the Klaipeda region (former Memel), I’ve been checking out my own photos of the area. This was from one of our first stops, after spending a few days exploring the beautiful city of Riga in Latvia.
We cycled over into Lithuania, cheated with a short van ride, and then ended up at the ‘Hill of Crosses’. Featuring at least 100,000 crosses, sitting rather randomly in the middle of farmland, this pilgrimage site has been growing steadily for almost two hundred years. Reflecting the Catholic faith and political repression, many of these crosses are homemade. This led me to the discovery that ‘cross-crafting’ is considered a UNESCO Lithuanian culture tradition (in the same way that borscht is recognized for Ukraine).
Having little prior appreciation of how Lithuania was connected to my East Prussian quest, the ‘Hill of Crosses’, 120 kilometers southwest of Riga, was a stark introduction to this beautiful Baltic landscape that has absorbed much violence, much suffering in the name of politics.
I could have spent all day climbing the steps, pausing over and over again at the rustic crosses put up to remember the Lithuanian victims of Soviet repression (along with earlier struggles for independence). The hill continues to be a symbol for peace and Lithuanian perseverance.
Cycling across four Baltic countries, required a different sort of perseverance and so Ramos, our Lithuanian cycling guide, dragged us away from the poignant Hill of Crosses, onward towards to the port city of Klaipeda, once known as Memel.
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