Over the centuries, Hill of Crosses has come to signify a peaceful endurance of Lithuanian Catholicism despite threats it faced throughout the history. After the third partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire. Both 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 in place of a former hill fort. On February 16, 1918 Lithuania declared its independence. During 1944-1990, when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, Lithuanians continued to travel to the Hill and leave their tributes to demonstrate their allegiance to their original identity, religion and heritage. Unsuccessfully, Soviets tried hard to destroy the Hill and bulldozed the site at least three times. Today, the crosses continue to find their home on the Hill, symbolizing not only prayers for personal health, happiness, prosperity but freedom of those regions of the world that continue to fight for their freedom.
