Allotment gardens in Lithuania

Hi, everyone! I hope you had a nice summer. I surely did ;) The weather in Lithuania was not very pleasant with lots of rain and not too warm. But I had great vacations. Now I am back and ready to write more blog posts.

Most of my summer I spent in the allotment garden outside Vilnius, so today I will explain you what it is, because I know that in some countries allotments do not exist.

During the times of the Soviet Union people living in the cities were given small (6-8 a) plots of land outside the city. The areas of these plots were called “collective gardens”. Usually people grew vegetable and fruits in their land and they also could build small houses. Building big serious houses in allotment gardens was forbidden, so the houses there were suitable to live only in summer.

Nowadays allotment gardens still exist near all the biggest cities in Lithuania. But the times have changed, so the primary purpose of having a garden now is not growing vegetables, but having a country-house and a nice place to spend weekends. Now many people build big houses in allotments and move to live there all year long.

Hill of Crosses

Today I will present you a unique sight you MUST visit if you come to Lithuania. It’s the Hill of Crosses. I have never heard about other place like this on Earth…

As you probably know, we, Lithuanians, are Catholics. We are a very godly nation. So in 19^th century some devout people started building crosses on the hill not far away from the city of Siauliai. The origin of the tradition to leave a cross on the hill is not known. But it is thought that it is connected to the Lithuanians uprising against Russians in 19^th century. Families did not know where the bodies of some dead rebels were, so they started building crosses in a place of a former hill fort.

During the times of Soviet occupation Russians tried to destroy the Hill of Crosses three times, but Lithuanians did not stop bringing crosses to the hill. Only in 1985 the Soviets finally left the Hill of Crosses in peace.

In 1993 Pope John Paul II visited the Hill of Crosses.

Now hundreds of thousands of crosses are on the hill. Actually, the hill is too small for so many crosses so nowadays they are built around the square near the hill. The variety of crosses is amazing! If you come to the Hill of Crosses leave the cross there too and ask for God’s blessing for your family.

Here are some photos of the Hill of Crosses I made this summer:

Hill of Crosses

Crosses near the path to the hill