Lithuania of crosses: traditions of cross-structures in Lithuania

Abstract

The study is devoted to peculiarities of development of cross-crafting in Lithuania. Setting up crosses, memorial monuments, different sort of chapels and icon-cases is a specific phenomenon in the folk culture of the country. Some time in the past crosses stood so close that only several dozens of meters were from one another. The Lithuanians themselves called their country “the earth of crosses” or Lithuania of crosses. That is why it is not mere chance that there are about 20 absolutely special sacred complexes on the territory of the republic, so called “Mountains of crosses”. Some of them are also described in the article.