▲The town of Šiauliai was established in the early 1200s as a means to guard against raids by the Teutonic and Livonian Orders.

▲Located about 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai in northern Lithuania, the Hill of Crosses is a mysterious pilgrimage site.

▲Nobody knows when the practice of leaving crosses on the hill started.

▲On the night of April 5, 1961, the crosses were bulldozed and crushed, before being pushed downhill. The hill was attacked several other times in the years that followed.

▲Pilgrims would always rebuild their holy site, and "the more fervently the hill was being destroyed, the more powerfully it would be rebuilt," as described by Lithuania Travel.

▲The story contends that the surviving Samogitians piled the slain bodies of their fallen countrymen and buried them, forming the mound.

▲The ghosts of both monks and pagans are said to still haunt the hill at night.

▲Other legends say that, in the 1300s, the hill housed a wooden castle manned by the pagan barons of the Samogitia region. It was then destroyed by German warrior-monks who were tasked with Christianizing the place.

▲Perhaps the most well-known story of the hill’s creation is the tale of a desperate father whose daughter fell gravely ill.

▲Throughout the generations, magical appearances, visions of saints, and sightings of ghosts have contributed to the hill’s history and lore.

▲The story says that when the man returned home after placing the cross on the hill, his daughter greeted him at the door, perfectly healthy again.

▲Cross-making is one of the most unique Lithuanian crafts.

▲The hill gained international attention when Pope John Paul II visited it in September 1993.

▲He celebrated Mass on the hill, praying for the martyrs of faith in Lithuania and Europe.

▲Following the Pope's visit, a Franciscan monastery was built near the hill.

▲The man, as he cared for his daughter on her death bed, had a vision of a woman who told him that if he made a wooden cross and placed it on a nearby hill, the girl would recover.

▲So much so that the craft is included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

▲The cross-making tradition is so ingrained in Lithuanian society that it was not interrupted even under the strict Soviet rule.

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As the hill does not belong to any jurisdiction, people are free to build crosses as they see fit.

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According to the stories, a church once sat on the hill until a powerful storm buried it under sand and rock with people inside.

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Locals say a ghost procession of monks can be spotted at the foot of the hill at sunrise.

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Crosses were again banned during the Soviet rule, causing even more crosses to be placed on the hill.

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As Lithuanians of faith stubbornly continued to bring their crosses, the site became a symbol of their unshakable faith, sufferings, and hopes.

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Nearly three decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, the crosses are still standing and multiplying.

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Various generations have gone on to leave not only crosses but also crucifixes, statues of the Virgin Mary, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, and tiny effigies and rosaries.

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Though Lithuanians had been leaving crosses for a few decades, the massive numbers began to arrive in 1863, when Tsarist authorities banned crosses by roadsides and in cemeteries.

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Some believe that the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaičiai or Domantai hill fort after the 1831 Uprising during the Polish–Russian War from 1830–31.

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The Hill of Crosses is minimally maintained by the municipality of Šiauliai and local Franciscan monks. Today, more than 100,000 crucifixes and other religious icons cover the hill.

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Inspired by the story, people took to leaving crosses on the hill in the hopes that their prayers would be answered.

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Tucked away in a little corner in northern Lithuania is a place like no other in the world. The Hill of Crosses combines thousands upon thousands of crosses, all woven together into legends and fables. This sacred place is unique not only for its size, but also for its history, filled with tragedy and death, hope and redemption.

Click through the gallery to take a tour through this fascinating place of faith.