By eurotopics | 16.02.2012 | 2:02 ET in Europe

Lithuania: Authorities menace Hill of Crosses

Lithuania’s authority for the preservation of public monuments wants to set regulations for erecting crucifixes on the Hill of Crosses, a Catholic pilgrimage destination in the north of the country, so as to preserve the monument for future generations

The online edition of the liberal daily Lietuvos rytas opposes the plan:

“In Czarist times and during the Soviet era, the Hill of Crosses became a symbol of popular resistance to the foreign power. It grew up spontaneously, and not as a project ‘from above’. The crosses were erected against the authorities who were in power at the time.

… Now the attempt is being made to curb this collective artwork against the will of the people. As if the dark Soviet days were back again, the authorities have once more denounced the ‘illegal erection of crosses’.

… They are trying to stop a living tradition, to stuff it like an animal. Because clearly it’s simpler to deal with a stuffed object than with a living being.”

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