13 of 18 · · Merkinė, Varėna district
Merkinė Hill of Crosses: the largest memorial to the Dainava partisans
Where after the war the “stribai” buried murdered partisans, a chapel and hundreds of crosses now stand. More than 400 freedom fighters of Dzūkija are commemorated at the memorial.
What happened here
After the war, the bodies of partisans killed around Merkinė were dumped in the town square and then buried in gravel pits near the “stribynas”. In Soviet times a stadium was built on the site, and the ground was levelled with tractors so that no trace would remain.
In 1989, on the initiative of the priest Rokas Algimantas Puzonas, the first cross “To those who died for freedom and an independent Lithuania” was erected here. The teacher Juozas Kaupinis became the main creator of the memorial. His crosses resemble family trees: they bear the names both of those who fell with weapons in hand and of those who died in exile. In 1993–1994 a partisan chapel was built in the middle of the former stadium. On 9 October 1994 it was blessed by the priests Alfonsas Svarinskas, Rokas Algimantas Puzonas and Robertas Grigas.
After the war Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis, Lionginas Baliukevičius-Dzūkas and Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas were active in the forests of the Merkinė area. Kazimieraitis, Vanagas and other freedom fighters are honoured at the Hill of Crosses every year. For example, on 1 July 2018, after Mass and the lecture “Colonel Kazimieraitis in the Resistance”, a gun salute was fired here.
“This is where most men fell, but also where most new men joined the partisan ranks.”
A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas on the Merkinė battalion (quoted by the Merkinė Regional Museum)
What you will see
- The partisan chapel in the middle of the former stadium (1994).
- A cross with the descending Christ by the sculptor and poet Albertas Donatas Belevičius.
- J. Kaupinis’s crosses – memorial trees of families and kin.
- A wayside shrine with a Pietà and hundreds of crosses around the former stadium.
Sources (in Lithuanian)
Sources (in Lithuanian): Merkinė Regional Museum (history of the memorial recorded by A. Černiauskas); A. Zalanskaitė archive. Coordinates from a photo taken on 5 July 2020.