WHILE it may look like a haunted hill straight out of a gothic horror film, this is in fact Lithuania’s Hill of Crosses, one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Europe.

The hill, which is home to an estimated 200,000 crosses, has been visited by the likes of Pope John Paul II and have been placed on the mount since the 1831 November Uprising, during the Polish-Russian war raged through Lithuania. The images were captured by Lucie Debelkova, a local photographer, captured the images 12km north of the northern Lithuanian city Siauliai. After Pope John Paul visited the site in 1993, a monastery was constructed in 2000 in an effort to serve the number of pilgrims flooding to see the hill. Between 1944 and 1990 the Hill of Crosses took on a special significance when it became a symbol of resistance of the Soviet Union when authorities repeatedly tried to bulldoze it. Thousands of the crosses stand at over three or 4 metres high, with some reaching even greater heights. Many people have left crosses to commemorate relatives, while others have paid tribute to the victims of disasters. SEE MORE SHOTS OF LITHUANIA’S HILL OF CROSSES