Calvary (sanctuary)
Calvary is the hill in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. It may mean also a set of religious edifices imitating it, often constructed on hills, sometimes called Sacred Mount/-ain. It functions as a sanctuary of the Passion of Christ where Mystery plays are held before Easter, often with miraculous images of Our Lady of Sorrows and sometimes the relics of the True Cross. This kind of shrine was especially popular in the Baroque period when the Holy Land was under Turkish rule and it was difficult to make a pilgrimage to the Mount Calvary in Jerusalem. Calvaries were especially popular in the Franciscans and Jesuit orders. They were usually placed in parks near a church or a monastery. If a calvary was established in an inhabited place, it might result in a location of a new village or town. Several villages and towns are named after such a structure since it.
Calvaries in the world
Austria
Czech Republic
Ethiopia
Italy
- Sacro Monte di Varallo
- Sacred Mount Calvary of Domodossola
- San Vivaldo in Montaione
- Sacro Monte di Orta
- Sacro Monte di Varese
- Sacro Monte di Crea
- Sacro Monte di Ghiffa
- Sacro Monte di Ossuccio
- Sacro Monte di Oropa
- Sacro Monte di Belmonte
Lithuania
Poland
- Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, near Kraków
- Góra Kalwaria, near Warsaw
- Wejherowo, near Gdańsk
- Kalwaria Pacławska, near Przemyśl
- Kalwaria Panewnicka, in Katowice
- Pakość, near Inowrocław
- Góra Świętej Anny, near Opole
- Wambierzyce, near Kłodzko