Sacro Monte di Varallo, Tabacchetti and Giovanni d'Enrico, Christ on the Road to Calvary, 1599-1600, sculpted main figures and a fresco behind

Devotions at Žemaičių Kalvarija in Lithuania, 2006

Chapels at the Sacro Monte di Oropa

The Conception of Mary at the Sacro Monte di Oropa

Chapels in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska

Mystery play at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, 2011

A calvary, also called calvary hill, Sacred Mount, or Sacred Mountain, is a type of Christian sacred place, built on the slopes of a hill, composed by a set of chapels, usually laid out in the form of a pilgrims' way. It is intended to represent the passion of Jesus Christ and takes its name after Calvary, the hill in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified.

Sacro Monte di Domodossola

Calvary hill in Maria Lanzendorf (1700)

These function as greatly expanded versions of the Stations of the Cross that are usual in Catholic churches, allowing the devout to follow the progress of the stages of the Passion of Christ along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. Each chapel contains a large image of the scene from the Passion it commemorates, sometimes in sculpture, that may be up to life-size. 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 with the Franciscan and Jesuit orders, and are most common in Italy and Habsburg Central Europe. They were usually placed in parks near a church or a monastery, typically on a hill which the visitor gradually ascends. Italian ones are usually called a sacro monte ("holy mountain" or "hill"); there are a group of nine Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy that are especially notable; their dates of foundation vary between 1486 and 1712. Devotions would be most popular in Passion Week, before Easter, when large processions around the stations would be held, and mystery plays might be acted. 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 complex.

Terminology

The Mount of Calvary was the site outside the gates of Jerusalem where the crucifixion of Christ took place. The scene was replicated around the world in numerous "calvary hills" after the Counter-Reformation and they are used by Roman Catholics in particular as part of their worship and veneration of God.

The term is derived from the Latin translation in the Vulgate of the Aramaic name for original hill, Golgotha, where it was called calvariae locus, Latin for "the place of the skull".^[1][2] Martin Luther translated Golgatha as "skull place" (Scheddelstet). This translation is debated; at the very least it is not clear whether it referred to the shape of the hill, its use as a place of execution or burial or refers to something else.^[3]

"Calvary hill" today refers to a roughly life-size depiction of the scenes of the Passion of Christ, with sculptures of additional figures. These scenes are set up on the slopes of a hill. The traditional fourteen stations of the cross are usually laid out on the way up to the top of the pilgrimage hill and there is often a small, remote church or chapel located between a few dozen to several hundred metres away.

Calvary hills must not be confused with calvaries, which are a specific type of wayside monumental crucifix, a tradition mostly found in Brittany especially in the Finistère, built in parish closes between 1450 and the 17th century.

• Representative examples
• 
  Multi-figure wayside monument
  (Retz)
• 
  The Calvary Hill in Lend (Graz) around 1830
• 
  Calvary hill and stations of the cross chapel
  (St. Radegund bei Graz)
• 
  Shrine with numerous chapels
  (Graz)
• 
  Hill chapel with stations of the cross
  (Arzl bei Innsbruck)
• 
  Park-like layout
  (Cvikov)
• 
  Freely visible landscape monument on the summit
  (Calvary hill near Jiřetín pod Jedlovou)
• 
  Layout at a monastery
  (Krastowa Gora)

Calvaries in the world

Czech Republic

Chapels at the calvary in Jiřetín pod Jedlovou, Czech Republic

• in Jiřetín pod Jedlovou
• in Cvikov

Lithuania

A 17th century Verkiai Calvary in Vilnius, Lithuania, c. 1840s

• Žemaičių Kalvarija
• Kalvarija, Lithuania
• Verkiai Calvary

Poland

Chapels at the calvary in Góra Świętej Anny, Poland

Chapels at the Pakość Calvary, 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
• Ujście, near Piła
• Krzeszów, near Wałbrzych
• Pszów, near Wodzisław Śląski
• Bardo, near Kłodzko
• Piekary Śląskie, near Bytom
• Głotowo, near Olsztyn
• Wiele, near Chojnice
• Kodeń, near Biała Podlaska

See also

• blessed Alvarez of Córdoba
• Christian Kruik van Adrichem
• Stations of the Cross

References

Literature

German:

• Atlas der europäischen Heiligen Berge, Kalvarienberge und Devotionsstätten (in German), Turin: Direktion für Tourismus, Sport und Gärten der Region Piemont, 2003
• Walter Brunner (1990), Steirische Kalvarienberge (in German), Graz etc.: Schnider, ISBN 3-900993-02-5
• Elisabeth Roth (1967), Der volkreiche Kalvarienberg in Literatur und Bildkunst des Spätmittelalters (in German) (2nd ed.), Berlin: Erich Schmidt – Philologische Studien und Quellen 2, ISSN 0554-0674
• Louise-Marie Tillet (1989), Reisewege durch die Bretagne. Calvaires und romanische Kirchen (in German), Würzburg: Echter Verlag, ISBN 3-429-01186-8
• Kath. Pfarramt; Maria Himmelfahrt; Johannes Port (1989), Der Kalvarienberg zu Wettenhausen. Gebete und Geschichte einer altehrwürdigen Wallfahrtsstätte (in German), Kammeltal: s. n.

French:

• Yves-Pascal Castel (1997), Croix et calvaires en Bretagne. = Kroaziou ha kalvarihou or bro (in French), Trelevenez: Minihi levenez, ISBN 2-908230-09-7 – also in the Breton language
• Marc Déceneux (2001), La Bretagne des enclos et des calvaires (in French), Rennes: Ouest-France, ISBN 2-7373-2261-8 – Mémoires de l'histoire
• Yannick Pelletier (1996), Les enclos Paroissiaux de Bretagne (in French), Paris: Gisserot – Les universels Gisserot 13, ZDB-ID 2216999-4

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Calvary hills.

• Documentation centre for Sacri Monti, calvary hills and European sites of commemoration
• Elżbieta Bilska-Wodecka, European Calvaries: Analysis of Structures, Types and Origins
• Sacri Monti: From Jerusalem to Sacred Mounts

• Polish Calvaries: Architecture as a Stage for the Passion of Christ