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.
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 Ottoman Turkish rule and it was dangerous and highly difficult to make a pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Calvaries were especially popular with the Franciscan and Jesuit orders, and are most common in Italy, the Catholic regions of Germany, and Habsburg-ruled 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 also 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.
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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 St Jerome's Ecclesiastical Latin translation in the Vulgate of the Aramaic name for original hill, Golgotha, where it is termed calvariae locus "the place of the skull". 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.
"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.
Calvaries in the world
Austria
Calvary Hill, Bergkirche in Eisenstadt
Calvary Hill, Frauenkirchen
Calvary Hill, Lockenhaus
in Neusiedl am See
in Pinkafeld
in Sankt Paul im Lavanttal
in Sankt Stefan im Gailtal
near the Aggsbach Charterhouse in Aggsbach, a village in the Wachau
in Falkenstein in the wine quarter
in Kirchberg am Wechsel
in Lilienfeld, largest calvary hill in Austria
in Marbach an der Donau
in Maria-Lanzendorf near Vienna
in Pillersdorf in the wine quarter
Calvary Hill, Retz
in Eggenburg
in Zwettl
Calvary Hill, Aigen in the Mühlkreis
in Freistadt
Calvary Hill, Gosau
Calvary Hill, Kremsmünster
in St. Martin im Innkreis
in Schwertberg
Calvary Hill, Maria Bühel
Belarus
in Miadziel (a small town north of Minsk (Мядзел))
in Minsk (Мінск)
Belgium
in Moresnet/Plombières
in Malmedy
Bolivia
Cerro Calvario
Canada
The Oka Calvary Trail near Oka, Québec
Croatia
Calvary Hill near Aljmaš
Czech Republic
in Jiřetín pod Jedlovou
in Cvikov
Ethiopia
Lalibela
England
Mount St Bernard Abbey, Leicestershire.
Germany
(in alphabetical order by place)
Calvary Hill, Ahrweiler (with Kalvarienberg Abbey), Ahrweiler, county of Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate
Calvary Hill, Aiterbach, Aiterbach, county of Freising, Bavaria
Calvary Hill Chapel, Altomünster
in Bad Kissingen
in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler (as a school)
in Bad Laer
in Bad Tölz, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Bavaria
in Berchtesgaden
Calvary Hill, Bergheim, Bergheim, Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia
in Bidingen, county of Ostallgäu
in Birkungen (Thuringia)
in Burladingen
in Cham (Upper Palatinate)
in Donauwörth
Calvary Hill, Dorweiler, Dorweiler, county of Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia
in Ebnath in the Oberpfalz
in Falkenberg (Oberpfalz)
in Fichtelberg (Oberfranken)
in Fulda
Calvary Hill, Füssen, county of Ostallgäu, Bavaria
Greece
on the hill of Filerimos on Rhodes
Hungary
Calvary Hill in Pécs
Italy
Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy
Sacro Monte di Varallo
Sacred Mount Calvary of Domodossola
San Vivaldo Monastery 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
Žemaičių Kalvarija
Kalvarija, Lithuania
Verkiai 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
Romania
in the village of Billed, county of Timiș
Slovakia
Kalvária Banská Štiavnica
Prešov
Spišský Jeruzalem
Bratislava - the oldest calvary in Hungarian kingdom
Marianka
Skalica
Rožňava
Nitra
Doľany, Pezinok District
Slovenia
in Šmarje pri Jelšah
Kalvarija (Maribor)
Spain
in Poll ença
United States
Assumption Chapel, near Cold Spring, Minnesota
Calvary Hill (formerly), St Cloud, Minnesota
Way of the Cross, New Ulm, Minnesota
Wales
St David's Capuchin Friary, Pantasaph, Flintshire