Kryždirbystė atgimusioje Lietuvoje
Cross Craft in Reborn Lithuania

Summary/Abstract: Most of chapels and crosses built during the Independence period are a sign of keeping a promise or pledge given some time ago, of gratitude for magical escape from dangers of war and so on. It is characteristic that these promises are kept after several decades because it was impossible during the Soviet period. Crosses and ensembles of other memorials were built in towns and countries, at farmsteads, roadsides, crossroads, in graveyards, churchyards, various historical places, reservations and regional parks, yards of institutions and outside the buildings, in former farmsteads, destroyed and abondoned villages, places of fights and resistence, on highways, places of accidents and catastrophes or even under water. It is necessary to mention that during the Rebirth period crosses that appeared suddenly on highways, near electricity lines, parking lots became serious obstracles on roads. Crosses were built by craftsmen who had no sense of measurement and proportion. Modern, refined and unsuccessfully ornamented crosses covered with shining copper started appearing in farmsteads. In 1990 after Lithuania regained its statehood a more active interest in the topicality of cross craft was showed. There was a concern to reestablish national heritage, conserve, restore, and build new monuments, and on 18 May, 2001, when Lithuanian cross craft was included into the list of intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO, those who created symbolic objects and in this way literally cherished the conception of inherited cultural tradition, deserved gratitude. A morbid interest of collectors, snobs and thieves arouse. After the restoration of Independence an unpleasant process of destruction of crosses was not stopped, and now it is difficult to foresee the future for cross craft.

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