Calvary (sanctuary)


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 its name after the Calvary, the hill in Jerusalem where, according to tradition, 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 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 ; 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". Martin Luther translated Golgatha as "skull place". 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 scene of crucifixion with crucifixes, usually the cross of Jesus and the two criminals, but many are more elaborate, including sculptures of additional figures. These scenes of the crucifixion are set up on small hillocks, which may be natural or artificial. Often 14 or so stations of the cross are laid out on the way up to 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 are also a symbol of Brittany, where they were built during the Breton Renaissance especially in the Finistère in specially created parish closes.
Of great importance was the erection of calvary hills north of the Alps in the Baroque era during the Counter-Reformation.

Calvaries in the world

Austria

Burgenland

The Calvary at Mount St Bernard's Abbey in Leicestershire. there is also another hill called Calvary hill a few miles north in Thringstone but its history is unknown and it has no known monuments.

France

The Calvaire of Notre Dame de Tronoën in Saint-Jean-Trolimon dates to 1450 and is one of the oldest in Brittany. Other famous locations in Brittany are:
German:
French: