Travel Guide Žemaicių Kalvarija

Located 15 km north of Plateliai, the village of Žemaicių Kalvarija deserves a visit. This small charming village draws its name from an historic event that marks its destiny forever. In 1633, Jurgis Tiškievičius, bishop of Samogitie, built in the small town of Gardai 19 chapels on a 4,50 km course illustrating the Passion of Christ. This is how Gardai becomes Žemaicių Kalvarija and a very important pilgrimage place. Reach here in Rome in 1640, the miraculous icon of the Virgin is located on the main altar of the Basilica of the Visitation (late eighteenth century). Celui Kalvarija was the First Cross road to be built in Lithuania and the only one has survived intact. Every year, at the beginning of July, during the feast of the Visitation and for ten days, the city fills itself with pilgrims in procession.3,5 km from Žemaicių Kalvarija, Gardai Oz is a form of depression next to the Varduvos River. This sort of digue in crète form is the result of the presence here of a glacier about 12 000 years ago. The water of the melted glacier filled depression.