Hundreds of years ago, Lithuanians worshipped their Gods and did not know about Christianity. The great temple of the Gods of Aukštaitija was in Vilnius and protected from the enemies by undefeatable castles. The wars for the faith were fought in ancient times too. One of the most famous temples of those times was in a grove of hundred-year-old oaks, on the current Hill of Three Crosses. Under the holy oak, there stood a statue of the unknown god of Vilnius, depicting a bearded old man sitting on a throne with a crown on his head. It was believed that he was the Thunder. To his honour, the eternal flame was burned under the holy oak. Later, the spreaders of a new faith came and tried to force us to worship their gods with the help of weapons. Over time, the eternal flame died out on the Hill of Three Crosses. The guards, who were on watch at the statue of the unknown god, snatched it and through the secret caverns took it to the dungeon of Castle Hill. The old god was secretly worshipped here.
The eternal flame guardians fled, the old Temple of the Hill of Three Crosses burned to the ground, and the statue remained forever hidden in the dungeons. Three preachers of the new faith were killed by the guardians of the holy altar when they put out the holy flame of the Hill of Three Crosses. Later, three crosses were erected there to pay tribute to those killed. After that incident, to this day the hill has been called the Hill of Three Crosses. Several hundred years later, when the Russians had occupied all of Lithuania while excavating Vilnius Castle Hill, the statue of an unknown god deep in the ground among many other rare ancient excavations was found. It was preserved in the Vilnius Archaeological Museum. It is not known whether that statue is still in Vilnius.
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