More than 200,000 crosses, rosaries, and devotional carvings now cover the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai, Lithuania—yet the site began in the 1830s with a handful of wooden markers planted by families of fallen independence fighters. Soviet authorities bulldozed the hill three times between 1961 and 1973, but pilgrims returned each night to replant crosses in defiance. By 1993, when Pope John Paul II visited and declared it a place of hope and peace, the hill had become the most potent symbol of Baltic resistance—faith expressed through wood, metal, and relentless repetition. Today the Riga to Hill of Crosses day trip draws visitors who cross the Latvian-Lithuanian border to witness the layered density of devotion—tiny hand-carved pendants hanging from iron giants, photographs tucked into crevices, fresh flowers woven through rusted chains. The site holds no church, no formal liturgy, no ticket booth. It remains a grassroots pilgrimage ground where the act of placing a cross perpetuates a tradition born from occupation and loss. Most tours pair the hill with Rundale Palace, Bartolomeo Rastrelli's 1740 baroque commission for the Duke of Courland, creating a day that moves from sacred Lithuanian defiance to Latvian aristocratic grandeur. Rundale Palace, open daily from 10:00 to 17:00, shelters 138 rooms across its main wing and preserved gardens that stretch across 85 hectares. Rastrelli, who also designed the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, embedded rococo ornament into every cornice and parquet floor. The Gold Hall rises two stories beneath frescoed ceilings; the White Hall holds stucco garlands that took Italian craftsmen four years to complete. Standard adult admission costs 12 EUR and grants access to the main exhibition, though the palace closes its final entry at 16:00 to preserve viewing time. Most Riga to Hill of Crosses day trip tours allocate two to three hours at Rundale, sufficient to walk the state apartments and circle the French formal gardens. The route between Riga and the Hill of Crosses spans 140 kilometers north through Jelgava and Bauska, then crosses into Lithuania near Meitene. Guided tours typically depart Riga by 08:00, reach the hill by mid-morning, continue to Rundale for lunch and palace exploration, and return by early evening. The itinerary stitches together two nations' contrasting responses to empire—one through countless crosses planted in defiance, the other through a palace built to display submission's rewards. Both endure as monuments to persistence, though their aesthetics could not differ more sharply.