Romualdas Povilaitis likes to tell a story about the crosses on the hill at the Lithuanian World Center in Lemont.

One day, he said, a little girl about 4 years old was visiting the center with her parents. The family had recently come from Lithuania, and they took some time to visit the hill. Looking at the all the crosses, the girl turned to her mother and said, “Mama, are we in Lithuania?”

That’s when Povilaitis knew that what he wanted to do — bring a little patch of his homeland to the Chicago suburbs — had worked.

In Lithuania, he explained, there is a famous Hill of Crosses that is a shrine and pilgrimage site, but more common are roadside crosses.

“You have farmers that built them, not professional carpenters, because you know farmers can build anything,” said Povilaitis, 83, a retired dentist. “They were primitive. There would be memorial crosses, crosses for someone who was sick or in thanks for someone getting better, for a good harvest. They would have a vase in front and put fresh flowers almost every day during the summer.”

So Povilaitis, who came to the United States and the Chicago area in 1949, began building crosses at his home.

Then, in 2006, the Lithuanian World Center — home of the Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis Lithuanian Mission — had a heap of dirt left over from the construction of its new sports center, and members of the building committee asked Povilaitis if he would help make it into a Lithuanian hill of crosses.

Lithuania is home to a shrine and a pilgrimage site known as the “Hill of Crosses,” The hill, about 12 kilometers north of Šiauliai, in the northern part of the country, is now home to an “uncountable” number of crosses of all styles and materials, Povilaitis said.

Pilgrimage websites put the number at least 100,000, but with many larger crosses hung with smaller crosses and rosaries, it’s difficult to come by an exact number.

According to a Lithuanian tourism website, crosses were first erected on the site in memory of people killed in a rebellion against Russian authorities in 1931; over the decades of Soviet rule, the crosses were levelled at least three times only to be raised again.

In 1993, St. John Paul II visited the shrine, and in 2000, a Franciscan monastery was built nearby.

Six years later, Povilaitis began landscaping the hill and planning for the crosses with the help of other parishioners. He moved some from his home, and built more. Some were paid for by people who wanted to dedicate them to members of their families or for other intentions; some Povilaitis built for members of his own family, or for the priests who staffed the mission.

One, in memory of his late wife, Milda, has four angels, “because she was an angel to me,” and to his mother, who helped the family escape from Lithuania after his father was executed by the Russians. Scattered around the hill are nine crosses with the names of his grandchildren, with the oldest having the largest crosses and the youngest having the smaller ones.

“Sometimes it is harder to build a primitive thing than a modern thing,” he said.

The hill, which in the summer has hundreds of flowers, also has benches for people to sit and enjoy the quiet.

Povilaitis said he built most of the crosses on the hill, but not all of them. One of the tallest, at 17 feet, was shipped from Lithuania all in one piece.

While Povilaitis made the crosses, many of them include elements that come from his home country. In most cases, the figure of Christ — usually seated, his head resting on his hand, in a pose known as the “pensive Christ” — came from Lithuania.

Some of the crosses are topped with transparent boxes, almost like lampposts, with a figure inside. Those are in the style of a particular area in Lithuania, Zemaitija. In fact, all of the crosses are meant to be reminiscent of the different styles prevalent in Lithuania.

In the center is a bell from St. Casimir Parish in Gary, Indiana. The bell, which was originally purchased by the parish’s Lithuanian men’s sports club, was damaged when it fell from the church tower in a fire and no longer rings, Povilaitis said.

The hill of crosses is open to all who want to visit it, Povilaitis said, and it is often used as a site for wedding photos. It is in front of the Lithuanian World Center, 149 E. 127th St., Lemont.

Povilaitis this spring published a book of photographs of the crosses and garden; anyone who would like a copy can call him at 630-257-7352.