Kupiškio krašto kryždirbystės paminklai

The roofed column shrines have been among the oldest architectural folk monuments of Kupiškis region thus only a couple of them have survived to this day. One of them is the two-tier roofed column shrine crafted in 1934 (p. 46} in Terpeikiai village. The other is the roofed column shrine, erected in the interwar period in the churchyard of Antašava church (p. 25). The two-tier column shrines in Adomynė (p. 59), in the park of Kupiskis Lagoon peninsula (p. 20), in Baksenai village (p. 14), and one-tier roofed column shrine in Siauriai village (p. 32) can be mentioned among the roofed column shrines of the present times that continue the traditions of the Aukstaitija folk monuments. In the 8th and the 9th decades of the 20th century craftsman Ka-zimieras Nemanis spread throughout Lithuania the traditional roofed column shrine of Aukštaitija with the sculptured religious or secular relief images carved on the lower part of the pole (p. 18), Later other craftsmen followed him and started carving sculptures in the socle part of the shrine or the cross. Lavishly ornate crosses with a chapel-altar at the crosspiece are very typical to the Eastern Aukštaitija region and they were abundantly erected in the region of Kupiškis at the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century. The elaborate crosses of this type are distinguished by ornamental and plastical cornices of the altar, canopy-shaped roofs completed with a wooden cross or the sun-shaped top monstrance. Although very dilapidated and outworn they can still be seen in Pelysiai and Uldukiai villages (p. 49,56). The beauty of the crosses of this type is replicated in the copies of the crosses in Miliūnai and Žaideliai villages (p. 14, 17). More simple crosses of this type should be mentioned as well. For example, the chapel-altar on the cross of Didžprūdeliai village (p. 21) is very narrow in the center of the crosspiece, almost of the same width as the pole. Apparently inspired by the shape of this cross the folk artist Algirdas Balna made the cross of Rudikai village (p. 16). But nowadays the ornate crosses with tiny altars typical to the East Aukštaitija region are rarely crafted. Sometimes just the motif of the altar is used as on the cross in Skodiniai village (p. 28). The elaborate cross of Beregiai village (p. 55) also reminds the type of old crosses with a tiny altar in the crosspiece. The crosses of the other type have no shrine-altar in the center. They are decorated with openwork carved panels between the cros-spieces. In the first half of the 20th century many crosses were crafted with just a several rays between the crosspieces. The Youth cross of Bugailiškiai village is distinguished with large tulip flowers on the pole, the image taken from the national style crosses popularized in the interwar period (p. 57)