page_title: Wayside shrine
section_title: Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Wayside shrine / Europe
caption_attribution_description: English: An oak with a wayside shrine at Valleluogo in Ariano Irpino countryside, Italy Italiano: Quercia con edicola votiva alla contrada Valleluogo di Ariano Irpino, Italia
context_page_description: A wayside shrine is a religious image, usually in some sort of small shelter, placed by a road or pathway, sometimes in a settlement or at a crossroads, but often in the middle of an empty stretch of country road, or at the top of a hill or mountain. They have been a feature of many cultures, including Catholic and Orthodox Europe and Shinto Japan.
context_section_description: The pre-Christian cultures of Europe had similar shrines of various types; many runestones may have fallen into this category, though they are often in the nature of a memorial to a dead person.  Few Christian shrines survive in predominantly Protestant countries, but they remain common in many parts of Catholic and Orthodox Europe, often being repaired or replaced as they fall into disrepair, and relocated as roads are moved or widened.  The most common subjects are a plain cross or a crucifix, or an image of the Virgin Mary, but saints or other scenes may also be shown.  The surviving large stone high crosses of Celtic Christianity, and the related stone Anglo-Saxon crosses (mostly damaged or destroyed after the Protestant Reformation) are sometimes outside churches, but often not, and these may have functioned as preaching crosses, or in some cases just been wayside shrines.  The calvaires of Brittany in France, are especially large stone shrines showing the Crucifixion, but these are typically in villages.
  In Greece they may be called kandilakia (Greek: καντηλάκια) or εικονοστάσιο στην άκρη του δρόμου (ikonostásio stin akri tu drómu, literally "shrine at the roadside").
caption: A wayside shrine in a wood near Ariano Irpino, Italy
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