<P> The style, form, and placement of the stations vary widely . The typical stations are small plaques with reliefs or paintings placed around a church nave . Modern minimalist stations can be simple crosses with a numeral in the centre . Occasionally the faithful might say the stations of the cross without there being any image, such as when the pope leads the stations of the cross around the Colosseum in Rome on Good Friday . </P> <P> The Stations of the Cross originated in pilgrimages to Jerusalem and a desire to reproduce Via Dolorosa . Imitating holy places was not a new concept . For example, the religious complex of Santo Stefano in Bologna, Italy, replicated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other religious sites, including Mount of Olives and Valley of Josaphat . </P> <P> After the siege of 1187, Jerusalem fell to Muslims . Forty years later Franciscans were allowed back into the Holy Land . Their founder, Saint Francis of Assisi, held the Passion of Christ in special veneration and was the first person to receive stigmata . In 1217, St. Francis also founded the Custody of the Holy Land to guard and promote the devotion to holy places . Their efforts were recognized when Franciscans were officially proclaimed custodians of holy places by Pope Clement VI in 1342 . Although several travelers who visited the Holy Land during the 12--14th centuries (e.g. Riccoldo da Monte di Croce, Burchard of Mount Sion, James of Verona), mention a "Via Sacra", i.e. a settled route that pilgrims followed, there is nothing in their accounts to identify this with the Way of the Cross, as we understand it . The earliest use of the word "stations", as applied to the accustomed halting - places in the Via Sacra at Jerusalem, occurs in the narrative of an English pilgrim, William Wey, who visited the Holy Land in the mid-15th century, and described pilgrims following the footsteps of Christ to the cross . In 1521, a book called Geystlich Strass (German: "spiritual road") was printed with illustrations of the stations in the Holy Land . </P> <P> During the 15th and 16th centuries the Franciscans began to build a series of outdoor shrines in Europe to duplicate their counterparts in the Holy Land . The number of stations varied between seven and thirty; seven was common . These were usually placed, often in small buildings, along the approach to a church, as in a set of 1490 by Adam Kraft, leading to the Johanneskirche in Nuremberg . A number of rural examples were established as attractions in their own right, usually on attractive wooded hills . These include the Sacro Monte di Domodossola (1657) and Sacro Monte di Belmonte (1712), and form part of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy World Heritage Site, together with other examples on different devotional themes . In these the sculptures are often approaching life - size and very elaborate . Remnants of these are often referred to as calvary hills . </P>

How did the stations of the cross come about
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