a term used in Catholic countries for a kind of chapel of devotion raised on a hillock near a city, in memory of the place where Jesus Christ was crucified near the city of Jerusalem. The word comes from the Latin calvarium; and that from calvus, bald; in regard the top of that hillock was bare and destitute of verdure: which is also signified by the Hebrew word golgotha. Such is the Calvary of St Valerian near Paris; which is accompanied with several little chapels, in each of which is represented in sculpture one of the mysteries of the passion.

in heraldry, a cross so called, because it resembles the cross on which our Saviour suffered. It is always set upon steps.