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 calva, 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.