northern Romania. Rural region of Maramures. Only 4 km from the Ukrainian border, nestled in a dream landscape with rolling hills alternating with fields, meadows and woods, lies the small village of Sapanta. A few wooden houses, some elderly in traditional costumes sitting outside the cottage, the occasional horse-drawn carts and animals that roam free along the road.
E 'in this place, that will make you take a step back in time remembering a world long gone by the early twentieth century, that one finds in the famous and beautiful "merry cemetery". The cemetery is known throughout the continent for a painted wooden crosses that adorn their graves.
early entrance to the cemetery, along with many other visitors, you will affected by what stands in front of your eyes. Sympathy and curiosity immediately took possession of you with a strange feeling of happiness and joy, which is generally poorly suited to a cemetery.
close together, surrounded by greenery and flowers, you'll see many wooden crosses of more or less intense blue color. Color traditionally represents hope and freedom. On each of them represented the deceased, committed to do its work, under a nice epitaph recalls, often in jest, its main features.
Each cross tells a different story and so personal and there's sure to notice people performing the traditional trades. Pastors, barbers, weavers, farmers are just some professions you meet in your wanderings.
stroll to some of the tombs that most interests you but there is one that you should not miss. From the brightness of the colors you will easily understand what the oldest and which the most recent attempt to understand the course and written in Romanian or fatevele translate, so you can appreciate the irony present in each part.
All this began in 1935 thanks to the work of a local sculptor. Ioan Stan Patras has carved and adorned these crosses until 1977, year when he died but not before he had even his tombstone with a lot of ironic self-portrait and epitaph. Easily understand what I'm talking about stone, in fact a plaque at his feet, always wood, marked "creatorul cimitirului Vesel.
Do not worry, this curious activity did not end with its creator, but has continued through his apprentice, Dumitru Pop, who continues to make a dozen crosses the year using the same traditional methods.
What, besides being a true open-air museum attraction for tourists and useful to the community is certainly a nice way to remember who is no more, with a smile and carefree in the heart.
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