Maramureş
Săpânţa village boasts the unique 'Merry Cemetery', famous for the colourfully painted wooden crosses that adorn the tombstones in the village's graveyard…
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Widely regarded as Romania's most traditional region, dotted with steepled wooden churches and farmhouses fronted by ornately carved gates, Maramureş feels as if you are climbing into a horse-drawn time machine and heading back a couple of centuries. Indeed, Maramureş' tapestry of pastureland, peopled by colourfully garbed peasants, jumps straight out of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Welcome to the heart of folkloric, medieval Romania, where the last peasant culture in Europe continues to thrive. But don't wait forever to visit: even here the 21st century is making inroads, as young ‘uns eschew embroidery for Twitter and tending flocks to waiting tables in London.
Maramureş
Săpânţa village boasts the unique 'Merry Cemetery', famous for the colourfully painted wooden crosses that adorn the tombstones in the village's graveyard…
Memorial Museum to the Victims of Communism & to the Resistance
Maramureş
A prison for political prisoners right up to 1974 has reopened as the Memorial Museum to the Victims of Communism and to the Resistance. Photographs and…
Maramureş
This enormous all-wooden Orthodox monastic complex counts some 10 massive buildings atop a steep hill, including a beautiful church built in 1993, and is…
Maramureş
The late Jewish writer and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) was born in and later deported from this house on the corner of Str…
Maramureş
This wooden church from the early 17th century has some of the most dramatic (and best preserved) frescoes of hell you are ever likely to encounter. Look…
Maramureş
Allow two to three hours to wander through the incredible constructions at the open-air Village Museum, about 2.5km southeast of Sighetu Marmaţiei's…
Maramureş
Not a gallery as such but a garden workshop, this place is operated by master artisan Ioan Bârsan, who whittles wood and produces everything from life…
Maramureş
The Village Museum displays 15 traditional wooden houses (plus gates, barns and even a pigsty), for which the region is famed. The 16th-century Church of…
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