Maramureș: the back story

About Maramureș: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Bucharest Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Maramureș, in Romania’s far north, is a land of hills, forests and villages where wooden churches rise to tall, slender spires, gates are carved by hand and traditions are still part of everyday life. It is one of the most beautiful and distinctive regions of Europe.

A land of wood

In Maramureș, wood is everything: houses, barns, churches and, above all, the great carved gateways at the entrance to each farm, decorated with the twisted rope, the tree of life and the sun.

The wooden churches

Built mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries, the wooden churches of Maramureș have steep shingled roofs and tall, thin spires; eight of them, including Bârsana, Ieud, Budești and Șurdești, are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Inside, their walls are painted with naïve, colourful scenes.

In Săpânța, the crosses tell jokes about the people buried beneath them.

The Merry Cemetery

In the village of Săpânța, the carver Stan Ioan Pătraș began in the 1930s to make bright blue wooden crosses with painted scenes and short, often humorous verses about the lives of the dead. His successors continue the work, and the cemetery is unlike any other.

The Mocănița

From Vișeu de Sus, the Mocănița, a narrow-gauge steam train on a forestry railway, runs up the wild Vaser valley in the tourist season.

Our advice: allow three or four days; stay in a family guesthouse, visit the churches on a Sunday morning if you can, and book the Mocănița in advance in summer.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Maramureș: the back story before you go.