Europe

[Visited: July 2020]

After a full day of exploring the wooden churches of Maramureș, we are heading north, and decide to veer off our path to stay overnight in Săpânța. Not even for the (supposedly) tallest wooden church in the world, but for the Merry Cemetery. We find a comfortable place to stay just across the street, and after talking to the owners, head to the cemetery. I often visit cemeteries when I travel, and have seen cemeteries with works of art, lavishly decorated tombs, or rows of similar tombstones, sometimes with rickety graves The common denominator in all those cemeteries is that they ooze sadness, or at least solemnity, and they make you realise that our time on this planet is only temporary. The very name of this cemetery implies a different mindset, which becomes clear the moment we step into it.
All the crosses we see, are a special shade of blue, which already gives an upbeat feeling. As soon as we have a closer look, we see that every single cross is unique. They are decorated on both sides, with naïve paintings, and depict the profession of the dead, his or her favourite pastime, scenes from their lives, or something else noteworthy. Furthermore, there are epitaphs, unfortunately in Romanian only, and our translation app cannot handle these texts. When we see some translated later on, it is clear that these poetic texts have a light, humorous undertone. There even is a book with a collection of epitaphs. Local artist Stan Ioan Pătraş started this tradition back in 1935, and just by himself has produced almost 700 tombstones. He is, of course, buried at this cemetery as well, and his disciple Dumitru Pop has taken over his duties at the tomb-painter of the Merry Cemetery.
The bell-tower of the adjacent church is in style with the Merry Cemetery: a quirky structure with pinnacles, with the same hue of blue (dubbed Săpânța blue) as the dominating colour. But we have had our fix of churches - we focus on the tombstones. When you look closer, you see that the paintings are actually done in relief. It is easy to see what kind of region we are in, just by looking at the paintings. There are tombs with shepherds and their sheep, women spinning wool, bakers, shopkeepers, farmers with tractors, bus drivers, a couple sitting at a table, having a glass of wine, and so on. I find a puzzling one: a half person with wings, wearing only red underwear, watched by two men in the corner. The colours used have their symbolism: yellow stands for fertility, red, passion, green: life, and black, inevitably, death. Black is hardly seen. It feels like walking around in a big open-air art gallery. When we walk off this highly interesting and curious cemetery, we feel upbeat, and yes, have a big smile on our faces.

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Merry Cemetery (Romania)

Merry Cemetery > Romania > Europe

[Visited: July 2020]

Around the World in 80 Clicks