Merry Cemetery of Săpânța

<p>The Merry Cemetery in Săpânța is the only cemetery in the world where you don't cry. It's full of crosses painted in Săpânța blue, each with a scene from the deceased's life — blacksmith at his anvil, teacher with children, driver behind the wheel, soldier at the front — and a humorous poem about them. The tone isn't mockery; it's tenderness.</p><p>It was invented in 1935 by one man: Stan Ion Pătraș, a Săpânța sculptor and painter, who wanted to change how his village remembered its dead. He painted 600 crosses himself over 40 years. After he died (1977, he has his own cross speaking of him), his apprentice Dumitru Pop Tincu carried on. Today there are over 1,300 crosses. The tradition lives.</p><p>Tip: come in July-August, but at 8 AM — summer afternoons bring dozens of tour buses. Read (or ask someone to translate) some of the poems. You'll laugh, be moved, be consoled. That's the idea. Small ticket, about €1.</p><p>Combine with the Săpânța-Peri Monastery (1.5 km away, the tallest wooden church in Europe), the historic Maramureș villages (Vișeu, Bârsana, Botiza), or the drive on toward Vatra Dornei — Maramureș is the oldest preserved corner of Romania.</p>