Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Visiting Maramures (part III)-The Merry Cemetery

This is something you won't see anywhere in the world! It the most beautiful and at the same time creepy thing ever!The Merry Cemetery is a cemetery in the village of Săpânţa, Maramureş county, Romania. It is famous for its colorful tombstones with naive paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the persons that are buried there as well as scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction.
The cemetery's origins are linked with the name of Stan Ioan Pătraş, a local artist who sculpted the first tombstone crosses. In 1935, Pătraş carved the first epitaph and, as of 1960s, more than 800 of such oak wood crosses came into sight.
Just look how beautiful they are. It's the proof that naive art really is the purest!
Sorry, if you don't know Romanian you won't really get the enscriptions, even if they are translated. Here is an example (remember, in Romanian they rime and have a melodic rhythm):
Since I was a little boy
I was known as Stan Ioan Pătraş
Listen to me, fellows
There are no lies in what I am going to say

All along my life
I meant no harm to anyone
But did good as much as I could
To anyone who asked

Oh, my poor World
Because It was hard living in it.

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