Joy Cemetery Sapanta, Maramures

Joy Cemetery Sapanta - details and images

Sapanta town fame comes from his famous Merry Cemetery has become a major tourist attraction. Cemetery name comes from the multitude of crosses from the colorful and satirical poems that are epitafele inscription on the cross.

Legend says that the attitude towards death is a cheerful habit of Gauls who believed in eternal life and death for them was just passing to another world. They see death as a tragic end but as a chance to meet Zamolxe supreme god.

The cemetery dates from the mid 1930s and is a creation of Stan Ion Patras folk artist, sculptor, painter and poet at the same time. Patras's creativity revealed that the famous monumental works of art. More than 50 years the artist has created hundreds of wooden crosses inscription in his characteristic style. After his death in 1977 his work was continued by his disciple Dumitru Pop Tincu.

In 1934, Patras began to write the epitaph on the crosses. Typically these included a short poem written first-person, full of archaisms, the region characteristic sentences, spelling errors ... but not lacking. It also noted the philosophical nature of his creation where you can see an antithesis between the dynamic nature of the relativity of life and death, suggested the main argument being escape from nothingness through art. The entire life of the village is closely connected with this cemetery. Sapanta entire population, from pastors, farmers and foresters to doctors and musicians kept alive over time sacred traditions and customs of the community with a major contribution to the development of culture and national consciousness, collective memory, thus creating a joyful atmosphere and not least a new outlook on human existence musical background of the anthem of life.

Cemetery story began when a poor woman Stan Patras asked to make a cross for her husband, who had passed away. Master took a long, thick plank, carved in the shape of a crucifix and also ease the bitterness of the widow, the deceased's face carved on wood and added a little story about him. The text was written in first person as if he could have told Disappeared life.

The material used for the cross is oak that is manually after the inscription was cut and dry. At the top of each cross there is a relief of a scene from the life of the deceased. The scenes are simple and I might even say naive style but villagers bring past life, presenting a relevant aspect of their life. It shows women spinning wool, weaving mats or making bread, men who cut wood or earth country, shepherds with their flocks, wood workers, musicians and many other occupations.

After the cross is carved it is usually painted with a blue background so-called "Blue Săpânţa. The scenes are painted using vibrant colors: yellow, red, white and green.

Chronicle written, sometimes very funny, made the cemetery, sad place to become "gay", being unique in the world: "Merry Cemetery" in Sapanta

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