Maramures

Maramures

The region of Maramures is located in the northern portion of Romania, across the boarder from the southern Ukraine. All the guidebooks speak of the rustic charm of the county, saying that the folk traditions of the country are best preserved there. What we found on our visit was a very scenic, nearly unspoiled countryside. The traces of the communist era are much less evident here, and the people seemed much more friendly.

The neighboring Bucovina area is famous for its painted monasteries- I wrote of them a few blogs ago; in Maramures many of the highpoints are the wooden churches. Built close to the same time frame, the architecture is significantly different, although much of the interior paintings are similar. Another landmark of the region is the merry cemetery. Here, a bright fellow got the idea that instead of interring people beneath somber tombs, that they’d be better remembered in a lighter vain. So on each headstone he wrote a poem referencing the life work, or in some cases, the non-work of the deceased. He even prepared his own headstone which he now lies beneath.

We stopped for lunch at a Pensiune, what we would call a bed and breakfast, where we enjoyed a wonderful traditional meal, but the most interesting thing was that as we were walking over the bridge to our table we noticed a dead tree hung with fifteen or twenty cooking pots. We were told that signifies having an unmarried young lady on the homestead. We joked with our guide, who was an unmarried young lady, that perhaps her aunt had come and prepared the tree in her honor.

Another custom of the area is the wooden gateways. These are all intricately carved gates and doors to one’s property and a status symbol. The richest houses in the village have the largest and most ornate entrance.

There are very farms in Romania as we know them. People live in villages and walk or drive their horse and wagon out to the fields to work. Nearly all the fields are managed with only hand labor. Occasionally the family horse will be hitched to a plow or tiller and its help with quicken the work, but most jobs are done by hand. Hoeing long rows of corn with the preferred triangular hoe and scything the hay using an unbent handle are a perpetual summer employment for all the family. In other parts of Romania, tractors can be seen, especially in the southern sections of large acreage, but in Maramures we saw very few.

Altogether an enjoyable two days. I’ve taken a good many pictures, but will only share a few here. If you’d like to see more pictures and are not on my picture distribution list, let me know and I’ll put you on the list. Contact me at snowridge2000@yahoo.com