Travel to Maramures Region

Maramures means a universe, which most naturally blends the archaism of villages and of the people with the purity of nature, life in a magical ceremonial. A land of mysteries, with legends about women who come from a different realm and appear during the day in the glades of thee woods, with carols that sound as if the earth was mounting towards the sky, with people clad in a many colored attire.

A picturesque place always benefits from the quality of opening new roads towards other picturesque areas. Borsa is such a settlement; this is a balneary resort but its position at the foot of Rodnei Mountains has endowed it with the privilege of benefiting from an extremely spectacular scenery. Moreover, the visitor who travels on the mountain paths can make attractive ascents, such as that to the Pietrosu peak (2305 m. high) a zone where an interesting natural reserve can be found. But before reaching it, he can admire the Horses Waterfalls…

The state of amazement never quits you, even for a minute , and even less than that when you become acquainted with the fabulous images acquired by the wood. This land has been called , until quite recently , the “Land of Wood”.
The woods have obviously a soul and by seeing them you become aware of the warmth of the wood, as a genuine poem.

The land of Maramures is definitely a large open air museum of wooden churches. Many of them have been declared historical monuments.

One of the loveliest faces of faith and wood can be found in Barsana. The 57 m. high church of Barsana monastery ranks first among the wooden construction of Romania.
The foundation work was started in 1993 and by now the church is one of the most beautiful structure made by peasants in the country.

Quite close to Sighetu Mamatiei – only 12 km. separate them – is the village of Sapanta, famous all over the world for its Merry Cemetery. This is, maybe, the unique place in the world where death has been seemingly defeated by laughter: a local craftsman, Ion Stan Patras, carved wooden crosses, dyed them in a blue color and added humorous epitaphs.