Săpânţa, veselý hřbitov

The Merry cemetery at Săpânţa

The Merry Cemetery (Cimitirul Vesel) is located in the village of Săpânţa (Maramureş county, NW Romania). It is famous for its colourful wooden gravestones with naive paintings depicting, in an original and poetic manner, the individuals that are buried there as well as scenes from their lives, describing their crafts, hobbies or fate. In 1935 a wood sculpture, Ioan Patras, started carving oak crosses for the cemetery. He painted each cross blue, included a scene from their lives or death. After his death in 1977 his work is carried on by Dumitru Pop.
This visually attractive and humorous folk art may be compared to similar habit of Roman period grave stones (stelae) also depicting buried persons family, craft, army distinction et cetera.