The Merry Cemetery ( ro, Cimitirul Vesel ) is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

in the village of

Săpânța Săpânța (; hu, Szaplonca or ''Szaploncza''; Slovak: ''Sapunka''; Yiddish: ספינקא or ''Spinka'' or ''Shpinka'') is a commune in Maramureș County, Maramureș, Romania, northwest of Sighetu Marmației and just south of the river Tisza. ...

, Maramureş county,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. It is famous for its brightly coloured tombstones with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the people who are buried there in addition to scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction. It has been listed as one of the Seven Wonders of Romania by ''Imperator Travel'' The unusual feature of this cemetery is that it diverges from the prevalent belief, culturally shared within European societies – a belief that views death as something indelibly solemn. Connections with the local

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...

n culture have been made, a culture whose philosophical tenets presumably vouched for the immortality of the soul and the belief that death was a moment filled with joy and anticipation for a better life (see also

Zalmoxianism Zalmoxianism ( ro, Zalmoxianism) or Zamolxianism ( ro, Zamolxianism, link=no) is a Neopagan movement in Romania which promotes the rebuilding of an ethnic religion and spirituality of the Romanians through a process of reconnection to their ancien ...

). A collection of the epitaphs from the Merry Cemetery exist in a 2017 volume called ''Crucile de la Săpânța'', compiled by author Roxana Mihalce

as well as in a photography book titled The ''Merry Cemetery of Sapanta'' by Peter Kayafas.

The founder

The cemetery's origins are linked with the name of Stan Ioan Pătraş, a local artist who sculpted the first tombstone crosses. In 1935, Pătraș carved the first epitaph and, as of the 1960s, more than 800 of such oak wood crosses came into sight. The inscription on his tombstone cross says:

Funny epitaphs

Gallery

File:Cimitirul Vesel de la Sapanta6.jpg, The ''Merry

Cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

'' crosses in pale

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

File:Cimitirul Vesel de la Sapanta3.jpg, The tombstone of Stan Ioan Pătraş (1908 - 1977), the ''Merry Cemetery'' creator File:Cimitirul Vesel de la Sapanta4.jpg, Short

description Description is the pattern of narrative development that aims to make vivid a place, object, character, or group. Description is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as ''modes of discourse''), along with exposition, argumentation, and narra ...

of the life of a villager carved on the

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

File:Cimitirul Vesel de la Sapanta5.jpg, Profile of the

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

Church located near the ''Merry Cemetery'' File:Rumunia, Sapanta, Wesoły Cmentarz -Aw58- 28 kwietnia 2012 r..jpg, undefined File:Rumunia, Sapanta, Wesoły Cmentarz -Aw58- 28.04.12 r..JPG, undefined File:Rumunia, Sapanta, Wesoły Cmentarz -Aw58- 28 IV 2012 r..jpg, undefined File:Rumunia, Sapanta, Wesoły Cmentarz -Aw58- 28 IV 2012 r..JPG, undefined File:Rumunia, Sapanta, Wesoły Cmentarz DSCF7052.jpg, undefined File:Rumunia, Sapanta, Wesoły Cmentarz DSCF7027.jpg, undefined File:Merry Cemetery VP8.webm, Merry Cemetery crosses

References

External links

Photos of the Merry Cemetery

''The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta'' on Purple Martin Press

Brandon's Photos of the Merry Cemetery
* Mor

(in Romanian) {{coord, 47, 58, 17, N, 23, 41, 44, E, source:kolossus-rowiki, display=title Cemeteries in Romania Eastern Orthodox cemeteries Historic monuments in Maramureș County

The founder

Funny epitaphs

Gallery

See also

References

External links