際際滷

際際滷Share a Scribd company logo

The merry cemetery

Download as PPTX, PDF
I
Ioana Badea

The Merry Cemetery is located in Sapanta, Maramures County, Romania. It is known for its colorful, painted wooden crosses that serve as tombstones and depict scenes from the deceased person's life or manner of death through poems and images. The tradition of painted crosses was started in 1935 by Stan Ioan Patras as a way to move away from traditional grave markers and depict death as a natural part of life. Today, the Merry Cemetery is a national historic site and tourist attraction where the tombstone paintings provide a unique way to mourn the dead through art that captures their lives.

1 of 11
Download to read offline
Sp但na, Maramure The Merry Cemetery
The Merry Cemetery is a cemetery in the village of Sapanta, Maramures county, Romania. It is famous for its colourful tombstones with naive paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the persons who are buried there as well as scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction.
Here, instead of the usual boring stone grave markers and marble mausoleums that populate just about every other graveyard in the world, each plot is adorned with a colorfully-painted wooden cross, with a poem for a epitaph.
Through the epitaphs written on the tombstones, the craftsman praised or criticized the character and the life of the dead. Very often his texts had a touch of irony, especially when he wanted to highlight the flaws of the deceased. The combinations of vivid colors used on the wooden crosses, as well as the witty epitaphs written on them, explain why the place is known under the name of The Merry Cemetery and justify why it is a world-famous tourist attraction. In the paintings from the cemetery there are many abstract motifs inspired from the decorations used on the wooden gates or in the textile fabrics from the region. For example, sometimes we encounter the solar motif located right in the middle of the wooden cross.
A man by the name of Stan Ioan Patras began the tradition of these crosses back in 1935. Tombstone sculptor and artist, he decided to move away from the traditional way of carving wooden crosses. Being a simple, religious person who feared God, he understood that death is part of life. This determined him to stop looking at death with the rigidity we are used to.
The paintings on the wooden crosses depicted an important scene from the life of the departed. Sometimes, these scenes illustrated the persons occupation: forester, hunter, carpenter, cook or farmer. Women were pictured baking bread, weaving carpets or spinning wool. If the person had died in an unusual way (by accident), the painting on the cross illustrated the
Today, Merry Cemetery is a national historic site that sees a trickle of visitors each day (though its also still a functioning cemetery and locals can be buried here if they wish). It makes a fun afternoon stop if youre in the Maramures region to check out some of Romanias UNESCO-recognized painted churches, and is well worth a detour.
Outside the cemetery are booths where you can find various traditional, homemade objects. The prices are accessible. After visiting the Merry Cemetery, do not hesitate to also visit the Stan Ioan Patras Memorial House in Sapanta or the The Memorial Museum for Communist Victims.
In the end, this quote from the cemetery says it all: The Merry Cemetery is a unique place of pilgrimage. It is a place where people come to mourn their dead, but, above all, it is a place expressing in a very deep and optimistic manner the true meanings and beauties of life.
Bibliografie 1. http://www.dangerous- business.com/2012/07/merry-cemetery-a- different-way-to-look-at-death/ 2. http://travelguideromania.com/merry-cemetery- sapanta-maramures/ 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Cemetery
Thank you for the attention! Alexandru Lavinia, Badea Ioana- Daniela, GRUPA 8311

More Related Content

The merry cemetery

  • 2. The Merry Cemetery is a cemetery in the village of Sapanta, Maramures county, Romania. It is famous for its colourful tombstones with naive paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the persons who are buried there as well as scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction.
  • 3. Here, instead of the usual boring stone grave markers and marble mausoleums that populate just about every other graveyard in the world, each plot is adorned with a colorfully-painted wooden cross, with a poem for a epitaph.
  • 4. Through the epitaphs written on the tombstones, the craftsman praised or criticized the character and the life of the dead. Very often his texts had a touch of irony, especially when he wanted to highlight the flaws of the deceased. The combinations of vivid colors used on the wooden crosses, as well as the witty epitaphs written on them, explain why the place is known under the name of The Merry Cemetery and justify why it is a world-famous tourist attraction. In the paintings from the cemetery there are many abstract motifs inspired from the decorations used on the wooden gates or in the textile fabrics from the region. For example, sometimes we encounter the solar motif located right in the middle of the wooden cross.
  • 5. A man by the name of Stan Ioan Patras began the tradition of these crosses back in 1935. Tombstone sculptor and artist, he decided to move away from the traditional way of carving wooden crosses. Being a simple, religious person who feared God, he understood that death is part of life. This determined him to stop looking at death with the rigidity we are used to.
  • 6. The paintings on the wooden crosses depicted an important scene from the life of the departed. Sometimes, these scenes illustrated the persons occupation: forester, hunter, carpenter, cook or farmer. Women were pictured baking bread, weaving carpets or spinning wool. If the person had died in an unusual way (by accident), the painting on the cross illustrated the
  • 7. Today, Merry Cemetery is a national historic site that sees a trickle of visitors each day (though its also still a functioning cemetery and locals can be buried here if they wish). It makes a fun afternoon stop if youre in the Maramures region to check out some of Romanias UNESCO-recognized painted churches, and is well worth a detour.
  • 8. Outside the cemetery are booths where you can find various traditional, homemade objects. The prices are accessible. After visiting the Merry Cemetery, do not hesitate to also visit the Stan Ioan Patras Memorial House in Sapanta or the The Memorial Museum for Communist Victims.
  • 9. In the end, this quote from the cemetery says it all: The Merry Cemetery is a unique place of pilgrimage. It is a place where people come to mourn their dead, but, above all, it is a place expressing in a very deep and optimistic manner the true meanings and beauties of life.
  • 11. Thank you for the attention! Alexandru Lavinia, Badea Ioana- Daniela, GRUPA 8311