Romania Travel Tip: #5 The Merry Cemetery of Săpânţa

Dear Steemit friends,

Welcome to my blog, where I try to promote some of the most beautiful places, architectural sites and natural wonders of my homeland, Romania.

The main purpose is to make Romania your travel destination in the near future.
If I manage that, then my mission is complete

This is my #5 post of a Travel Tip series, and today I would like to show you the Merry Cemetery of Săpânţa

If visiting a cemetery never gave you a good mood, then is worth visiting the village of Săpânţa, where the people learned to defy death and look at it with joy.
The place is a true manifestation of art, a totally opposite image to the gloomy landscape you expect when entering a cemetery.

Source: Flickr

Stan Ioan Patras is the creator of the Merry Cemetery of Săpânţa,
over the course of 50 years, the artist created hundreds of tombstones, and after his death in 1977, the work was continued by his disciple Dumitru Pop Tincu. The artist is also buried in this cemetery, his tombstone being one of the main attractions.

Source: Flickr

It is spread with tombstones painted in joyful colors that contain illustrative scenes from the life of the ones that past away.
They are caricatured after their job (woodcutter, farmer, shoemaker, etc.) or depending on the scene of death.

Source: Flickr

Underneath each sculpture, you will find an epitaph made with skilfulness and irony, some verses telling the death of the one who rests there, and often a funny illustration of his life's vices.

Source: Flickr

There are a lot of tombstones with lyrics that make you smile, as the one in which the main character is a mother-in-law.

_{"Under this heavy cross
Lies my poor mother-in-law
Three more days should she have lived
I would lie, and she would read (this cross).
You, who here are passing by
Not to wake her up please try
Cause' if she comes back home
She'll criticise me more.
But I will surely behave
So she'll not return from the grave.
Stay here, my dear mother in-law!"}

Source

Visiting programme:
Every day from 10:00 to 18:00.

Entrance Fee:
Adults – 4 lei ($1)
Children – 2 lei ($0.5)
Photo fee: 4 lei ($1)
Video fee: 10 lei ($2.5)

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