Wooden Churches of Maramures, Transylvania, Romania

5Jeffrey M 5:00 PM Jun 23, 2017

visiting Maramureș with our excellent guide, Cornelia Lupsa
My wife and I scheduled a one-day tour with Cornelia and had a wonderful and memorable time. Cornelia is pleasant, sociable, very knowledgeable, and energetic. We spent about 11 hours with her, and visited the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, the Museum of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance in Sighet, Elie Wiesel’s childhood home in Sighet, the woodcarving shop of Teodor Barsan in Barsana (he was at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1999), the wooden church in Ieud, which is a UNESCO monument, a peasant museum in Ieud, traditional water-powered installations in Sarbi, and the wooden church in Budesti, which is also a UNESCO monument. We highly recommend Cornelia for your visit to Maramureș.

5mia0343 5:00 PM Dec 29, 2014

Maramures : a place like no other
Grandparents, parents and grandchildren from Delmenhorst (Germany) spent magnificent ten days in Maramures (Romania). We, the grandparents drove our SUV , and the young ones flew from Bremen to Cluj (with a stopover in Munich: total time 4 hrs).They were picked up by my husband and brought to Surdesti (140 km), at our guesthouse “Amethyst”. The Christmas Eve was unforgettable. We were for the Holy Service in a small, ancient wooden church, (one of the eight in Maramures in the UNESCO patrimony ).I was happy to see so many young people (half of the present ones were children and adolescents ). The Priests started their Christmas sermon, magically intertwined with the angelic children songs. At the end the priest solemnly announced the Birth of Christ. This Good News was enthusiastically spread in the entire village by groups of people of all ages dressed in their traditional, unique garb. They would go from house to house, singing the old Carols. Back to our guesthouse , we, all the residents, joined in a festive, typical Christmas dinner, and enjoyed the carolers. Actually, we all joined in and sang. Together. The Christmas celebration was the first one in a series of events that went beyond any expectation, in this fairy tale land. After Christmas we visited the Barsani monastery, with its cloisters, church and ethnological museum, all of wood. We then traveled with Mocanita, an 100 plus years old train, drawn by an almost as old steam locomotive (built in Resita, Romania in 1935), on very narrow lines, along a breathtaking landscape. This pristine nature was ever hardly touched by man; we saw the man’s touch and genius in the masterly built wooden houses with their abundantly carved, majestic gates. As you figured out already, wood is the main building material in this area. In the train we kept warm by a wood burning stove (present in each car); we were served cold and warm drinks, doughnuts. During the two hours ride the train stopped once to “cut its thirst” with water from the stream running by. Our Frederick (5) was invited to visit the locomotive. At the destination, we were welcomed with music and a group of youngsters, in their local outfits, started a hora , an old Romanian dance. We joined them, because we like to dance, and because it helped us get warm. A campfire was started; meat and sausage were grilled and we had them for lunch, with freshly baked bread and coleslaw, plus hot drinks (mulled wine). (Travel, Drink, Food, for the equivalent of 20 euros! Add to this the music, dance and warmth of the people). We then went in Sighet Marmatiei (on the border with Ukraine) to see a parade where every single village in the area displayied their own original garb, music, and dances. We attended in Cavnic an old celebation, Brondosii, where men and boys in very colorful attire, with large bells sewn on their jackets roam through the village to chase away the evil spirits. Many a time we loved to hike in the hills nearby. One memorable event was the complimentary trip in a horse-drawn carriage, offered by our hosts. Two good looking, well fed horses, tastefully groomed, crossed the woods, a creek, and stopped at a big rock. There we had a break with campfire, grilled bacon and sausage, homemade bread and onion and drank Horinca (plum brandy)and mulled wine. We laughed a lot and sang a lot. And again : this dream experience was included in the price of our stay at the guest house "Amethyst" in Surdesti. I did write a lot, but I am not sure if I made you feel how special this space is. What I appreciated the most is how authentic is everything here:nature, traditions, people