5 of the most beautiful wooden churches of Maramures, Romania

A lot of green around, many hills and a church made completely of wood.  You could think you’re in Norway, but no! You’re much more south: Maramures is a poor, agricultural region of Northern Romania, stretched between the mountains and the Ukrainian border. Maramures Maramures is an interesting area: it still holds ancient rural habits and has beautiful landscapes. In one of its tiny villages, Viseu de Sus, starts its way Mocănița. It’s a narrow-gauge railway built in 1932 and still operational with steam and diesel locomotives to transport wood from uphill to the plant down in the valley. The railroad

The fascinating wonders of the European Spoon River

Nested among high peaks and green valleys in Northern Romania, near the Ukrainian border, lies the tiny village of Săpânța An ordinary village with an extraordinary cemetery It’s an ordinary village, close to the river, with the main road passing through. Like every ordinary village, also Săpânța has a cemetery.  But it’s not an ordinary one. Think of it as the European Spoon River.  In Săpânța the whole scene looks much different than a usual cemetery. Under wooden crosses painted in a characteristic bright blue, the departed past life is engraved with a humorous epitaph, a brief but poetically sincere story