Vesel Cemetary

I visited the Vesel Cemetary in Sapanta (a village of Sighet).

It is a unique cemetary for it's tradition of wood cross carved ephitaphs. In 1935 a wood scupltor, Ioan Stan Patras, started carving carving wooden crosses to mark the graves. He painted each cross in blue - the color of hope and freedom specific to the Maramures region. Each cross depicts an image from the life of the person who is burried - mostly relating to the person's profession such as teachers, farmers, horsemen, weavers, mothers - unless the person was too young to have a profession when he/she died - in that case they are depicted with images of childhood or the cause of death. Some of religious people are depicted praying. Each cross has a witty ephitaph that reads like a lymric.

The sculptor Patras died in 1977, he is burried there and honored with his own cross which describes the cross he bared all his life, working to support his family since he was 14 years old. Since his death, his apprentice has carried on the tradition.