Maramures, Romania is known for preserving traditional culture, particularly in wood carving and architecture. Eight of the region's wooden churches are UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the tallest wooden building in the world. Traditional crafts like weaving and woodworking are still practiced today. The Merry Cemetery in Sapanta contains hundreds of wooden crosses decorated with poems about the deceased. Maramures culture is celebrated throughout the year in festivals and events featuring local music, dancing, and distinctive garb.

1. MARIN FLORIN
GRUPA 8211

2.  Maramures, abode of culture and civilisation,
which has carved in wood its own history, is
the place where traditions, popular garb and
art are kept like nowhere else in Romania.
Maramures is a huge open air museum, and
the daily life of the Maramures village is a real
return in time.
The Wooden Churches - popular art jewels -
are met in almost every village.

3. Eight of those belong to the UNESCO
patrimony and some hold absolute records:
the highest wooden building - the church of
Barsana Monastery 62m height, the oldest
wooden church - the church from Ieud
1364.
The Maramuresan Gate genuine rustic
triumphal arch, was in the past the apanage
of the noble families. According to the
tradition, the gate is the barrier against the
evil, the element that marks the sacred
universe of the household.

4.  Its decorating elements have not only an
aesthetically purpose, but they are also
symbols with strong roots in the Christian and
Pre Christian culture. The string (rope) - the
spiral symbolising the striving for the heights,
the rosette - symbol of the sun as an
essential element of life, the tree of life -
symbol of the eternal life, the snake, with its
well known protecting role, are just a few of
the elements mostly met in the maramuresan
gates sculpture.

5.  Maramures is a region that kept along the
history the customs connected to work, life
and celebration. Objects made of wood
artistically decorated join all the important
moments of life, but the most fascinating are
the crosses, elements of communication
between the world of alive and the one of the
dead. The Merry Cemetery from Sapanta,
creation of the popular artist Ioan Patras, is
gathering some hundreds of “speaking”
crosses.

6. Using a text where the self irony
interweaves the drama, they relate in a few
phrases the story of the deceased.

7.  The traditional professions like woven, wood
carving, wood and glass painting are
practised successfully and are transmitted
from generation to generation.
The maramuresan music that joins all the
happy moments of life is noticed by its rhythm
and its vitality.

8. The popular garb is worn day by day not
only on holidays, as in other places in
Romania. The holidays are the moments
when the maramuresan village “bursts out”
of music and good temper and they are not
few along the year: the Winter Holidays,
the Easter, Tinjaua, the Maramuresan
Sheep fold, and of course, weddings and
the christenings.

9. In a few minutes, everybody is standing,
and pairs start turning, faster and faster, on
the rhythm imposed by the "ceterasi" (local
violin singers), exceptional artists, present
at any traditional party.
Welcome to the unique atmosphere of the
maramuresan village!!!

10. Bibliography
https://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.ruraltourism.ro/maram/html/maren.html