Maramures

In the north of Romania, the region of Maramures, near Ukraine, is one of the best-preserved areas of the country. In the midst of vast forests interspersed with lakes and rivers, one crosses pastures grazing sheep and sheep flocks, adorable villages where old houses with carved wooden porches, wattle-gowned fences, old wells…
In short, an old-fashioned campaign, with its haystacks and its horse-drawn carts trotting along the roads, where the peasants still cut wheat to the scythe, where grandmothers with wrinkled faces like old apples spin the wool on ancient cattails, and where the villagers, on the occasion of the many feasts, wear their traditional costumes. The wooden churches of Maramures, with their pointed arrows up to the sky, are remarkable. The small village of Sapanta, west of Sighetu Marmatiei, is worth a visit for its dapper graveyard, whose tombs are decorated with medallions and bas-reliefs depicting the life of the dead. A real museum of naive art.