The Merry Cemetery

Have you ever imagined a cemetery as being "joyous"? They did in Maramures. Death is regarded as a normal stage in the life cycle in Sapanta, Romania's far north. The crosses in the local cemetery are painted in bright colors, most of which are blue. The epitaph on the cross is written in a rather amusing manner by the woodcarver, who is also making the crosses.

The first of these crosses was placed in the cemetery in the 1930s, and today there are more than 800 of them throughout the cemetery. The oak-carved funeral monuments have turned the cemetery into a one-of-a-kind open-air museum and tourist attraction.