Ieud is a long village strung along a side valley of the Iza river in Maramureș, in Romania's far north, and it has not one but two wooden churches. The one on the hill, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, is one of the eight Wooden Churches of Maramureș listed by UNESCO, and it is one of the oldest, with a tall, slender bell tower and a double roof of wooden shingles that reaches almost to the ground. Inside, the walls are covered with eighteenth-century paintings on wood and cloth, with scenes from the Last Judgement in which the damned are dressed in the clothes of the local enemies of the time. The church is also known for the Ieud Codex, a manuscript found here, one of the oldest texts written in the Romanian language.
Maramureș is one of the places in Europe where traditional rural life has survived most strongly. You will see haystacks shaped by hand, horse-drawn carts, carved wooden gates at the entrances to farmyards and, on Sundays and holidays, people in traditional dress going to church. The villages are built almost entirely of wood, though new houses are spreading. The hills around are covered in beech and spruce forests and the meadows are full of flowers in early summer, hay-making in July and August.
The road along the Iza valley, from Dragomirești through Bogdan Vodă to the junction with the Vișeu valley, is a pleasant, winding road with good asphalt in most places, but you need to watch out for carts, livestock and children in the villages. To the east, the road climbs to the Prislop pass and continues into Bucovina, a spectacular mountain route with views of the Rodna mountains. To the north, the narrow-gauge forest railway from Vișeu de Sus, still pulled by steam engines, runs up the Vaser valley and makes a great day out. Beyond Sighetu Marmației, near the Ukrainian border, the village of Săpânța has the Merry Cemetery, with its brightly painted wooden crosses and humorous epitaphs.
Fuel is available in the larger villages along the main roads, such as Dragomirești and Rozavlea, and in Vișeu de Sus. Guesthouses in Ieud and other villages offer simple rooms and home cooking: sour soups, polenta with cheese and sour cream, and pălincă, the strong plum brandy that every household seems to make.