Săpânța is a village at the far north of Romania, hard against the Ukrainian border along the Tisza river, and it is known for a graveyard that makes people laugh and then think. The Merry Cemetery, Cimitirul Vesel, is packed with wooden crosses painted in a deep blue, each carved with a small scene from the life of the person buried below and a short verse in rhyming Romanian, sometimes tender and sometimes teasing. A shepherd with his flock, a weaver at her loom, a driver beside his lorry, and occasionally a verse about the dead man's unfortunate fondness for drink.
The idea came from a local woodcarver, Stan Ioan Pătraș, who started carving these crosses in the 1930s and carried on for decades, training apprentices who still keep the tradition going. There are hundreds of crosses now, and the cemetery has become one of the most visited places in Maramureș. The philosophy behind it is gentle: death is part of a life that was worth living, and the honest summary is better than a solemn one.
Maramureș is one of the best-preserved rural regions in Europe, where the wooden churches, tall and shingled with needle-sharp spires, are listed by UNESCO, and carved gateways stand outside farmhouses. The ride up here is easy and slow, along valley roads through haystack country, with scythes still in use and horse carts sharing the tarmac. The surface is mixed, so keep your speed modest, watch for potholes and for animals, and remember that many roads here have no hard shoulder.
The village has plenty of small guesthouses, and the restaurants near the cemetery serve hearty local food: stuffed cabbage, polenta with sheep cheese and sour cream, and the plum brandy called horinca or țuică, which is stronger than it looks. For fuel, ride to Sighetu Marmației, the main town of the area, about fifteen kilometres to the west, and fill up there before you set out for the mountains. A final point: because the Ukrainian border is close, keep your passport with you and do not wander towards the river banks and border posts, which are monitored.