Things don’t get much more clichéd than travel writers telling you that visiting a certain place is like stepping into a different world or stepping back in time. However, in the case of Maramures, that cliché is 100% true. Situated in the far northwest of Romania, close to the Ukrainian border, Maramures really does feel like a step back in time. It’s a place where time seems to have stood still to some extent and where many centuries-old traditions are alive and kicking. It’s a place where families live in compounds with beautifully carved fences and gates, where many people still get round in horse-drawn carts, and where many women still wear head scarves, skirts and traditional embroidered blouses. If you’re lucky enough to walk into the right alley (or have a good guide), you may even find traditional weavers, wood workers and egg painters plying their trades. And if all that isn’t enough for you, you’ll also find some attractions you won’t find anywhere else in the world, such as a ridiculously vivid cemetery and some stunning wooden churches that are on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. In other words, this part of Romania has a lot to offer tourists. So if you want some tips on places to visit in Maramures, keep reading!
I visited northern Romania with my friend Jeroen in April 2019, when there was still quite a bit of snow in the mountains. We were on a tight schedule, so we only spent three days in Maramures, which was nowhere near enough to do the place justice. We did thoroughly enjoy those three days, though!
Since we wanted to focus on rural Maramures, we skipped the two bigger cities, Baia Mare and Sighetu Marmatiei. In so doing, we missed out on some interesting attractions (see below), but we didn’t regret the decision. We wanted a rural experience, and boy, did we get one.
Please find below a top-10 of everything we did in Maramures in three days, with descriptions and photos. I hope it will inspire you to check out this beautiful part of Europe for yourself!
Be sure to watch my YouTube video on Maramures here!
10 things to do in Maramures, Romania
1) Merry Cemetery, Sapanta
2) Village of Breb
3) Wooden church of Barsana
4) Wooden church of Desesti
5) Wooden church of Budesti
6) Road between Budesti and Desesti
7) Prislop Pass
8) Barsana Monastery
9) Pastravaria Alex, Mara
10) Sapanta-Peri Monastery
1: Merry Cemetery of Sapanta
The Merry Cemetery (Cimitirul Vesel) of Sapanta, close to the Ukrainian border, is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Romania, and it’s easy to see why. The place is simply unique. A quirky cemetery where dead people aren’t mourned but rather have their lives celebrated by means of colourful headstones with bright portraits and irreverent rhyming obituaries on them, this is a wonderful place to stroll around for a couple of hours and try and find your favourite headstone. There is quite the collection to choose from, ranging from super-traditional ones showing pious ladies, housewives, farmers and weavers to more modern ones that feature cars, computers and TV sets (all of which look delightfully out of place amidst all the über-traditional stuff). Obviously, the experience is better if you speak Romanian (or have a guide who does) so that you can understand the rhyming couplets on the headstones, but even if you don’t, you’ll enjoy this place. I promise.
2: The village of Breb
Breb is Maramures at its most gloriously Maramuresy. The village is beautifully situated in a valley with a view of the Gutai mountains, where you can do a beautiful hike called the Creasta Cocosului trail (see below). The streets are full of artfully carved wooden gates, wooden crosses, apple trees, picturesque haystacks and other hallmarks of the Romanian countryside. It’s a joy to walk around here and soak up the rural atmosphere. There’s a very old wooden church, too, if you can find it. Sadly, I missed out on that one, but that didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying my walks around the village.
Breb makes for a great base in Maramures if you have your own wheels. If you are dependent on public transport, you will probably want to base yourself in Baia Mare, from which there are infrequent buses to the various villages described in this blog post.
3: Wooden church of Barsana
Barsana is firmly on the tourist trail because of its monastery, which you’ll see in all the postcards. Personally, I found the monastery a bit overrated (which is why it only ranks 8th in this list), but the 300-year-old wooden Church of the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, which is situated a couple of kilometres west of the monastery, is definitely worth your time. It’s an elegant wooden structure that sits very picturesquely on a hilltop and is surrounded by rickety iron crosses for plague victims who were buried here before the church (which used to be where the monastery is now) was relocated here in 1795. The red, white and blue interior features scenes from Genesis and also depicts Judgement Day in graphic detail. If the church is closed when you arrive, ring the telephone number you’ll find at the entrance gate and wait for someone to come and open up – it’s worth the wait!
4: Wooden church of Desesti
Another church that is well worth visiting is St Parascheva Church in Desești, constructed in 1770. Its exterior is not quite as charming as those of the churches of Budesti and Barsana, but the interior is wonderful, with paintings depicting hunger and death as well as heaven and the Garden of Eden. The colour scheme here is largely dark blue and white, and the atmosphere is tremendous.
Once you’re done with the church itself, be sure to check out the cemetery surrounding it, which is very picturesque in its own way. Many of the women buried here were called Palaguta, a rather unusual name that somehow seems to have been very common in this part of the country. Count the crosses and headstones that say ‘Palaguta’!
5: Wooden church of Budesti
This charming mid-seventeenth-century church, dedicated to St Nicholas, has beautiful wooden shingles, carved doors and a tall spire, as well as four little turrets at the bottom of the spire (with picturesque crosses on them), which indicate that the Budesti town council had the right to condemn criminals to death – a stern warning to crooks to behave themselves, or else.
The interior of the church is spectacular, as well: there are some beautiful icons, and all the walls and the entire ceiling are decorated with paintings representing scenes from both the Old and New Testaments. Some scenes evoke peace and quiet, whereas others focus on turmoil. It’s a heady mix.
Again, if you find the building closed when you arrive, call the number provided and wait for the custodian to come and open the door, or pester the locals (in a friendly and polite way) until they get the custodian for you. It’s worth the wait.
6: The road between Budesti and Desesti
If you’re going to check out the wooden churches at Budesti and Desesti, allow yourself plenty of time for the drive between the two, as the roads through the valleys are quite scenic. This is the Maramures countryside at its most picturesque, with elaborately carved wooden gates, round haystacks, strange carts and pastures full of swaying trees and wooden drying racks. I promise you you’ll get out of your car and take some pictures.
7: Prislop Pass
The Prislop Pass is a mountain pass (altitude 1416 metres) in the Rodna mountains that you have to cross if you are travelling from Maramures to Bucovina county with its famous painted monasteries (more on those in a future post). As mountain roads go, the DN-18 isn’t the most spectacular road you’ll find in the country (that would be the Transfagarasan Highway, which is only open during the summer months), but it does come with some very nice views, and once you get to the pass itself, there’s a rather photogenic monastery there, in the middle of nowhere. It’s a great place for a picnic if the weather is good. (It was snowing when we were there, so we didn’t linger.)
If you’re going to travel down this road, be sure to spend some time in Ciocanesti, an impossibly picturesque village on the Bucovina side of the mountains. The houses here are decorated with motifs taken from traditional embroidery and Easter egg decorations. Sadly, it was raining cats and dogs when we were passing through, so we didn’t stick around for very long, but if you’re here on a sunny day, you will LOVE this town. I’ll definitely be back here myself some day.
8: Barsana Monastery
This collection of churches and monastic buildings with very tall spires is probably the second most famous attraction in Maramures after the Merry Cemetery, and it looks very pretty in the postcards, with photos taken from afar. In real life, though, I felt the complex looked far too new and contrived to be really interesting. It was built in 1990, after the Revolution that overthrew the socialist dictatorship, and although the tall spires are impressive and the wood workers delivered some lovely work, the complex lacks the aura and authenticity of the older sites in the county. It’s basically Disneyland done Romanian-style, to the point where even the nuns seem out of place. If you want to see the real thing, I highly recommend visiting the old church a few kilometres down the road, which used to be on the site of the current monastery until it was moved in 1795. It’s more beautiful and far less touristy.
9: Lunch or dinner at Pastravaria Alex
Pastravaria Alex is a restaurant-and-inn complex just outside the town of Mara. Made up of a big wooden building decorated in the traditional style and a series of smaller wooden booths next to it, and set next to a pond, a waterfall and an old watermill, it’s a pretty idyllic place to have lunch or dinner. The traditional food on the menu is unspectacular but tasty; however, the real reason to come here is the setting. You may wish to reserve a table if you visit this place in summer, as it’s very popular with locals and tourists alike. You can also spend the night here if you’re so inclined.
10: Sapanta-Peri Monastery
Situated a few kilometres from the Merry Cemetery at Sapanta is the Sapanta-Peri Monastery, which boasts the tallest wooden structure in Europe (some sources say the world): a church with a very long spire. It’s a whopping 78 metres tall. It was built in 1997 to revive the cult of the archangel Michael (which was suppressed under socialism), in the style of the ancient Peri monastery, which is now situated on Ukrainian soil. There’s also a pretty pavilion on the premises (called the ‘summer altar’), and a small, active monastery that currently houses half a dozen nuns. I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit this place, but if you’re going to visit the nearby Merry Cemetery, Sapanta-Peri is worth a quick detour. If you need some peace and quiet after the hustle and bustle of the Cemetery, the forest is a nice place to find some.
And just in case you’re spending more than three days in Maramures, I’ll throw in some bonus tips, as well. These are places I didn’t get round to visiting myself because of time constraints, but which my guidebooks tell me are worth visiting if you do have the time. In other words, I can’t vouch for these places, but they should be worth your while!
More wooden churches
First of all, there are more wooden churches for you to check out. The most beautiful specimens can be found in Ieud, Plopis, Poienile Izei, Rogoz and Surdesti. All these churches are UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the ones at Rogoz and Ieud look particularly gorgeous. If I ever visit this part of Romania again (which I fully intend to), those two churches will be very high on my list of things to do.
Mocanita steam-powered train
Secondly, there’s an old steam-powered train (mocanita), which, hurtling along at the breakneck speed of 10km/hr, takes people from Viseu de Sus to the otherwise inaccessible Vaser Valley (close to the Ukrainian border) and back. The railroad was built in the 1930s to move tree trunks from the forest to the towns, and probably would have been discarded by now if it hadn’t been for tourists. Reviews on the full-day experience vary – some people love it, while others are underwhelmed. The general consensus seems to be that the scenery along the railway is wonderful but the comfort level on the train and the food served at the halfway point leave a bit to be desired. I’d say, dress up warmly, bring your own food, do some walking around when you get to the halfway point and you should have a good time. This is a popular attraction, so be sure to buy your ticket online well in advance.
Creasta Cocosului walk
This walk to an imposing ridge of the Gutai mountains can be done from several villages (including Desesti and Budesti), but most people choose to do it from Breb. There’s a well-defined walking trail that will take you up the mountain ridge with its distinct rocky outcrops, which look like a cockscomb (hence the name of the trail – creasta cocosului means ‘cockscomb’). You’ll have to climb about 800 metres to get to the ridge, so you’ll need good cardiac fitness, and there’s some scrambling towards the top as the trail more or less disappears once you get close to the summit, but if that doesn’t bother you, you should enjoy this walk. The views of and from the ridge look great in the photos I’ve seen. (I was planning to do this walk myself, but there was still too much snow in the mountains in April to make it feasible. This is definitely a summer walk.)
Sighetu Marmatiei
Sighetu Marmatiei (or ‘Sighet’ as it is popularly known) is Maramures’s second-largest town after Baia Mare (which apparently doesn’t have much going for it). It is home to several attractions, such as:
The sobering Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance (a large and important museum that will teach you a lot about Romania in the twentieth century and keep you occupied for several hours);
The Sighet Village Museum (an open-air museum where a traditional village has been preserved, with a few wooden buildings that are several centuries old); and
The Elie Wiesel Memorial House, which is the house where the famous Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (who wrote the haunting concentration camp memoir Night) grew up. The museum not only commemorates Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wiesel himself, but also sheds some light on Jewish culture in Romania, which was pretty much eradicated during the war.
I intend to visit all these places myself when I return to Maramures.
Lastly, some practical information...
How to get around in Maramures
My friend and I travelled by hire car. We got our car from Klass Wagen, picked it up in Iași and dropped it off in Cluj at the end of our trip. I would 100% recommend that course of action. Public transport is very time-consuming in these parts, and if you were to try and visit all the places listed in this post by public transport, you’d probably need around a week. A hire car is a much better alternative, particularly as hire cars are actually very affordable in Romania. If getting your own wheels is not an option, consider joining a guided tour rather than trying to get to places by public transport. You’ll probably have a better time. Added bonus: you’ll probably get to see some craftsmen at work, too, which my friend and I sadly missed out on.
Where to stay in Maramures
My friend and I spent three nights in Breb and wouldn’t have minded staying a bit longer. We stayed at the mega-traditional Pensiunea Inima Maramureșului (‘Heart of Maramures Guesthouse’), where rooms are basic but nice, and where nearly everything served for breakfast is home-made. If you want an authentic Maramures B&B with a very kind hostess, you can’t go wrong with this place.
Anyhow, whatever you end up doing, I hope you enjoy Maramures as much as I did!
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