Day 28 - July 10th - Sapanta

Day 28 – Fri July 10^th – Sapanta

We are being killed by the kindness of the lovely family who run the ‘Pensiunea Ileana’ here at the tiny rural village of Sapanta on the northern frontier of Romania. We were sat at a formal breakfast setting in the quaint outdoor dining room, and served with home-made muesli and home grown walnuts, warm cow’s milk and poached eggs from the family chickens. The yoghurt was freshly made from sour milk (same cow no doubt) and the bread was touched off with home-made prune jam. We had no room for the large serving of black olives and white cheeses. Strong black coffee was ‘bottomless’. It was a feast for Kings.

We had the whole day to ourselves, but we really only had two things on our agenda apart from strolling the village and its rural setting. Firstly, we returned (across the street) to the famous ‘Happy Cemetery’, which is famous all over Romania and in fact all over the world. The tombstones are colourful and carved in wood, with a message on each usually in poetic form, or humorous in nature about the life and death of the person, and often in the 1^st person. Each one gives good insight into village life and the simple and genuine lives of the villagers. Some are also sad, especially the young lives that were short lived. Each tombstone carries a painting or graphic depicting the vocation or hobby of the deceased.

The Merry Cemetery dates back to the 1930’s and is the creation of a local artist named Stan Ioan Patras – a woodworker, artist and poet. At age 14 he had already begun working by carving crosses for the local cemetery. By the 1930’s he began carving clever or ironic poems about the deceased, as well as their image and their vocation and/or the way they died. The crosses are in a deep blue and look very bright and colorful, speaking of hope and freedom, and also the idea that the afterlife is a better life.

Patras died in 1977, but the work is continued by his talented apprentice Dumitri Pop to this day. For the day and a half of our stay, the Happy Cemetery was the attention of a continual feed of tourist buses bringing an injection of funds into this otherwise sleepy little rural village. Dozens of ‘Pensiunea’ have emerged, with the locals selling their own crafts, especially the local specialty of pure wool rugs and traditional Romanian women’s blouses.

The cemetery surrounds a most magnificent Orthodox church which is being heavily restored. The Sapanta community is about 98% Orthodox, but this church, with its distinctive northern Romanian tall, narrow steeple was once the property of the Greek Roman Catholic church but which was outlawed by the Communist regime when it came to power in Romania in 1948, with all its assets being transferred to the Orthodox church, including this church. After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, the Catholic church requested their churches be returned, but the Romanian Government has only returned some 16 of the 2600 churches affected. The ‘Happy Cemetery’ Orthodox Church is being radically renovated, which according to the Greek Catholic church is an intentional wiping-out of their rights and traditions. Whatever the case, the finished job will be very spectacular.

From the Cemetery, we walked 1-2km away from the village down a long country lane into the forest to the other attraction for which Sapanta is also famous – the ‘Sapanta Peri Orthodox Monastery’. The antecedents of this monastery go back as far as 1391 when a small stone church was built. The Monastery developed over the centuries but was all destroyed in 1703. However, it has been newly re-built at the end of the 20^th century and is the tallest wooden church in the world, standing at 78 metres tall and dedicated to St Michael. At the very top of the wooden spire is an iron cross, 7 metres tall and weighing 400 kilos.

The church building is far from complete inside, and the massive monastery complex, looking more like a modern multi-story resort, is also unfinished and therefore un-inhabited. There a only three Nuns and a Priest in residence while building work continues. The buildings are spectacular, especially against the tall forest that surrounds the Monastery.

We made our way back to our ‘Pensiunea’ taking coffee along the way, and taking photos of the frequent passing horse drawn carts and hay loads, typical of this far northern Romanian farming community. We actually enjoyed an afternoon ‘siesta’ followed by a lovely demonstration of the ancient art of rug weaving by the 77 year old mother (our cook) of Ileana, our gracious and lovely host.

The day came to an end as we sat yet again in the outdoor dining room enjoying our final three course home-made meal, lovingly prepared and presented by our doting hosts. It will be sad to say our goodbyes just after the sun dawns on this ancient and culturally traditional Romanian farming community.

From our beautiful ‘Pensiunea Ileana’ on the northern frontier Romanian village of Sapanta, we send our love.

KRA