DESCRIPTION
Northern Romania, including regions like Southern Bukovina and Maramureș (the Northern parts of the two being in Ukraine), frequently finding itself at empire borders, saw various rules and influences that marked its complex history. The Dacians, to a lesser extent that far North the Romans, the migratory peoples, the Hungarians, Poles and Russians had a great influence on the destiny of the region and of its population with its mix of Romanians, Ruthenians (old Ukrainians), Jews, Hutsul (Ukrainian speaking highlanders) and others. While the two regions fit together well in a tradition and rural lifestyle-focused journey and they share things in common, for a good part of their history they were different. Maramureș was a “res nullis” (no-man’s land) or, better put, “terra indagines” (uninhabited, buffer border land) designated by both the Romans (with their Dacia Superior province set in 107 AD bordering Maramureș) and later the Hungarians (during their incorporating Transylvania in their kingdom in the 11th century). This way, the respective empire and kingdom had a buffer zone that could act as a protective shield against external invasions; only in 1303 Maramureș became a county within the Kingdom of Hungary. To the East, Bukovina saw the Kievan Rus’ rule in the 10th century, was part of the Principality of Galicia and then of the Moldavian Kingdom starting with the 14th century. Both regions fell subject to the Ottomans in the 16th century (Maramureș in 1541, Bukovina in 1514) and were then under Habsburg rule (Maramureș starting with 1688, Bukovina starting with 1774), until they became part of the new Romanian Kingdom in 1918 (except for Maramureș which was incorporated in Miklós Horthy’s Hungary between 1940 and 1944). Also an important factor to the regional history above, the remoteness and particular location on the larger geostrategical map of the two have created both the heterogeneous ethnic mix or the very well preserved traditions and crafts we can witness today, and a strong connection between the local population and the nature around, as wonderfully put down in words by Mihail Sadoveanu in his novel that starts down the Bistrița:
“The highlander was given the opportunity to earn his daily bread with an axe or a hatchet. Those with an axe cut down fir trees in the forest and took them to the banks of the Bistrița, they then joined them together creating rafts and drove them downstream to Galați, to the edge of the world. The most worthy of them had their sheepfolds up in the mountains. And they lived up there with God and their solitude alone as company until days grew shorter. In winter they came down to the plains and wintered their flocks by the lakes there. Life was easier there, and she would have liked to live there year round, but could not because summers were too hot, besides, the highlander had his own strong roots there where he belongs, just like the fir tree. And (her husband) Nechifor Lipan always showed himself to be very skilled in the craft of shepherding. His sheepfolds were well-ordered and the shepherds obedient. The ‘baci’ (shepherds) didn’t just know their stories, they knew the secret of sour milk and ‘burduf’ (kneaded) cheese making, so that letters and requests poured in from far away, from some towns with strange, unfamiliar names.”
Mihail Sadoveanu – “The Hatchet”
DAY 1
(Bucharest) Baia Mare – Șurdești – Budești – Sârbi – Breb – Sighetu Marmației / Breb
Welcome to Maramureș, the land where everything appears to be built using wood! While Baia Mare is the capital of Maramureș County, historically it is part of Transylvania, while the Maramureș border lies up the mountains farther North, so that we shall head straight there. Our first break will be in the village of Șurdești, home to the magnificent St. Michael and Gabriel’s Church going back to 1766. Built of strong and long lasting oak beams and planks, at 54 m. this used to be the tallest wooden church in the country and, apart from that, what attracts visitors here is the fact that some of the original painting inside still survives. On the way down on the other side of the crest, we shall make a detour to see the old-and-new monastery off Budești, initially built in the 15th century, destroyed in the 18th century and rebuilt in 1994; the location up the mountains, the traditional layout and structure, as well as the Biblical scenes depicted on the walls inside are highly evocative here. Then we shall head down to the village proper, where we shall see the old St. Nicholas’, also known as the ‘Josani’ church, as quite a few villages here historically had two churches, a lower (“Josani”) and upper (“Susani”) one. Built in 1643, this is one of the old wooden churches in the area that survived to our day without alterations of the original structure. Down to more mundane matters, we shall then see the traditional “washing machine” locally known as “vâltoare”, where the stream water is channelled into a round, barrel-like bowl where it creates an whirlpool that allow clothes or textiles to be washed. The sightseeing day will come to an end
in the scenic village of Breb, with a visit to a local wood carver and a few words on the local, often monumental carved wood gates, nonetheless a good harbinger of the days to come.
Optional flight from Bucharest to Baia Mare or previous day’s drive from Bucharest to Baia Mare (a very long day on the road) followed by accommodation in town (not included).
- Pick-up in Baia Mare in the morning.
- Visit to the wooden church in Șurdești.
- Detour and drive up to see St. Constantine and Helen’s Monastery off Budești.
- Visit to the St. Nicholas’ wooden church in Budești Josani – inside visit only possible if open.
- Visit to the “vâltoare” in Budești or Sârbi.
- Walk across the village in Breb.
- Visit to Ioan Petric’s wood carving workshop in Breb, explanations on the local carved wood gates.
- Accommodation in Sighetu Marmației, 3* guesthouse set in traditional style or in an old traditional house in Breb.
DAY 2
Sighetu Marmației / Breb – Săpânța (the Merry Cemetery, Peri Monastery) – Sighetu Marmației / Breb
The very concept of a “merry cemetery” might appear at first strange if not all the way schizoid, however if one has it within a wider context it makes very good sense. Because, possibly inheriting the old Dacian belief that the body was ephemeral, while upon its rotting the soul could travel away and find a new host, people in Maramureș traditionally saw death as a transient stage of a greater process, to the point where there is no reason to welcome it with a grief or, well, not to welcome it with a cheer. Enters Stan Ioan Pătraș which, 27 years old in 1935, started carving short epitaphs on the wooden crosses placed on deceased villagers’ tombs; by 1977 when he died, he counted around 700 such crosses. With a keen interest in and an obvious talent at poetry, he refined his style to the point where the said poems maintained their natural, simple structure, but were gradually added a sincere, no frill sense of countryside humour. As he kept on working, he soon fell the need to complement epitaphs with an image depicting particular scenes within them, so that these crosses turned into a multivalent work of art, one where the background was common, an intense blue (referring to hope and the blue sky as a transient medium into another world), while the other colours employed had their particular signification: yellow stood for fertility, red for passion, green for life and black for death. Therefore, exploring the Merry Cemetery and learning the stories on some of the crosses there will definitely allow us to get a little closer to the local culture in this village next to the Northern tip of Romania. Then, still in Săpânța, let us explore another religious site of great local significance. Peri Monastery was built of wood in 1994 to commemorate a 14th century stone monastery in Peri Village (nowadays Hrushove Village farther North, in Ukraine), that was destroyed in the 18th century, under Habsburg rule; at 78 m., it is the tallest wooden church in the world. And then, returning to Sighetu Marmației, we shall allow some time to explore the town that was once the capital of the region and a place that saw history unfolding in all its heterogeneity, because it was in Sighet that many cultural societies were founded, it was here that Elie Wiesel, the man that would coin the word “holocaust” and get the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986, was born in 1928, it was also here that Wiesel, together with some 15,500 other Jews, were arrested and deported, with only some 2,000 returning alive, and it was here that the Communist regime threw illustrious figures and opposants in the infamous local prison starting with 1948 and well into the 1950s. To illustrate these times and historical facts nobody should ignore when here, we shall visit Elie Wiesel’s birth house and the Sighet Memorial, a permanent exhibition dedicated to and hosted by the Sighet prison.
- Breakfast.
- Visit to the Merry Cemetery in Săpânța.
- Visit to Peri Monastery.
- Walk in Sighetu Marmației.
- Visit to the Anticommunist Victim Memorial in Sighetu Marmației.
- Visit to Elie Wiesel’s memorial house in Sighetu Marmației.
- Accommodation in Sighetu Marmației, 3* guesthouse set in traditional style or in an old traditional house in Breb.
DAY 3
Sighetu Marmației – Bârsana – Poienile Izei – Ieud – Prislop Pass – Ciocănești – Mestecăniș Pass – Gura Humorului / Poieni Solca / Frasin
This morning, leaving Sighet, we shall once more dive in the world of well preserved traditions, ancestral reverence towards and sense of the sacred, as well as diligent existence historically defining Maramureș. And then, as Historian Neagu Djuvara argued in his outstanding “Civilizations and Historical Patterns” degree, just as at a greater scale history is down to civilizations going through a cyclical movement, the story of the Bârsana Monastery resembles that of the Budești Monastery and of many others in the region, as Bârsana was built in the 14th century, destroyed and its monks kicked away under the Habsburg rule in 1791, the local people took the church to pieces and rebuilt it in village so as to protect it, and the monastery was rebuilt in 1993-1994; therefore, while the monastery is relatively new, its layout, even more than in Budești, excellently emphasizes the local craftsmanship and art. Optionally, we can also see the old church on the Jbâr Hill preserving some fine Baroque paintings. And then, before leaving Maramureș, we shall make detours along fine side roads to see two other old wooden churches. First, going back to 1620, the wooden church in Ieud is the oldest in Maramureș; then, built just 12 years after the Ieud church, the one in Poienile Izei is one of the most beautiful and well preserved in the region. In the afternoon, after crossing the mountains through Prislop Pass (not unexpectedly hosting yet another monastery, even though built in an entirely different style) and following the scenic Bistrița downstream, we shall have a break in Ciocănești, where the change of architecture will definitely impress us: we have, after all entered Bukovina. A walk here will be highly rewarding, as the local “pui” (typical houses) are decorated on the outside with colourful plaster patterns inspired by the local embroideries; one could hardly find a more appropriate way of humanizing his or her house! Then, after crossing the mountains once more, we shall call it a day. And what a day!
- Breakfast.
- Visit to Bârsana Monastery.
- Optional walk and visit to the old Bârsana Church.
- Detour and visit to Poienile Izei and Ieud wooden churches.
- Break in Ciocănești and walk around to see the local “pui” houses adorned with their typical, colourful plaster decorations.
- Accommodation in a log mountain lodge in Frasin / in a traditional, genuine old house in Poieni Solca / in a guesthouse inspired by local houses in Gura Humorului.
DAY 4
Gura Humorului / Poieni Solca / Frasin – Marginea – Sucevița – Moldovița – Sadova – Gura Humorului / Poieni Solca / Frasin
The unglazed and unpainted, black pottery in Marginea will be the reason behind the first break along the way this morning. The fine blend of religious and floral patterns together with the great skill and many generations long experience of the craftsmen make the local pottery appreciated. We shall then start exploring the painted monasteries, built in the 15th and 16th century and subsequently painted both inside and outside with frescoes inspired by Biblical scenes, in an attempt to pass on the teachings of the scripture to a population a great share of was not literate. First we shall step inside the fortress-like enclosure complete with its defensive towers surrounding Sucevița Monastery; that happens as the monastery also doubled as a princely residence for a while. As it was the last of its siblings to be painted, the art here is more elaborate and it also has the largest frescoes in the region, of which the Ladder to Paradise with its red winged angels and falling sinners. Then, the Moldovița will charm us with its more intimate, warmer atmosphere emphasized by the alternation of gold and deep blue frescoes, of which the vivid, moving depiction of the Siege of Constantinople or of the Tree of Jesse. And then, returning to the world of local crafts, we shall head to Sadova and visit craftsmen into old traditions such as textile weaving (blouses or different fabrics used for towels, aprons or various cloths), embroidery or traditional shoe making (Ro. opincă). And then, we shall also have a close look at local cuisine with its fine blend of dishes and fragrances coming from various directions and cultures. For that, today we shall look into the “bulz”, based on milk-boiled polenta layered with different cheeses (of which sheep cheese, yellow cheese and spicy, kneaded cheese are unmissable), curd and butter, then baked in the oven and eaten hot. Therefore, at the end of this heterogeneous day we shall have a good image of the local heritage.
- Breakfast.
- Visit to a black pottery workshop in Marginea.
- Visit to Sucevița Monastery.
- Visit to Moldovița Monastery.
- Visit to craftsmen in Sadova: textile weaving / embroidery and traditional shoe making.
- Local cuisine: “bulz” cooking presentation.
- Accommodation in a log mountain lodge in Frasin / in a traditional, genuine old house in Poieni Solca / in a guesthouse inspired by local houses in Gura Humorului.
DAY 5
Gura Humorului / Poieni Solca / Frasin – Arbore Monastery – Humor Monastery – Voroneț Monastery – Suceava
The painted monastery incursion will carry on this morning, and we shall start with the lesser visited, smaller Arbore Monastery. Smaller and lacking the typical steeple because it was not built by a prince, but by a local “boyar” (landlord), the monastery Western wall preserves an outstanding set of many miniatures from the Genesis among which depictions of Adam ploughing the land and Eve spinning the wool. Then the Humor impresses one with its great frescoes intensive in reddish brown and complemented by some blue and green dashes, among which the one depicting the Return of the Prodigal Son is evocative. The church does not have a steeple (just like the Arbore), as the Humor was not built by a prince either. And, while we are not in favour of any generalization and hierarchy, we have left probably the most impressive of the monasteries for the end: Voroneț, built in around 3 months in 1487 by Stephen the Great, the then ruler of Moldavia, with its deep blue-intensive frescoes that also coined the “Voroneț blue” term. The frescoes here are highly diverse, from the ancient Greek philosophers including Plato and Aristotle placed in the Tree of Jesse to the Last Judgement and the various, highly detailed, colourful depictions of apostles, martyrs, evangelists, angels and demons to the point where if there is a single place to sum up our exploration of the religious sites along this journey across North Romania, this very well might be it. As for the mentioned Stephen the Great, we shall not end the tour without seeing the fortress he strengthened in Suceava, seat of the Moldavian Principality. The strong surrounding walls and deep moat talk of his dramatic time, but also of a time of extraordinary artistic achievements that will stay with us for a long while after leaving this part of Romania.
- Breakfast.
- Visit to Arbore Monastery.
- Visit to Humor Monastery.
- Visit to Voroneț Monastery.
- Visit to the Princely Court (fortress) in Suceava.
- Drop off in Suceava or optional flight out of Suceava to Bucharest.
- End of services.
Photo Gallery
