The famous Merry Cemetery in Maramures will open its gates in an organized manner for the first time for culture lovers everywhere. “The Long Road to the Merry Cemetery” will take place between August 12 and 15 in Sapanta, and will comprise five days of Romanian and Irish music, art, dance, pottery, trout fishing, cooking and more.
Sapanta is considered to hold “an enormous spiritual and touristic potential, but we don’t want to turn its exploration into a boutique”, said Peter Hurley, producer of the event. The idea for “The Long Road to the Merry Cemetery” emerged when Irish composer Shaun Davey received a scholarship to research the common bridge that unites Romanian and Irish cultures. Fascinated with Sapanta, he created a musical suite combining Romanian and Irish influences, as well as classical music. The Merry Cemetery in Sapanta is considered unique, as the name suggests, for the graves and epitaphs that amusingly satirize death and through its already trademark vividly painted crosses.
Corina Dumitrescu