Maramures

A few weeks back I spent a few days in the region known as Maramures. It is in the Northeastern corner of Romania, close to Hungary, and is, in some ways, a source of 'true' 'ethnic' Romanian culture. It was an area supervised by Hungarians but ruled by Romanians in the 14th century when one of their lords, Dragos, left for the east and established a new principality there, known as Moldavia.

Many Maramures traditions, such as wood carving, traditional folk clothing, folk songs and dances, wooden church building, and food making are evident in Transylvanian and Moldavian culture as well. It's a scenic area with rolling green hills, wooden churches, elaborately carved gates, and of course, horse carts.
Here is the stunning Rohia Monastery, located verrrry high up on a hill. We visited during services and as it was a gorgeous day, the services took place outdoors. Services seem quite casual in a way, and people wander in and out while the liturgy takes place. There are no pews in Orthodox churches, as is traditional (Western churches only installed pews in the very late Middle Ages or early Renaissance, something like 1500... I think...), and there is often not enough room for an entire congregation, so people gather on the steps outside, as well.
Heres are the gravemarkers of the famous "merry cemetary." It's an odd place, located very remotely, and somehow managed to gain national and international tourist attention. There are dozens and dozens of gravemarkers, all painted to depict the deceased either as s/he lived or how s/he died. Sadly, there are very many depicted car accidents, not at all surprising if you've ever driven or walked on a Romanian road. I looked for the ones depicting the deceased with horses, and there were many horse lovers in the bunch. There is a short poem also accompanying the image, and one of them talks about the deceased who loved his horses more than than his car.
This stunning wooden church is (apparently) the largest wooden church in all of Europe. It is very new, though it is built in the centuries-old tradition of Maramures church building. It's not fully completed, but really startling to drive up to, as it has the proportions of all the other, not particularly large, wooden churches, but is actually incredibly massive.
Trickling stream and woods along a Maramures road.
The capital of Maramures, Sighet, is home to the Communist memorial museum, a former prison converted into museum and memorial. There was a display of the stages of the Communist take-over, the falsifying of votes and wrongly rigging the election, the change from a Stalinist/Soviet Communist regime directly after WWII to the Ceasescu regime. The latter dictator emphasized total self-sustainability and increased exports to pay off all international debts, starving his population and arresting all dissenters. It was a very sad memorial, but also very interesting, as Romanian Communism differed from the Soviet regime, though was equally harmful. This memorial stands outside in the memory garden which lists the names of all those killed in Communist prisons. Though the museum was so clearly anti-Communist, I worry that people here don't seem particularly vigilant against that past.