The Merry Cemetery of Romania

14 September, 2008, 17:42

The Merry Cemetery diverges from the typical European attitude to cemeteries and death, as solemn and serious places and occasions. But because of the tradition of Stan Patras, the Merry Cemetery, although still a place of prayer and to be with deceased loved ones, is far from solemn.

The grave sites are planted with bright flowers and the headstones themselves rise up like big blue floral arrangements. The paintings and epitaphs are typically written with humor and in the first person, as if narrated by the deceased themselves – as Patras did for his own tombstone, which he designed and sculpted himself. Dumitru Pop, who studied with Patras from the age of nine, now does the bulk of the carving, along with other students.

When Patras died, he left his home to Dumitru who chose to live there, then later turned it into a workshop and museum.

“Life is beautiful, very beautiful! But in this place, even death after life does greatly please, thanks to you, craftsman! Thank you for this moment of truth.”  

This passage is written in the golden book of craftsman Stan Ioan Patras (1908 – 1977), by Switzerland’s Honore Bayard. Patras was a Romanian wood sculptor and the original creator of the fanciful tombstones of the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, Maramures County, Romania.

Stan Patras was born into a family with a long tradition of woodcarving. In his youth, Stan was attracted to sculpting, painting and poetry and started to sculpt oak crosses when he was fourteen. It was in 1935 that he began carving poems onto tombstones.

Ron McIntyre for RT