Why do people become fascinated by death and the place where sooner or later each of us will become part of? The answer can be found pretty easy on our visit to the Evangelical Graveyard from Sighisoara where we learned a lot of new and important things.

While in my previous post we discovered a less common church and experienced for the first time going down into a crypt, Sighisoara didn't gave us any break because as soon as we got out of the church we noticed some doors in front of it which were leading to a cemetery.
We actually heard our guide talking about this place but we didn't even notice that we passed next to it when we entered the church, so it was literally impossible to go to our next stop before visiting the cemetery too.
I know that most likely you will think that it's something weird to get into a cemetery for visiting it while there are lots of people resting, but this is not an uncommon thing in Romania since we have quite a few cemeteries that do look different from the others and hence why they also share a story behind the monuments of the people who found their peace in this place.
This is called quite suggestive Cimitirul Evanghelic al Bisericii din Deal which could be translated as the Evangelical Graveyard of the Church on the Hill that we discovered previously, and while both the church and school from the hill were created during the Saxons' stay, I think it's pretty fair to also have a cemetery that is dedicated to them since they did a lot of things for this part of Transylvania.

A curious thing is that the Evangelical Graveyard is part of the UNESCO World Heritage while the church is not, which I'm sure it has a lot more stories to share since we also found out about the cemetery from the sayings of the church's guide but it's never too late to hope that maybe one day the church will be rewarded with the same title.

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Honestly, when I step into a cemetery, I always get a strange feeling of sadness and like getting a huge pressure on my shoulders, but the Evangelical Graveyard from Sighisoara was a completely different thing with a lot more colours than the black and white landscape we are used with, as well as the small creatures that you can notice here and there such as the blackbirds, woodpeckers or squirrels.

I am aware that the cemetery which is fascinating to the Romanian tourists might not be as interesting for our Deutch hivers, but over here we are really not used to seeing this kind of monuments, so every single piece we were noticing was a completely new thing for us. 😊
In plus, our guide told us that the graves are dating since the 18th century and that there are very few empty left.
The explanation to that is that every single grave represents a place of peace for many families and generations, which also was something new for us since in Romania every person has their own place for resting.
The single rule for this to become possible is to pass at least 7 years between the people who are going to be buried in the same place so there are no remains left from the previous one.
That's why, no matter what picture you will check out, you will notice many rows of various names and years of the people who passed away.

While in Romania people go to cemeteries only to light a candle for those who passed away, The Evangelical Graveyard is deemed as a real place for meditation and to find your peace, the cemetery often being considered similar to a common park.

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While there are still a few cities from Transylvania that are mostly inhabited by Saxons, there are very few left comparing their population with this of the ones who are resting in the The Evangelical Graveyard but since both Romanians and Saxons had a special connection, if you are looking carefully you will notice that there are also a few Romanian names on the graves, so the best we can do is to never forget about what Saxons built in Transylvania and to always take care of what they are leaving behind because Sighisoara would never be such a medieval place full of history if they were not living on the same lands with us.

A more or less funny story is that we spent a lot more time in the cemetery rather than in the church and that's because of the size of the graveyard which is part of a forest that made us completely fall in love with its autumn colours that was catching our attention to check out every monument and do a little game by trying to find Romanian names on any of these.
It's true that the name of Romanians can't be compared with those of the Saxons but I still get a smile on my face every time I get one more proof of the relationship between Saxons and Romanians which even though they weren't sharing the same natal language, they found other keys to love each other and learn to live and to do great things together.
Looking at the years of living those people had made us feel a shiver down the spine when we noticed some who died at an age a lot younger than ours or some that died with just one year later than our current age.

The math we were doing calculating the age when some of these passed away made me think how it would be to find yourself on one of those monuments and realize that you have just one year left before you will get to rest under some blocks of cement.

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I know that these affirmations might sound a little bit crazy for some of you but in reality, no one knows what's written in the book of his life and while you get down the alley through so many bodies who already met the next life, it's impossible not to imagine different things.

Along with my thoughts and the cemetery which is also considered a park, you will notice that from time to time there are a few benches which are having a small plate attached to them with a name and some years.

This reinforces once again that if you are searching for a place where it's always silence in Sighisoara, you can also count on the cemetery where you can go and meditate or simply listen to your thoughts.

In plus, those benches are far from the common ones we see in parks because they also represent graves and on the cement block they are part of, most likely at least one person is resting.
This was told to us by our guide which encouraged us to stop for a while and do make steps on the cement block because it helps the persons who are resting there to find their peace if they didn't find it yet.
This is, again, another thing that is not looked the same way by Romanians, because in our cemeteries it's not considered a good thing to step over a place where someone's resting just because is considered as you are bothering that person which could turn into a completely different story like starting to be haunted because you woke up that spirit and so on.
I guess this thing is viewed in many other ways depending on regions and countries but I really like the way a single place can give so many meanings depending on where you are from.
Another different thing is that still on the graves along with the name and the year of a person, you will also find what the occupation of that person was which is not written on the Romanian graves, there being just a few exceptions, like the The Merry Cemetery from Maramures, but which is also a sightseeing attraction.

Personally, I consider this a pretty good reminder to those who are always putting accent on their occupations and tend to forget that down into the resting place we all are equal no matter what our cars, houses or CVs are looking like. And it's been really interesting to see doctors, teachers, students, lawyers, soldiers and many more next to each other.

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I know we got to visit the Evangelical Graveyard during the autumn when the colours of nature made our eyes get drunk with happiness, but the same place can create a completely fresh landscape even during the spring and summer when everything is green or during the winter when the white blanket will make you feel like stepping into a frozen world.

In plus, the black and grey graves do create a magical thing to admire along with nature which is embracing every monument with its colours in a place less expected. If you also manage to find some flowers which just bloomed, no doubt you were blessed with a journey to remember. 😊

Though, by far, the monument which caught my attention the most was a really huge one that was measuring perhaps even 3 meters height and where you could see a lot of generations meeting in the same place after a few years.

From the architecture of the grave to the thought that some of these people didn't even get to meet all their heirs, every single piece of this monument brought a smile on my face realizing how much those loved each other not letting even death to separate one another.

During our trip to Sighisoara, we've seen a lot of places, but I can easily say that Cimitirul Evanghelic al Bisericii din Deal gave me a different energy and I think it's totally worth being visited by anyone who is, at least, coming to the church. The graveyard can be reached by following all the way to the up on Scara Acoperita that is on Str. Scara Şcolarilor and then get in front of the church which is facing the park with a peace of mind to be shared further.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

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