STAN IOAN PĂTRAȘ Memorial House, creator of the stories and crosses in the Merry Cemetery in Săpânța, Romania
Hello travelers from all over the world
Whenever we hear the word ,,cemetery,,, we think of something sad, we think that here we will pass through the last gate to the unknown but wait so in today's post I do not want to sadden you but I want to present a unique concept of a special man namely ,,The Merry Cemetery,,.
You read well in the Maramureș area, more precisely in Săpânța there is a cemetery that has surpassed all imagination, here death is seen with different eyes, in a comical way, we could say.
If you are curious to find out more about this cemetery, you can search through my older posts, as I have a post dedicated to this place.
Now after more than two years we arrived again in the area of Maramures and more exactly in Săpânța, but now we are not visiting the cemetery (I will leave you some pictures that I took from outside the cemetery) but we will visit the memorial house of the one who created this concept.
STAN IOAN PATRAȘ, as it is about him, saw death with different eyes and started to give a comical touch to funerary monuments.
Let me explain, Stan Ioan Patras made these crosses only out of wood, they were hand carved, he thought that instead of the usual messages that are written on the crosses to bring a new concept that would cheer us up a bit (I know it sounds strange).
When he received an order for the realization of a cross he asked a lot of information about the deceased, how old he was, what jobs he had, if he liked drinking, if he got along well with his in-laws and many other questions, and that's how he managed to write some comical verses on those crosses.
I would have very much liked to translate some of the verses written on the crosses, but frankly it is very difficult for me, because they have a traditional dialect, and translating them into another form does not respect the same meaning (I think in my old post about the Merry Cemetery you will find some translated verses).
The STAN IOAN PATRAS Memorial House is 500m away from the Merry Cemetery, so being by car we left it in a private parking lot and then walked.
It is very difficult in this area to find a parking space, the location being a very visited one.
Before reaching our destination we passed by some stands where you can buy a lot of souvenirs or traditional clothing from the Maramures area, the offer is very varied.
After a walk of a few minutes on the streets of Săpânța we reach the STAN IOAN PĂTRȘ memorial house, here we paid 3lei/person entrance ticket.
The house is traditional, simple, very small, at the entrance we had the pleasure to meet one of the heirs of STAN IOAN PĂTRAȘ.
Unfortunately from what has been said it seems that the tradition of carving these crosses is about to disappear, because for the younger generations this custom is no longer of interest.
Let's see what this traditional house looks like inside.
I forgot to write above that STAN IOAN PĂTRAȘ lived 64 years and his first cross under this concept was made in 1935, the proof being the two rooms where the sculptor lived his life, they are today a museum.
I can say that the secret of the realization of these crosses will be lost in time, which worries me, the history of our ancestors gives us precisely our identity as a people.
I left at the end some photos of the workshop where STAN IOAN PĂTRAȘ worked, and where one of the heirs still sculpts crosses.
On the way back we got a bit hungry so we ate something traditional Romanian "LANGOS".
This was our visit to the STAN IOAN PĂTRAȘ Memorial House in Săpâța, Maramureș.
THE END!
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P.S. The attached picture you have just seen are taken by me with my mobile phone(Samsung Galaxy S21), and the text is also designed by me.
