When one says Maramures, one immediately thinks about natural purity and archaism, adventure and a unique wood culture, traditions and great joy to live. And it’s true: if one hasn’t reached this fabulous county, one doesn’t really know Romania, if one hasn’t crossed the Iza valley, one hasn’t got to the core of Maramures.
Iza is the name of a river that springs in the Rodna Massif and, 80km away flows intro Tisa, the river which forms a natural frontier between Romania and Ukraine.
Coming from Nasaud or Borsa, the first city is Sacel, famous for its animal breeders, as well as for red pottery without enamel, stone polished, the wood choppers and weavers from two well-known guilds. Just like the Salistea de Sus, where there are, among other buildings, two wooden churches, folk architecture monuments dating from the XVIIth and the XVIIIth centuries. Going along the river, after passing Dragomiresti, from which one can enter the Tibles Mountains, one reaches Bogdan Voda, a symbolic Maramures village. From here, the old Cuhea, set off one of the first Moldavian princes, Bogdan the First, who rebelled, in 1343, against the Hungarian King,
Ludovic Ist of Anjou. In the centre of the village there is one of the most religious dwelling, an imposing cathedral was built, that has little rivals in this part of Romania. Like in all Maramures villages, in Bogdan Voda they celebrate, in the middle of May, the “breaking of sterility” or “sambra oilor”, an old shepherds’ tradition which anticipates the sheep flocks’ departure to the mountains, to graze, until the month of October. Almost 2km away is Ieud, a village whose name is linked to the first religious writings in old Slavic language, and to the art of wood carvers, especially those who made crosses for the graves. The visitors will se, at the “Hill Church”, built in 1346, a kind of old staircase, on which one goes up into the tower, made of a tree’s trunk, with curly cuts serving as steps and an interesting inner painting directly on wood, from the XV – XVIth centuries. Rozavlea and Stramtura share the middle of the superb tour. The wood and wool have gained, in this villages, the rank of an extremely subtle art, from the carved gates, dominates by the motifs of the Sun and of the Rope, especially in rugs.
An extraordinary victory of wood and of the Maramures craftsmen is the Barsana monastery. Both the church and the steeple have the unique aspect of an arrow. On the other side of the yard, beautifully decorated with carved flowers ranks by young nuns, there is the monastic house, another jewel of the carving craftsmen. After Nanesti and Oncesti, villages with the fences covered by wool waiting to be dried, so that they seem covered with snow, we get to the Vadu Izei. More signs exposed at the peoples’ gates call us to eat and sleep in their country houses, wonderful and picturesque. Here we will admire an original exhibit of monumental gates signed by some of the most famous carving craftsmen, Gheorghe Borodi, Vasile Apan (father and son), Petru Godja, Petru Bledea. Here Iza welcomes the water 
of the river Mara, on whose valley there are the beautiful villages Desesti, Harnicesti, Giulesti and Brebesti. Just as many lures for more trips… Tisa and Iza meet in Sighetu Marmatiei, the hostoric center of Maramures. A remarkable village museum, the gothic church, built in the XVIth and the XVIIth centuries – a precious architectural monument – and the Mill’s Park offer, each is its unique way, unforgettable memories.
This ld county is in the northern part of Romania. Like a natural fortress, it is surrounded by mountains and hills – Rodna, Tibles, Lapus, Gutai, Ignis, Maramuresului. The rivers Viseu and Iza, that have been spoken about in folk songs and are loved by the natives and tourists, have always been important points of the region. The Iza valley and the Viseu valley are two of the most important tourists’ roads in Maramures. No Less charming are the other valleys, like Mana and Cosau, Somes, Lapus, Botiza, Cavnic, Ieud and Sasar.
As it was not captured by the Roman troops, Maramures was known as a county of the free Dacs. The natives’ faces keep, as the specialists say, the typically ancestral Dacian features.
Starting with the XIIIth century, the Hungarian kingdom infiltrates in this area through the colonists. Included later on, just like the rest of Transylvania, in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, but keeping a special status, Maramures crossed troubled times, managing to preserve a unique Romanian specificity. It is important that the foundation of Moldavia (Romanian province) was done by the Maramures kings Dragos and Bogdan.
In 1918, Maramures, just like Basarabia, Bucovina and the entire Transylvania, came back to the mother-country, forming the Big Romania. A part of the historic Maramures stood, unfortunately, north of the Tisa river, on today’s Ukrainian territory.
In a country rich in forests, wood provided to the people the occasion to become artists. The wooden churches, with their sharp steeples, impressively high, are a seal of the Romanian landscape, particularly in two of the most picturesque counties: Maramures and Salaj. There are tourists fond of architecture that come to Romania especially to research and photograph the Maramures villages and dwellings such as Surdesti, Ieud, Remetea, Desesti, Bogdan Voda, Rogoz, Plopis or Dragomiresti. Not far from the city Sighetu Marmatiei (where there is an open air museum of the Maramures folk art) is Sapanta, a village famous for its Merry Cemetry – situtated, in an American classification, on the second place in the world, after the Valley of the Kings – a place where the wooden crosses, lively colored and carved with human faces and symbols, have comic verse epitaphs. The craftsman Ion Stan Patras, who created this whole carnival of death, is also buried there.
Being more rarely spoken about is the tourists’ guides, the county of Salaj is, from the point of view of its landscape, a small scale Switzerland. With its mountains and valleys, its villages with beautiful wooden gates and healthy households (Fidu de Sus and Fidu de Mijloc, Sanmihaiu Almasului, Hida, Jac and Moigrad, Sarbi, Rastoltu Mare or Pausa), the tourists will see wooden churches from the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, built mostly of evergreen oak, decorated with admirable motifs.
People have always used the the wooden churches’ steeples as scouting pickets (during water floods, fires, invasions) the tall roofs and the arrow-shaped towers making the specialists talk about a “Gothic feature of Maramures” and to look for the reasons why they chose these places to build this kind of dwellings, as philosophical and practical solutions.
Borsa is a charming landscape with over 20 mineral springs. It is in the Rodna mountains, at 665-850m of altitude. It has and 100% mountain atmosphere, with fresh summers and snow-rich frosty winters. One can enjoy here ski sessions (there are special courses for those who want to learn and improve their skills), sledge tracks, but also treatment possibilities (internal and external cure) with happy results for illnesses like neurosis, asthenia, fatigue, rheumatism and obesity. Paths leading to Maramures dream parts are open to those who like mountain trips, since Maramures is known as one of the most beautiful Romanian counties. One can reach the Iza valley, with a little train with a steam locomotive that still functions, the Puzdrele chalet (3 hours’ walk) or in the Prislop pass (4-5 hours’ walk) at 1414m altitude, the spot that separates Transylvania from Moldavia, “the most beautiful gate to Maramures”. It is here that country people come together every August for a merry folk festival, with songs and dances, which they call “The Prislop Reel”.
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