::Traditional Architecture::

Romanian village architecture is characterized by a rich understanding of nature. Houses are subtly inserted in the landscape. When built along the valleys, the angles of the roofs follow the steep of the mountains, when built on plains, the thatch is horizontally aligned. The stone, wood, thatch and clay used as construction materials come from the land nearby. The buildings are oriented to the sun, windows mostly facing east, south or south-east. Households are generally located away from the main street, and fit smoothly in the natural scenery. The status of homes in Maramures is often demonstrated by richly decorated gates.

The gates from Maramures are not only symbols of the region, marks of cultural and local identity, but also social symbols (since only the representatives of nobility had the right to build them). They represent an important chapter of the wood culture and civilization. Seen in a European context, the gates enrich our common cultural heritage.

These gates hark to early times when only free citizens were allowed to fully enclose their private yards while serfs were obliged to keep their yards visible from the road. Today, these differences no longer exist, but pride is still taken in having the most beautifully decorated gate in the neighborhood.

The architectural monuments represent one of the most valuable attractions of the Maramures region. Whereas Moldavia and Valachia gave us the splendid stone and brick structures of their monasteries, fortresses, mansions and other civil buildings, Transylvania the Saxon fortified churches, the exquisite brick and stone monuments inspired by the gothic and baroque style of the Hungarians and Szecklers, and those built by Romanian in the Roman style, Maramures distinguishes itself by its wooden buildings: houses and churches, mills and funeral symbols, household annexes and tools.

Border crosses (in Romanian "troita") and funeral symbols belong to the same category of religious monuments. We could point out here "the Rednics' cross" from Berbesti quite a well-preserved monument that reveals neogothic elements of a great value, dating from the beginning of the VIII-th century. Such items can be identified all over the Maramures area (the collections of the Sighet Museum have several notable fragments of this kind.