Tourist Circuits
Code 002/07 Holiday in Maramures – the county of wooden churches
Holiday in Maramures means :- the visiting of wooden churches old of hundreds of years; - the accommodation in traditional houses; - the encounter with artisans and the possibility to buy one of the recently finished works or one finished right in front of you; - drives in the traditional cart pulled by horses; - the encounter with virtuous musicians from the villages of Maramures; - walks along the hidden paths of watersides, forests and of the hills among villages; - the savour of the traditional food and drinks.
The wooden churches of Maramures have long time ago gained a well-deserved fame both among the specialists and the wide public from many countries of the world. They represent beyond question one of the peaks of the art to construct in wood on our continent. For us, these admirable structures represent the unity house-church from an architectural point of view, being a proof of the antiquity of the art to construct on the Romanian territory, fact that is possible only in regions with an ancient sedentary population well tied to its land.
Here, the construction of high towers only out of wood manifests the great knowledge of the peasant constructors who knew how to secure a massy stability through the system against the wind. By the rhythmic order of its archways, the tower always connects in a free and natural way the body of the church and its monumental internal ritual space to the outside world, to the land and the sky. Towering over settlements from the heights they are built on, the wood churches intertwine harmoniously with the local civil architecture. Their decoration also contributes to this aspect to a great extent belonging undoubtedly to the same large category of the architectural decoration devised by the peasant constructor artisans of Maramures.
The concern to secure a tombstone corresponding to the respect and love for the missing ones led to a specialization of some artisans who carry out these works of art. Among these we remind Stan Ion Patras from Sapanta. He created through his brilliancy an entire cemetery of artistically worked tombstones, carved in wood and then painted, to which it joins a short rimed chronicle of the defunct’s life. Because of the vividness of colours and the description, sometimes funny, of the deceased’s life, the cemetery of Sapanta became known all over the world as the “Merry Cemetery”.
Details about the holiday: - 8 days in Maramures, the county of wooden churches; - 7 nights in traditional houses; - 8 days breakfast and dinner; -8 days picnic at lunch served on the road while in nature; - transfer by minibus on the tourist routes; -transfer by train or minibus from the point of departure/arrival; - limited group of max 16 persons; - short hikes every day; - 8 days permanent local guide in Maramures.
The price includes: 8 days of visits and meal completely assured; 7 nights of accommodation in double rooms; 8 days guide; 1 day drive by cart; 1 musical night, 6 days of visits by minibus, by fast train couchette Bucharest-Sighetu Marmatiei and back.
Departure with a group of 16 persons: cost/person= 394,05 eur
Departure with a group of 8 persons: cost/person=436,05 eur.
The price doesn’t include: photo/video fare at monuments, entrance fare to visit monuments, extra expenses/food and drinks, travel insurance, travel by steam train.
Everything included in Maramures: 8 days of visits and meal completely assured, 7 nights of accommodation in double rooms, 8days guide, 1 day drive by cart, 1 musical night, 6 days visits by minibus.
Departures with a group of 16 persons : cost/person=322,0 eur.
Departures with a group of 8 persons : cost/person= 364,8 eur.
The price doesn’t include : transport to Maramures (Sighet), photo/video fare and entrance fare at monuments ,extra expenses/food and drinks, travel insurance.
Code 015/07 Holiday in Maramures – The circuit of the artisans from Maramures
The circuit of the artisans from Maramures means the joy of meeting artisans and the possibility to buy one of the recently finished works or one finished right in front of you;-the visiting of the wooden churches, old of hundreds of years; - the accommodation in traditional houses; - drives in the traditional cart pulled by horses; -the encounter with virtuous musicians of the villages of Maramures;- walks along the hidden paths of watersides, forests and of the hills among the villages of Maramures;-the savour of the traditional food and drinks.
Real rustic “triumphal arch”, the
Gateway : gained its fame thanks to the perfect harmony of its dimensions ,to the equilibrium of proportions among the component parts and thanks to the dense metaphor of its adornment .The gateway is seen in the mind of the past centuries man as a barrier against evil ,a barrier that used to delimitate another univers, that of the house and the household, within which the entire family life was taking place. Under the pillar that holds the threshold people would put money, incense and holy water lest the evils of any kind should get near.
Rugs/Carpets: among the artistic textile works of Maramures, carpets hold the most important place. The quality of the fabric, the chromatic properties and the entire ornamental composition place them side by side with the most distinguishing artistic creations from our country. As in all manifestations of our popular art, with carpets, too it can be seen a great variety in ornamentation and chromatics preserving the elements of a unitary artistic style.
In this domain of creation we can also remind the table cloths, the coverlets, the beam towels and the clothbags.
Ceramics: the tradition of ceramics is not only old but also continuous from Dacian times to the present. From the point of view of the design techniques and systems, but also of forms, we can find here almost all types of ceramics. There exists today unpolished red ceramics (Sacel) with some elements of archaic ornamentation kept since the black ceramics, enamelled ceramics decorated with the horn (Vama), and enamelled ceramics decorated with the horn and brush (Vama and Lapus), zgraphitate ceramics(Vama and Vadu Izei), ceramics decorated with the brush(Baia Sprie and Baia Mare).
Painting on glass: it is known the fact that at Nicula-Cluj there were made the first icons on glass at the mid of the 18th century. This technique has developed in close relation with the appearance of the glass casting workshops. The producers of these icons on glass are Romanian peasants who succeded with a minimum pack of knowledge to give life to some creations of a remarkable artistic value, found even nowadays in all important museums of the country and in personal collections in Romania and abroad.
Details about the holidays: -8 days in Maramures-the county of artisans and of wooden churches; -7 nights in traditional houses; -8 days breakfast and dinner; -8 days picnic at noon served on the road while in nature; -transfer by minibus on the tourist routes; -limited group of maximum 16 persons; -short hikes every day; -1 musical night; -8 days permanent local guide in Maramures.
Departures with a group of 16 persons: cost/ person=442,05 eur
Departures with a group of 8 persons: cost/ person=484,80 eur
The price includes: -8 days of visits and meal completely assured, 7 nights of accommodation in double rooms, 8 days guide, 1 day driving by cart, 1 musical night, 6 days of visits by minibus, CFR transport Bucharest-Sighetu Marmatiei.
Departures with a group of 16 persons: cost/person=322,0 eur
Departures with a group of 8 persons: cost/person=364,8 eur
The price doesn’t include; -transport to Maramures (Sighet), photo/video fare at monuments, entrance fare at monuments, extra expenses (food and drinks), travel insurance.
Code 010/07. Holiday in Maramures. Initiation in the traditional music and dance.
Participation at a traditional festival.
Transposed on scene or produced as cultural manifestations, customs become shows, real plays that give us pleasure, that lift us through vigour, colour and artistic quality, above the daily life and give us faith in the eternal virtues of Maramures, imposing an optimistic and bright vision on the world, essential features of each show of Maramures. This is the atmosphere that we want to create for your holiday. You will also be delighted by: -the wooden churches old of hundreds of years; -the accommodation in traditional houses; -the encounter with artisans and the possibility to buy one of their recently finished works or one made right in front of you; -the drive by the traditional cart pulled by horses; -the encounter with virtuous musicians of the villages of Maramures; -the walks along the hidden paths of watersides, forests and of the hills among the villages of Maramures; -the savour of the traditional dishes and drinks; -the traditional music and dance. The fiddle peasants’ music played an important part in the development of music in the area and of the artistic taste of the peasant of Maramures. It represents an inexhaustible source of melodicity for the educated art and for the composers and talks directly to the people’s soul. BELA BARTOK published in 1923 in MUNICH “The Songs of the Romanian People of Maramures”, in which she concluded through analysis that the resemblance of the peoples’ music is possible because different peoples produce resembling goods in resembling socio-economic and historical conditions.
The conclusions of classification are:
1. Popular music also has a personal musical dialect as the dialectal speech.
2. The value of the artistic and aesthetic content of the folklore of Maramures is indisputable.
3. The ancient interest for the new and the authentic, so it cannot anymore be the question of any relatedness to the Ukrainian or Magyar/Hungarian music
4. The high artistic attire of the people from these parts results from the musical folklore. The material about the musical folklore from Romania was published by BELA BARTOK in 5 volumes in 1967 in USA.
TIBERIU BREDICEANU, in his studies about the Romanian folklore, affirmed: ”... fiddlers themselves, the composers of these dance melodies from Maramures, are real Romanians and not Gipsies. They have lived from generation to generation in a Romanian cultural environment uninfluenced by anything, their musical creation cannot be and is not foreign".
The peasant musician plays the fiddle(violin), usually using a specific manner(striking the key note with a tone higher than in the usual pitch A-B flat).We don’t know its age, but according to the statements of the people who make violins themselves, we get before 1700 to date the appearance of this instrument in Maramures. The violinist is accompanied by the “zongura” (the guitar with 2-4 strings) tuned in D-A quint, in a stubborn rhythm. The fact that “doba” (the drum) plays a very important role in the musical life of the peoples that are situated on a certain level of development makes us believe that rhythm has played right from the beginning ,and still plays in Maramures , a very important part in the making of dances(hora). Above the drums there has been introduced the ”tingalaul” (a round flat object made of cooper or aluminium) which hit at the wrong moment ,comparatively with the drum, gives a special effect, never absent from the dance music.
Details about the holiday:
-6days; -5nights; -6 days breakfast and dinner; -6 days picnic at noon served on the road while in nature; -transfer by minibus on the tourist routes; -transfer by train and minibus from departure/arrival point; limited group of maximum 16 persons; -short hikes every day; 6 days permanent local guide in Maramures.
The price includes: -6 days of visits and meal assured; -5 nights of accommodation in double rooms; -6 days guide; -1 day drive by cart, 5 musical nights, 5 days visits by minibus, train couchette Bucharest-Sighetu Marmatiei.
The price doesn’t include: photo/video fare at monuments, entrance fare at monuments, extra expenses/food and drinks, travel insurance.
Departures with a group of 16 persons: cost/person=376,8 eur
Departures with a group of 8 persons: cost/person=426,3 eur
Everything included in Maramures: 6 days of visits and meal assured, 5 nights of accommodation in double rooms, 6 days guide, 1 day drive by cart, 1 musical night, 4 days visits by minibus.
Departures with a group of 16 persons: cost/person=256,8 eur
Departures with a group of 8 persons: cost/person=306,3 eur
The price doesn’t include: transport to Maramures (Sighetu Marmatiei), photo/video fare at monuments, entrance fare at monuments, extra needs/food and drink, travel insurance.
If you choose one of our holiday programmes please fill in the ORDER/BOOKING slip of paper from the submenu CONTACT/BOOKING and follow the steps described in the submenu SALE to buy the pack of tourist services.
