Merry Cemetery, Sapanta Romania

Death is usually mourned and cemeteries are always very eerie to me. But somehow I find that Romanians celebrate life as well as death. I saw many well decorated cemeteries during my recent trip. These cemeteries are also located on higher ground, on hill slopes overlooking beautiful sceneries below. This is what Chinese would call 風 凉 水 冷.

Merry Cemetery in Sapanta is one good example of a well decorated cemetery. Bright and colouful is how I would describe Merry Cemetery.

Merry Cemetery, Sapanta Romania

The ancestors of Sapanta considered death as the beginning and not the end. Hence the oak wood "tombstone" is always in blue, the colour of hope and freedom. Sclptor Ion Patras began carving these in 1935 and his apparentice, Vasile Stan continues his works.

The carvings reflect the deceased's life and occupation. There are short stories written about the deceased's life in the local language.

Merry Cemetery Sapanta Romania

The local church under restoration.

Merry Cemetery, Sapanta

Paintings on the ceiling of the local church.

Merry Cemetery church

Estonia - Lahemaa National Park

Lahemaa National Park is located on Northern Estonia, 70 kilometers east from Tallinn and it took us about 1.5 hours to reach. It was the first area to be designated a national park of the former Soviet Union back in 1971. With forests covering more than 70 per cent of Lahemaa, the area is rich in flora and fauna. 

There are four manors situated in the national park, Palmse manor, the Vihula manor, Kolga manor, and the Sagadi Manor. Our tour visited Palmse Manor which is one of the grandest baroque mansions in Estonia. The mansion and open-air museum were the first fully restored manor complex in the country. Construction of the main building started in 1697 and  finally completed in 1720 and re-decorated 1782-1785. The first floor was built with high ceiling as that is where entertaining is done.The second floor was for bedrooms while kitchen and other household rooms were in the basement including a wine cellar.

Palmse Manor Estonia

From the picture below, you can see that Palmse Manor is surrounded by plenty of greenery.

Palmse Manor - layout

The garden behind the manor. Unfortunately the flowers in the garden was not blooming even in May as Estonia had a long winter this year. Our tour guide told us that the place was still cover in snow even up till April!

Palmse Manor- garden

The back view of Palmse Manor (left) and staff quarters (right).

Some photos of the interior of Palmse Manor, including the wine cellar and a musical box (bottom right) which still works today.

Palmse Manor -interior

On the way to Altja fishing village, we drove pass Sagadi Manor and managed to take a quick photo from the outside.

Sagadi Manor

Altja is a small coastal village that over a century ago supported small family farms and fishing. You can still see the original fishing hut used to store and maintain fishing nets and small boats.

Altja fishing village Estonia