Romania's Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, Maramures county, appeared first among the ten most beautiful cemeteries in the world, as chosen by French newspaper L’Express in celebration of All Saints Day. The article invited readers to take a tour of ten very different cemeteries in Europe, the Americas and Australia.

The article gives a brief description of the Merry Cemetery, noting the vibrant colors, the often amusing biographies of the deceased and how the tradition was started in the 1930s by a local artist and has continued ever since.

Paris' Père Lachaise cemetery makes the top ten. It is the largest in the city intra muros and contains the tombs of many celebrated figures from the arts over the last few centuries, including Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Chopin, Delacroix, Moliere, Marcel Proust and more recently Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison. The Jewish Cemetery in Prague, where  the oldest graves date from the 15^th century, is also featured.

L'Express' list of the most beautiful cemeteries includes La Recoleta, in Buenos Aires, Grave Wood in New York, Highgate cemetery in London, Xoxocotlan in Santa Cruz, Mexico, the Arlington military cemetery in the US, as well as Forest lawn in Los Angeles - final resting place of many defunct Hollywood stars - and Waverly cemetery in Sydney, Australia.

In Sapanta, in 1935, at the suggestion of the Greek priest, Grigore Ritiu, Stan Ioan Pătraş made the vertical part of the crosses wider, allowing more room for the epitaph. In the same year, the first epitaphs were added to the wooden painted crosses marking the graves in what would become known as the Merry Cemetery. From 1960 onwards, the entire cemetery was gradually filled with about 800 such crosses, carved in oak, making it the unique site it is today.

See L'Express photos of the Most Beautiful Cemeteries in the World.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com 

(photo source: sxc.hu)