Romania is a land of a thousand faces.
The crossing point between the Occident and the Orient.
And a melting pot of different cultures.
It is also a country unlike any other in Europe,
With over half the Carpathian mountain range weaving through it.
Romania is the custodian of Europe's greatest surviving mixed forests.
And two thirds of its apex predators.
As well as native Romanians, it is home to Hungarian,
Saxon,
Roma,
Serbian,
Greek and many more diverse peoples,
united by the borders of a nation
that stretches to the mouth of the Danube.
Inland, Romania is rich with historic cities and villages,
majestic national parks,
ruined castles, mediaeval monasteries
and a historic legacy that dates back thousands of years.
Welcome to our ongoing odyssey of Romania's great historic regions.
Autumn is upon us and the nights are closing in,
affording less and less time to finish our journey.
We have reached the Maramureș at the peak of harvest time.
The leaves are poised to fall and the forests and mountains
have turned red and gold in the lazy autumnal sunlight.
My first stop is a small village outside Baia Mare,
where I'm due to reunite with friend and guide Demi,
who offered to introduce me
to artist and professor of Maramureș culture, Ioan Marchiș,
who also happens to have an authentic distillery
making horinca, the regional equivalent of palinka.
- Demi! - Charlie!
- Long time no see. - Like a century ago.
- Yeah, I know. - It was only five years.
Time flies when you're having fun.
This is the old style palinka making.
This is the period, I think,
when they are coming with the fruits.
Yeah, we've timed it perfectly.
Yeah, it is. And they're making... they're preparing for the Christmas.
Come in! Welcome!
Charlie, how do you do?
You are in the most desired space in Maramureș and Transylvania.
It is a popular distillery.
In Maramureș it is called horincie from " a hori" which means "to sing",
kind of "singery".
That is, a place where people use to sing, this is the meaning of horincie.
During Ceaușescu's times they were forbidden,
so, after the Revolution,
people were happy and made their own popular distilleries.
People used to go to these distilleries as if they were going to the church
or to a restaurant, to the village pub.
This is a family distillery which is used by the Arheus Foundation,
which has an international camp of literature and arts.
First of all, I have to tell you that there are two phases,
it is distilled twice, just as the whiskey.
The setting of the distillery
is a rather common, almost medieval, chemical process.
Inside this wall
there is the cauldron itself, where we put the fermented fruits.
The above part is the part where the steam is recuperated.
Through boiling,
this material made of plums or apples or fermented fruits produces steam.
This is where the steam is recovered.
The steam passes by a pipe, from here, it enters the water
and there is a coil which cools it down.
This material from here will enter the second distillation here
and only here the real horinca, as we call it, comes out.
This is the meeting place of writers,
we organize poetry, literature, painting events,
in summer the place is full of visual artists, philosophers...
Tell me about this.
I've seen these many times before
and I gather they have to assemble it inside the bottle,
which obviously takes a long time,
especially if you're drinking lots of these.
Why do people do this?
I have written a book about this.
This is the most beautiful and perfect structure of the human kind.
It has 12 elements which create a void inside,
it existed since Dacians' time,
it was the sun's and Zamolxis' face, God's face,
this is the pre-Christian face of God.
So, this is a pre-Christian symbol.
It is an auspicious omen, a symbol for good luck,
but there is a full job to do the structure inside
and the wood is an edible one, I mean it is not toxic.
It is used for a spinning tool, it is called "spindle".
This is a popular tool which has this knot.
Inside it there is an empty space where seven small stones were placed.
When the woman spins the wool, the spindle whirls in her hand,
almost like floating, and purrs, makes a musical sound
and it used to be gifted as a symbol of love
because it is a link which, once merged, it can only be broken by destroying it.
- God bless. - God bless.
We are now in front of a piece of gate from Cosăului Valley
from the old Maramureș which is endangered,
and I will translate this pile of the gate.
The size and complexity of the gate
was determining the size of the wealth, of the social status,
as well as the old pottery,
this gate is divided into registers.
We have a separation line between the nowadays life
which is up to here and the afterlife
and we have here the representation of the Tree of Life.
The two characters here are the man and the woman,
Adam and Eve, if you'd like.
Down is underground, it is the sun reflected in the water
it is called in a popular way "the sun in the water's mirror".
It is the vibrant sun.
But here it has a male symbol
it becomes female,
this is the female gender, it becomes the great goddess.
Next, as I told you, there is the bride and the groom as the Tree of Life
here is the sun, there is...
if they loved each other, they will also love each other in the afterlife,
with their leafless souls passed away, in the sky.
And here the sky is closing,
with the name of the man who built this monument.
I will never look at a Maramureș gate in the same way again.
We're lucky. You know, when I always came here, I bring the sun.
You do. And I think the last time you were on a motorbike was on that one, wasn't it?
Yeah. In the meantime, I became rich.
And you bought yourself something vintage.
- Very vintage. - What is it?
Basically, the Russians stole the BMW
from after the Second World War and put it in Russia.
- They named it KMZ. - Right. So this is basically a BMW.
- Yeah. - Effectively.
- Russian Mark. - Russian Mark.
- Okay. - And you've had it reconditioned?
Yes, it's just finished.
So this really will be your first ride?
Yeah. With this one. Yeah.
- Hopefully we will arrive... - What could possibly go wrong?
Our mission was to drive to the village museum in nearby Baia Mare.
Where a recipe as old as the hills
and almost completely forgotten was being prepared in the gardens.
But this entirely depended on reaching our destination safely,
Something I was increasingly concerned about achieving,
given that Demi was still clearly wrestling
with the concept of having a sidecar attached.
Left of it. No, left!
With some relief, we arrived intact,
just in time to catch the start of the proceedings,
Which, as is often the case here, kicks off with horinca
and a horă courtesy of one of the Maramureș's
most famous traditional bands, Iza.
Here is the sheep...
I slaughtered it this morning
and now we are using spices.
What have you put inside this marinade?
Garlic...
Salt and pepper...
- And a little rosemary. - Okay.
Thyme and a little bit of peppermint.
How long will you leave it in the marinade?
Until the fire is done.
This was a song about the lamb.
It's a horă about the sheep.
When I go to Săpânța they tell me "sing about the sheep".
How is the music in Maramureș different?
Maramureș is unique.
This music is not similar with any other music from Romania.
Maramureș, Oaș, have their own specific.
The rhythm, the musical instruments, the singing, the shouting,
everything is different than in Transylvania, for instance,
or as in Oltenia or as in Dobrogea or as in Moldavia...
I noticed that most of the songs are stories, aren't they?
Each song has its story,
but each song is also related to a person.
The song I played first is the hora of Mihai Ochii from Săpânța
because he worked as a shepherd
and in the mountains, when shepherds were left alone,
the patrons were not there, at the sheepfold,
they were slaughtering a sheep from time to time, leaving a sign
to pretend that the sheep was eaten by wolves.
Then they used to slaughter such a lamb, to prepare and eat it,
then take a piece like that, roll it through mud
and say the wolves had eaten the sheep, we are sorry,
and in this case the shepherds did not have to pay for it.
So we need a song
for the lamb when it's going into the fire.
A celebration song.
What would you recommend?
One thing I find remarkable is
is how much wood they have to burn before we put the lamb on the embers.
Have to build up sufficient heat for it to cook the lamb all night long.
This is how food used to be prepared for thousands of years.
And it's very exciting that we're creating it now,
because this recipe will now never be lost.
If anyone wants to learn how to do it,
they're going to have to dig out an old DVD of Flavours of Romania
in years to come and watch it again.
- What's he chopping? - I think it's all the interiors.
Okay, so this is like the kidneys and the liver.
And this will go into the stuffing, back into the lamb.
Mix it together with all the ingredients.
- Fresh nuts. - Half crushed.
You see, part of them are crushed, part of them are whole.
- Porcini. That's it. - Porcini.
- Onion. - Onion.
And I noticed we've got rosemary and thyme.
- And just for the color. - Of course.
Paprika.
This is starting to look like a Jackson Pollock painting.
I'm a painter. I am a visual artist.
- So, breadcrumbs. - Yeah.
Parsley, lovage and...
- Celery and garlic. - The garlic is minced here.
The wine is the final part.
Normally, a seamstress would be needed here.
This is expertly done, I think he's got a career
in the National Health if he decides that he's bored of being a chef.
Yeah.
- This is the shin from the... - Sheep.
- We're going to lift it together. - We lift it and we put it on.
- Dangerous operation. - Dangerous.
So he's finished now.
Yeah. He starts doing the final step.
Which is rubbing the clay on the skin.
So the clay hardens
and provides a crust to make it and it protects it from the fire.
Exactly.
I feel like we've just been attending a shamanic ritual.
Ion has come to join us to put the finishing touches to the lamb.
And he's engraved it with a series of symbols
which I think probably relate to birth or death
and rebirth and autumn and harvest.
And... We'll see.
This is supposed to make the food more of an offering and a sacrifice,
but also to bring good luck to those eating it.
So they're putting the wood on to fuel the fire through the night.
The heat has... now we have in the bottom, we have heat.
This will burn and this will give more embers on the top,
even when it's covered in clay.
And it's cooking on the both ways.
- With the same temperature. - Yeah.
And with no oxygen, this will almost become charcoal as well.
Thank you so much.
Honestly, you're a legend. This is amazing.
It's looking okay. Yeah.
There she blows.
You can see the skin now.
Easy!
Now where... On the table?
- Yes. - Let's lift it.
- The clay comes off. - Yeah, exactly.
I got you under my skin.
- Congratulations! - Something like this...
It's cooked, right?
Perfect.
Cooked to perfection.
- Sweet. - And sweet and very, very tender.
Because of the slow cooking.
Horinca!
This is the flavours of Romania.
This is a triumph. Gastronomic triumph. I'm going to just do that.
You can see how easily the knife cuts through the flesh of the lamb.
There are many ways of cooking lamb in Romania,
like pastrami and roasting it and making stews,
but for me, this is the ultimate.
It's a sacrifice, it's a spiritual journey,
it's a celebration of autumn,
and the result is quite literally divine.
Good, isn't it?
Leaving Baia Mare in the wing mirror
it was time to head up into the hills and wild forests
on my way to the heartlands of Old Maramureș,
presided over by one of the most impressive geomorphic curiosities
I've seen on this trip so far.
Creasta Cocoşului, or Cockscomb, is Romania's answer to Ayers Rock.
Visible for hundreds of kilometers in most directions,
this towering volcanic crag is accessible by foot
or mountain bike from the Salvamont centre near Baia Sprie
or the wooden village of Breb, as visited in season one.
Due to time constraints, I switched to the crew car
and accompanied by the mountain rescue team,
we embarked on a bumpy ascent on winding tracks
that meandered through forests and meadows
towards the base of the mountain.
The last few kilometers required a spectacular hike up to the tree line.
Before I finally clambered out onto the ridge
to take in a truly regal view of this ancient region.
That was the most awesome experience.
Standing on top of the rock,
looking out as far as the eye could see,
old Maramureș on one side, new Maramureș on the other.
Villages, forests, lakes, rivers, especially in the autumn
when all the trees are copper and gold
and the sun emerges from the clouds and everything just starts to glow.
This should be one of the seven wonders of Romania.
It's a truly magical experience.
Just wow. Honestly, I'm speechless.
Heading back down from the peak
necessitated another precarious drive on an even steeper route,
Requiring careful negotiation of boulders, deep puddles and steep grassy slopes
that pushed my off-road skills to the limit.
With some relief, I reclaimed the bike,
and rode down serpentine bends
to emerge the other side of the hills
and re-enter the realm of human habitation.
Just before reaching the village of Mara,
there's a picturesque trout farm sandwiched between wooded hills.
Păstrăvăria Alex has gradually diversified into a grand collection
of traditional eco-lodges, offering budget and luxury accommodation.
An infinity pool and riverside restaurant
with predictable emphasis on trout-related products.
I was met by son and heir to this ligneous empire,
Alex Vanscher, who moved back here to help run the family business.
So, Alex, you went to university in Bournemouth.
- Quite close to where I live. - Yeah.
But your dad basically had no schooling, almost.
No, not at all.
He's worked his way up from being a laborer...
- Exactly. - In the fields.
How did it all happen?
I mean, talk me through the process,
because what you've built here is extraordinary and it's huge.
But obviously that could never have been the original plan.
No, we didn't have a plan, actually.
We tried to develop as we went through and we saw what we need to do.
- You put the money back into the business? - Yeah. Almost everything went back.
Did he start with a trout farm as well? Because trout is a big thing here.
Yeah, it was his passion, Yeah. Growing trout.
He was his passion since he was like a kid, he said.
One thing that I think was a key success to this business.
It was a family business.
So there's a lot of family members working here.
Like, my mom is the kitchen chef,
my dad is managing the trout and the production.
My aunt, like, my dad's sister
is making all the bread.
My cousins are working here, my brother is working here.
And a lot of people are presumed from the village as well.
- All of them. - All of them?
Yeah, from the next three villages.
So you've transformed the fortunes of everyone in the community, effectively.
Basically, yeah.
A few kilometers further brings you to the village of Deseşti.
Set back from the road, looking down over the rooftops,
is one of the prettiest wooden churches in the Maramureș.
Classified a UNESCO World Heritage Monument since 1999.
I've come here to meet Father Ioan Ardelean
to learn more about its priceless
and brilliantly macabre depictions of the afterlife.
- Father. - Welcome.
- Hello. - Hello. Welcome.
Thanks a lot.
What a fabulous restoration.
It has been recently restored
and this has to be done quite often.
The shingles that we keep with stubbornness
which covered once all houses of the Maramureș people,
are rather seldom seen on churches, on Maramureș gates
and because not all the conditions are met,
to cut the wood during the vegetative period,
the careful processing of the wood,
then the lifespan of the shingles
is somewhere 20-25 years
and it has to be changed often.
We are in the narthex of the church, which is also UNESCO monument,
Saint Paraschiva from Desești.
We are actually in hell, here.
We're in hell right now.
Indeed.
The river of fire which carries, under Christ’s judgement throne,
carries the damned souls, but it does not carry them carelessly.
Even the demons take into account the social status, the social hierarchy.
We see some walking,
but also others, who are adulteries, and...
So these are these are people who cheat?
Cheaters. And who are these?
The whore nuns,
having a totally unprivileged status,
actually, this irony blames the sin.
We have a special wheelbarrow in hell.
Reserved for naughty nuns. That sounds a little bit exciting.
The master of the land goes by carriage.
So that's the sort of lord of the manor, the aristocrat.
And those pulling the carriage are the juries, this is very important.
Being pulled by the lawyers.
It's fascinating. So imaginative, this.
It's like a Hieronymus Bosch depiction of hell.
The detail and the imagination that's gone into this is remarkable.
With the shadows growing longer, it was time to find suitable lodgings.
I'm making for a secluded guest house in the village of Budești,
property of renowned filmmaker Ion Teglaș.
However, with variable signal on my satnav,
I was obliged to stop by the roadside to ask directions.
- Good evening. - Good evening.
- Water? - Water.
- Drinking water. - Superb.
Natural water.
Charlie. Good health.
- I'm Nuțu. Good to meet you. - Nuțu!
Where Teglaș lives?
About 50 meters away. He's my neighbor.
- Okay. - Mr. Teglaș, he's my neighbor.
He came here in 2009,
I saw he was my neighbor and he was working
and I asked him.
And so we created a kind of connection,
they were a little bit strangers, they were coming from the city.
- Perfect. - And little by little, step by step,
it became a beautiful connection between us.
Well done, OK.
They are special people.
They are like a model to me.
- Thank you. - Thank you too.
- Good health to you. - Same to you.
See you!
He was right, it's about 100 yards.
This is... very interesting.
It's like a Fairy Grotto.
With a river and a little wooden bridge.
It really is a little Garden of Eden.
On the other side of the river, separated from the village, from the road.
But it must have been so much work to create it.
Oh, my God.
Yes, it was a lot of work.
We started this activity, action, idea, I don’t know how to call it,
concept "Ancient Maramureș", about 20 years ago
when I was working in the local media in Baia Mare and I was really seeing
from one month to the other, from one year to the other,
how those beautiful things that made Maramureș famous
such as the wooden houses, the wooden gates,
started to slowly disappear,
that was why we chose these old houses,
that was why we set them up within the half-wild nature, so to say.
When we came here, there was nothing on this land,
it was empty, just green grass...
How long did it take?
We started in 2009.
- So 13 years. - Thirteen years.
From five years we are living here.
We adapted
and people finally accepted us,
the village accepted us,
they saw what we had done, they appreciate us...
So you never had any regrets?
I regret nothing, absolutely.
For me, everything is here was a discovery, an epiphany,
as if I needed it.
The following day, we head towards the border town of Sighetu Marmației,
which at various points in history
belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empires,
becoming part of Romania following the dissolution
of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918.
During the Communist era, the city prison was used as a detention centre
for political dissidents and public figures
who had been declared enemies of the state.
Among them was former Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu,
who died here in 1953.
The building is now open once more as a museum
and part of a memorial to the victims of Communist Depression.
The memorial consists of a museum here in Sighet
and an international centre for studies on Communism in Bucharest.
It's been designated by the Council of Europe
as one of the key memorials in the continent,
along with the Auschwitz Museum
and the Museum of Peace in Normandy.
Between 25 and 30 priests and bishops were also incarcerated here,
along with political prisoners.
And it's interesting when you consider the Church's repression under Communism,
the Communists were desperate to stamp out all forms of religion.
This may go some way to explaining
why freedom in this country post Communism
is so closely equated with religious freedom.
And it may explain why Christianity has since burgeoned
in its many different denominations
and the Church plays such an important role
for many people here in Romania today.
Conditions here were shocking.
The prisoners weren't allowed to lie down on their beds
in their unheated cells during daytime.
They were forced to stand or taken out and made to work.
They were fed miserably, so malnutrition ran rife.
They weren't allowed to look out of the window of their cells.
So they were punished for staring out of the window, looking at freedom outside.
They were taken and put into a dark room as punishment for that. Can you imagine?
Everything was designed to humiliate them, to take away their dignity,
to force them to see the error of their ways just for speaking out.
It's slightly ironic,
that when you look up through the cross shaped hole
in the ceiling of this dome,
you can see an apple tree full of lush, bright red apples,
like the Tree of Temptation in the Garden of Eden.
This must have been how the prisoners felt
when they stole furtive glances out of their windows,
risking punishment to catch a glimpse of the world outside.
For me, this place is a perfect example of how hard it is
to restore 50 years of falsified history
that existed under the Communists.
There are still many Romanians to this day
that don't really accept the full extent of the atrocities that they committed.
But here we have an enormous museum filled with rooms,
detailing people, individuals, journalists,
historians, politicians, poets, priests,
all of whom were tortured or imprisoned through no fault of their own
for standing up against an oppressive regime.
And it's taken 30 years to get to this point
and we're still uncovering more information about what took place.
Another notable landmark in Sighet
is a bizarre sculpture known simply as the Pin.
This is one of the reasons I love the Romanian sense of humor.
If you take a map of the country and you want to stick it to the wall,
then you put the pin through the middle of Sighet
which is at the top, in the middle.
So the mayor decided to commission a sculpture of the Pin.
And there it is.
Yep, definitely nailed it.
WELCOME TO SIGHETU MARMAȚIEI
No one else would think of doing this.
And whilst we can now find the middle of the country,
sadly, we can't find a black and white cat that answers to the name of Titsy.
Just in case you've seen it, him, her, on your travels.
Among the many legacies of communism was the huge number of orphans
that were created by the pro natal policy implemented by Nicolae Ceaușescu
resulting in a huge boom in birth rates
caused by lack of family planning
and the outlawing of contraception and abortion.
Rather than promoting economic growth,
it led to many children being abandoned in orphanages,
where they were subjected to prolonged institutional neglect.
Thankfully, most of these orphanages are now closed
and have increasingly been replaced
by foster care and the relocation of children
to specialized accommodation
set up to replicate a family home environment.
At the forefront of this movement is
NGO Hope and Homes For Children Romania,
founded by a Brit called Colonel Mark Cook
back in 1994 and active here in Romania since 1998.
I'm visiting a family home in Sighet to find out more
from National Director Ștefan Dărăbuș.
Charlie. Nice to meet you.
- Glad to meet you. - Denisa.
- Alex. - Charlie, hi.
I know a lot of people have this vision of orphanages in Romania
from the Ceaușescu's era, where it was really bad, wasn't it?
- Yes, it was. - How has it changed?
Well, the change is absolutely huge
because back in '97, when I started doing what I do
with closing down orphanages and supporting children,
get into family environments or family life,
there were about 100,000 children in institutions, in orphanages.
For the not to three year olds to grow up in an orphanage,
it was like a death sentence.
Because growing up without the love of a parent,
without attachment, without affection,
is the worst thing that could happen to a child.
When we look at the closure of an orphanage,
it's not only family homes.
Family homes is the last resort.
If children cannot go back into their own families,
if that is not possible,
we look at foster care and, of course, adoption.
And if those options are not possible for a child,
we look at family homes.
And this becomes, for them, a safe haven.
It's their home and they stay here for long term.
They mingle with their neighbors,
they play with the children, they go to school in the community.
So as much as possible, the life that any child should have.
Upstairs is the place where they go to bed.
And that's another space designed for them to be able to study
or to relax before sleeping time.
Listen to them, if you hear them talking, laughing, having a good time.
That's what I want to see in a family home.
And the first indication that the kids are okay, if you've got this environment.
What was actually frightening in most of the orphanages I visited,
was the silence, like a graveyard,
going into a baby home for one year olds, two year olds, three year olds,
and to hear no noise,
They are like in a horror movie.
And that's the result of them crying
when they were very, very young and never being answered to.
And that tells the children
that it doesn't matter if they cry or they don't, because no one cares.
And that's when the so called institutionalization consequences
appear upon children, because they hide within themselves,
they do not communicate with the outer world.
That's when this behavior starts developing,
which you've seen in many institutional,
institutionalized children in many orphanages,
because the only stimulation they have is within themselves.
That's why many of the children growing up in orphanages
become self-aggressive,
because the only form of stimulation they have is by doing this to themselves,
or by pulling their hair,
or by hitting, I don't know,
hitting their hand against something strong
just so that they can feel something, for God's sake.
It's just a desperate cry...
- For love. - For love.
And to tell those around, I'm here.
I need you to see me.
Was it difficult for the children, especially those from the orphanages,
to make the adjustment?
- Initially, they are frightened... - Of course.
...because until that stage in their lives, any change meant a bad change.
But then, in very short time,
they realized that they're going to stay here until they leave,
so until they grow up.
And that these people who look after them, these carers,
are the ones who are going to be with them
in ten years’ time, in five years’ time, not others.
They know their birthdays. They know what's important for them.
They know how they do in school, what they like, what they don't like.
So they are as close as possible to a parent figure.
Now we can say goodbye to you.
- Hello! - Hello!
- We're glad to see you. - Goodbye.
Hello! Goodbye.
Thanks for the visit.
It's very moving to see them smiling and laughing and so happy.
A lot is down to these people, to the carers who look after them
and they make sure that the kids are okay.
But I wanted to tell you, I initially said
that there were about 100,000 in institutions when I started
doing this kind of work 25 years ago.
Do you know how many there are now?
About 3.800.
That's all.
It's another three good years of work
until institutions will be a thing of the past for Romania.
And basically, that horrible brand of orphanages,
which was so descriptive of Romania until not long ago,
is going to be a thing of the past.
If you're visiting Sighet, it's mandatory to drive 20 minutes east.
To take a stroll through Europe's only happy cemetery,
where the dead are immortalized with poetry and paint
on ornately carved crosses
that form a small forest clustering in the shade
of the Romanian Orthodox Church of Assumption,
Built in 1886 and recently extended and embellished
in a kaleidoscope of colored tiles.
It's remarkable how much work went into creating these grave tablets.
Can't call them gravestones,
but the carving, the colors, the artwork is vibrant.
It's very full of life, ironically.
But this is the whole idea of the happy cemetery.
It's a celebration of the person's life, not a commiseration of their death.
And in 100 years’ time,
people will still know what these people did.
They'll know who they were, they'll know what they liked.
They'll know a little bit about their life,
whether they enjoyed flower arranging
or making bread or tending sheep or drinking palinka from the bottle.
"I'm not having a good afterlife."
Well, you wouldn't, if you were beheaded.
While you were peacefully tending your sheep.
This guy comes up, Hungarian and beheads him just like that.
They don't shy away from graphic detail in these illustrations.
I mean, some are quite mundane.
A guy who left the army and bought himself a nice car,
there's a picture of him with his car
because, let's face it, Romanians really like a car.
Cars are important.
But to have your picture forevermore
as being standing there next to your brand new car
seems maybe just a tiny bit superficial to me.
The idea of celebrating the lives of the deceased
rather than commiserating their loss can be traced back to the Dacians.
And inspired local artist and woodcarver Stan Pătraș
to start incorporating images and epitaphs on his crosses back in 1935.
The tradition was later passed down to his apprentice,
Dumitru Pop, who sadly passed away last year.
However, his daughter Anamaria and her husband Ioan
have inherited and continue her father's legacy.
How did this tradition first come about?
I haven't seen this anywhere else in the world.
It's our Dacian tradition.
When someone here are dying,
everyone was happy because he go to the God and it's a beautiful thing.
And if someone is born, everyone cry
because they come on the earth to suffer.
We have three type, the crosses on the Merry cemetery.
With one side. All the story about the person.
Two sides. The first side it's about the life.
The second part it's about the death, what's happening,
the reason why he died or she died.
Do the relatives have any input on how the person is portrayed?
So say, for example, if the wife commissions a cross
about her dead husband, but he was cheating and he drank too much
and he was always gambling their money away in the casino
and she wanted to say something not very nice.
- Could she do that? - Long story.
- Yeah. - Yes, we can do this.
So do you find relatives influencing you?
If this was the truth and the truth, yes, we put on the cross.
So show me a couple of examples.
I know you've got some of the best ones in there, some copies.
We have some copies here. And we have the mother in law.
I think I can remember this from coming here
and seeing the original in 2014.
"If I lived three more days, then I'd be here, not my mother in law."
It's true, yes.
Because obviously she drove him mad with her criticism.
It's not like a kind mother in law.
No, well, I mean, not many people get on with their mother in laws, do they?
I mean, there's a reason we all make jokes about your mother in law in England.
We have the same thing here.
I guess, your dad,
who has been the creator of these crosses for how many years?
Since 1977.
After the Stan Pătraș death.
- Right. So he took over. - Yes.
And he was the one who created the poems as well?
Yes, the poems, the model, the image, everything.
And so he's really told the story of the whole community in that time.
The people who've died here?
Yes. Here is not a big village.
- Like 3000... - Three thousand people.
So you can't possibly be able to keep up with the number of people that die.
So not everybody gets a cross, only...
No, we have another cemetery.
Half cross is like this cross and half is in stone.
Is on the street, yes, like two minutes...
- Just down the road. I must go and see it. - You must see.
Welcome to the semi happy cemetery.
I almost prefer this.
No tourists, it's in the middle of a field full of ancient oak trees.
Surrounded by the hills.
This guy who had a car and a son
and a wife and he blames his wife for his early death.
He said, "Be careful how you marry
because my wife put me in the ground early."
Which I think is a bit unfair on his poor wife who may still be alive.
I wonder how she feels about seeing this cross
when she comes to put some flowers on his grave.
Maybe she doesn't put some flowers on his grave.
I think if I was his wife
and that was his letter from beyond the grave,
I wouldn't come up and visit so often.
Shocking.
For our next stop,
we're heading to the far west of the Maramureș
and the town of Borșa.
It's a spectacular drive over undulating hills and valleys.
In season one,
we came here to witness the ongoing scourge of illegal logging
that continues unabated in the isolated terrain that straddles the Ukraine border.
This time around, I'm purely here for recreational purposes
to visit an enterprising young woman who has set up riding stables
for those wishing to explore this untamed landscape by horseback.
Can anybody come and ride here?
I mean, not just experienced riders, but you can teach people as well, yes?
Anyone can come.
We offer horse-riding lessons, equitation,
and we go out on the routes, even if people are beginners.
The horses are tamed, one just has to have no fear and everything is OK.
And where is this route, all of...?
All the mountains?
More or less, it depends.
When we have to do with beginners, we can’t approach a long route.
In the mountains, it is difficult
and even more difficult when going down.
So this is one of the routes
and we have another three-hour one and it is easy enough.
Is this your family? The business.
This is my father's passion.
And it became mine too, I didn’t expect that.
I have entered the horses’ world only two years ago
and I like it.
Anyway there is not much to do in Borșa
so we thought that, since we have them, we have horses for eight years now,
and my grandfather also had horses and... it runs in the family.
So where are we going next?
We’ll go there to see the view, the forest and Pietrosu Mountain
and then we will be back to the stables.
Okay, that's brunch. Stella, come on, you've eaten enough. You get fat like me.
Let's go.
Leaving the bike of the stables,
I've switched from four legs to four wheels.
To go in search of Romania's highest waterfall.
Situated on a distant escarpment deep in the Rodna Mountains.
According to the local legends,
the waterfall got its name from a bunch of wild horses
that were corralled at the top of the cliff
by a pack of ravenous wolves.
In order to escape,
they leapt to their deaths on the rocks below.
Their white manes billowing in the wind as they fell.
Imaginative, but brutal.
Riding back west, we come to the small town of Vișeul de Jos
and the house of Mrs. Maria Pop,
one of the last remaining artisans
who still makes authentic jackets and waistcoats
for men and women in the traditional style.
- Hello, nice to meet you. - Hello.
- Welcome to us. - Thank you very much.
- God bless. - God bless.
- Please. - Thank you.
These are my own works, done with my own hands.
To our delight we still have masters who do such things,
as aunt Maria who has been doing this craft since more than 20 years.
This is an entire artwork.
- How long does it take? - It depends. One month, maybe more.
It is much work, much sewing, more than one month.
It is a lot of work to manually sew all these.
Should I give you one for men?
Since you are here, please take a vest that is specific to Vișeu area
- This is to be worn in workdays. - Workdays, not holidays.
- No, these are for holidays. - Yes, like the one I am wearing.
They are called vests with raiu, that was their name,
this is how they were identified and named by the village people.
We still don’t know why,
but what it is sewn on them has a special symbolic meaning,
because the tradition is starting to fade away, we have no more craftsmen
and we can say that aunt Maria is one of those who saved...
- I tried to save... - She tried to save
at least something from this authentic craft.
- I like it. - How old is it?
More than 100 years.
The men in Vișeu area were wearing it.
- Only Vișeu area. - Only in Vișeu area they wear it.
These and these. If you go in other areas, they are all different.
They are different. Maramureș is big and wide,
very beautiful from all standpoints,
but we are unity in diversity and this takes us farther.
And we must not forget the tradition.
If we forget our roots, we are lost.
We have to care about the roots, in order to be able to bloom.
Continuing west, we leave the mountains behind
and return to the wooden villages and churches that epitomize this region.
Traveling along the Iza River Valley, you pass the monastery of Bârsana.
A popular destination for pilgrims,
re-established in 1993.
Constructed on the site of a former monastery
which was burned by the Tartars in 1717.
It's certainly an impressive spectacle
when you consider all the carving
that went into creating these buildings and the shingles on the roof.
In today's terms, they're worth millions and must be quite expensive to maintain.
So the tourists that come here every week in their bus loads
contribute to the survival of this place,
but at the same time offer a certain contradiction,
because monastic life is supposed to be one of isolation,
to be quiet, to contemplate God,
to have the peace and tranquilly necessary to lead a spiritual life.
And yet here we have a place that just
starts to look a bit like Disneyland at weekends.
With people teeming all over it.
It must be quite difficult for the nuns, I can't help feeling.
The monastery is often confused with the wooden Church of Bârsana,
one of eight UNESCO World Heritage churches in the region.
Constructed in 1711 as a thank you to God for protection from the plague,
it was later moved closer to the village to safeguard it from desecration.
Today it rests on a hill behind the town and cuts a lonely figure
set in an overgrown cemetery, neglected by many of the tourists
who come here to visit its more modern counterpart.
During the course of our journey,
the roads become increasingly filled with horse and carts.
And livestock.
As the people of the Maramureș gather in the last of the harvest
and bring the animals home from the high pasture
in preparation for winter.
While the men of the communities are largely responsible
for supervising the livestock,
the picking of the fruit and vegetables
often falls to the women who work together to beat the encroaching frost.
I've come to Călinești to pick up friend and singer Măriuca Verdeș,
who has taken me to meet her neighbors,
laboring in the hills to retrieve the last of the potatoes.
It is the first time I travel with such a bike.
People will laugh at me, they will say I ran away from my husband.
Come.
So, first time on a motor bike?
- First time. - First time?
Good.
I am very happy.
Let’s go and see what Călinești people are dealing with in this autumn time.
Harvest is one of the most important times of the year in Maramureș, isn't it?
Yes, it is an important time because we pick up fruits now,
all the work we did during summer is to be seen only now.
That is why Maramureș people are patient people,
because we are still used to eat the work of our own hands.
We still keep the first commandment God has given to humanity:
"Only eat the work of your hands".
We want to live a healthy life
in a world which lack this principle
and we have finally realized that health is the most important,
so we take care of the land, we make sure to have cows,
to make haystacks, to plant picioci (potatoes), peas,
to plant everything we need so that we can survive through the winter
without being stressed about the rising prices.
We are not interested about the rising prices
because we live in our own rhythm, just the way we want.
Now we will go to a host, Maria,
who gathered some women from the village for clacă
and they dig for picioci as they should, with their hands.
- Some of them are gathering apples... - Apples? Apple picking.
And they preserve them for the winter...
The host Năstafă picked apples by hand to have them through the wintertime.
If you pick them with your hand, they will make it through winter.
They are kept in a cool place
and you may eat them during the winter because they are very good.
But if they shake the tree and the apples fall,
people use them to prepare horinca.
I keep your apples in my lap.
Thank you. Saving one for later.
This was what women used to do
when they had nowhere to put their fruits or vegetables.
They put them in their lap.
Hey, Maria! I brought you three apples!
He brought me here by bike.
It ride like the wind. But do you know what I was thinking?
That they would talk... they would say I had run away.
Take a break. What beautiful picioci you have!
- Wow, very beautiful. - They are.
So all of this land, is it communal land
or does it belong to, like, a couple of people?
Here, people struggled to buy their land
and every one of them has their piece of land.
- I have inherited it. - Inherited it from Gheorghiță?
- From my parents. - From your parents.
I get the feeling everybody chips in and they all help each other.
Is that right?
They help each other because we are a tight community
and we love helping each other, knowing and loving each other
because shouldn’t we love each other, this urge to help would not exist.
The ladies sing songs when they do this.
It’s true. When you want to have an excuse not to work, you sing.
I will sing a hora to these hosts.
I sing because I love singing.
Bravo.
- Do you want to do some work? - Yeah, of course.
Standing here, doing no work.
You will see how we work to earn our bread.
Yeah.
But don’t dig too deep because the potatoes are at the surface.
Those are corci, this is how they are called,
corci of picioci.
This is a corci, see?
From a picioc, they split and several will come out.
We put them into three categories: Big picioci,
for eating, for instance this...
so we use the big picioc to eat it,
this is to be cultivated next year,
and in case they are smaller, we use them for animals.
- For animals. - To feed the animals.
Those have more flavour.
So this year has been a good harvest.
Yes. It's a good harvest.
- They are happy. - Very happy.
They are happy because they did not work in vain, the whole summer.
Everything depends on rains.
Bravo, Charlie.
Actually, it's quite hard work. Do you know any more songs to...
keep me in the zone?
Because we are in nature, I will sing about nature.
Thank you so much for showing me this.
Me too. We thank you as well. I stay here to help the hosts.
I won’t joining you again on the bike,
for people will really say I ran away with you.
Well, I suppose I've given all the locals something to gossip about, haven't I,
when I've gone.
- Okay. - Okay.
I am glad you passed by, glad to meet you and please come again.
We'll be back. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Bye. Thanks. Kisses.
- Thank you. - Give me the hoe, where are you going?
- You don't need a hoe. - See you.
We wait for you at Christmas.
Foraging is another important part of harvest time.
There are several collection points
set up to receive the bounty of wild mushrooms
that proliferate in the surrounding fields and forests.
So it's Monday afternoon, about five o'clock,
There's a storm coming.
It's been raining for the last few days and there's lots and lots of porcini.
This is the collection point.
Look at that.
That is a monster.
It's the last few days
where porcini is still going to be growing because it's getting cold now.
And as the temperatures drop, then...
the frosts come and that's it for the mushrooms.
These mushrooms become exponentially more valuable from this point onwards,
until they reach the expensive restaurants of Europe.
But it's an example of the rich bounty that Romania has.
It's not just porcini and Bay Boletes that arrive at the collection point.
Other varieties of mushrooms turn up here as well.
All of them edible, as I suppose, but I have no idea what that is.
- Morchella. - Morchella.
Morchella.
In Romanian, Midget's Trumpet.
Okay.
The French eat a lot of Trumpets.
- Really? It's delicious? - Yes.
How do you prepare them?
It usually gets dry to make a sauce,
you put it on steaks, on... mushroom sauce.
They smell good, actually.
Smells good.
Here we have the goods ready for export.
We do it for restaurants...
- London? - No, Italy.
So this is the second stage of the process.
You can see the Bay Boletes have been cut into slices and frozen.
Or there were a small porcini, frozen whole.
This is tastier than Japanese beef.
- Really? - No.
- Look here. - How beautiful!
- We call them dried hribi. - Dried.
Dried, first class.
We dry them with water.
We dry them bio, using wood.
- With fire. - Okay.
We sell everything here in Romania too, because there is request.
But most of them go to Italy.
It's really interesting, as Vasile says,
that all these mushrooms finished their journey in Italy
at a far higher price point than they started it.
And this is one of the tragedies about Romanian products,
about Romanian resources.
They're worth a lot more money elsewhere
than they are here, in their country of origin,
like the timber, the mushrooms, and actually the white truffles.
Italians are very good
at passing off Romanian white truffles as their own
and selling them on for a small fortune.
What would be really helpful in this country
is if we were able to maximize the value of products here in Romania
before selling them on and having someone else triple the price
and call them Italian or German or whatever country they end up in.
Thank you so much, Vasile. That's so kind.
This is...
This is dinner,
breakfast and lunch tomorrow.
Thank you very much.
- Do you want some morchella? - Yeah, I'd love to.
Just a taste.
That's enough. Thanks.
Enjoy!
Thanks!
Let me shake you by the hand.
That is so kind. Thank you so much, Vasile.
Do you have a cook to cook you the mushrooms?
Yes. Me. Yes.
Do you know how to check whether the mushrooms are good or not?
Each mushroom has a bad sister.
There are a good sister and a bad sister.
We have a very simple method here, in Maramureș.
- Before eating mushrooms... - Yes...
...we look for a mother-in-law and ask her to eat it.
Now I know how the mother-in-law in Săpânța probably died.
Love it. Thank you so much for this feast.
Now I've got to go home and prepare something with the mushrooms for dinner.
Just so happens that we've gone self-catering this evening,
so I've really got no excuse whatsoever.
Thanks, Vasile.
- Good health! Enjoy! - Good health!
Okay, so this is a really simple recipe that I learned off my mum.
It's not a gourmet recipe, so no apologies to the chefs watching.
I'm sure you can all do it a lot better than this,
but it's an easy way to combine the different mushrooms
with a bit of wine that I found in the fridge,
some chopped onion and garlic,
a bay leaf for two, squeeze of lemon, a bit of chicken stock,
and that will make a mushroom risotto,
a wild mushroom risotto, which I'm preparing
because I've got a friend coming over from England,
who I'm taking to the forest tomorrow because he's an expert conservationist,
has a charity over here, and is the reason
that I discovered Romania in the first place
and has been fighting to protect Romania's forests
for much longer than I've been in this country.
So let's try... cooking.
Start with some olive oil.
Chuck in the onions.
A few hribi. So.
They reduce right down.
They're so delicious. The flesh is really nutty.
You can actually eat it raw.
Gorgeous. Next, I'm going to chuck in some garlic. We add the garlic.
I know this looks very slap dash and it is, but the result should be good.
Next, the midget's trumpet.
Not sure how politically correct that name is in this day and age.
The idea is the onions should caramelize
just as the juice of the mushroom starts to come out,
which means the garlic doesn't go bitter and burn
and the flavours start to combine.
Yeah, smelling good.
Throw in some honey fungus,
let that simmer for a little bit.
I would normally do this with a white wine,
but I couldn't find any.
So we've got a demisec, slightly sweet rose,
but I don't think it's going to be too bad.
I'll add a bit of lemon juice as well.
Certain sweetness and the sourness,
which will hopefully go very well
with the flavour and the earthiness of the mushroom.
So now...
We've taken off quite a lot of the water.
Now I think we're ready to add the rice.
Coat the rice with...
the stock that we've created.
And now we add the wine,
most of it anyway.
Now I use the same again of water.
Throw in some bay leaves, chicken stock, cube.
This needs constant watching because the rice, as it expands,
soaks up all the water, as we all know, and you don't want it to start burning.
So I have to stir it, keep an eye on it, top it up with more water,
maybe a little bit more wine.
I'm going to put lots of black pepper in this.
I don't know if this will work, but maybe also...
squeeze of lemon.
This is called experimental cooking.
Right. Paul's Satnav says he's about two minutes away,
so time for a small palinka, like...
The ultimate palinka dispenser.
It goes here, the plate up.
Nothing like being prepared.
- Oh, my word. Charlie, how are you? - Paul!
- Oh, God, it's been a year. - It's been a long time.
It's been a hell of a long time.
Now, listen, before I go any further,
I've been slaving away over a hot stove, so there you go.
- Try that. - What have you got?
Wild mushroom.
- Wild mushroom risotto. - Wild mushroom risotto. Yeah.
- Look how well... - I actually haven't even tasted it myself.
- Really? - No.
Let's give it a go.
These are very dark mushrooms, aren't they?
Good?
You come on quite a bit with your cooking.
I know, I do try.
That's very tasty. That's great. I think we need to go and...
Truly speaking, it's not a flavour of Romania
because it's kind of my mum's recipe, which I've just embellished a bit.
- But it works, so... - For you to say that. That's something.
- I know. - You're quite a big forager.
Let's just hope that our stomachs are in good condition after eating these.
- Let's do it. - I'm sure they'll be fine.
The next morning, I set out with Paul
to visit one of the few areas
of designated pristine forest left in Romania,
which means a forest that has zero evidence of interference from humans,
as opposed to old growth,
where there are indications of previous felling.
This 2.962-hectare nature reserve near Băiuț
contains towering oak, beach and spruce trees
that have endured for centuries.
Yeah, exactly.
I think we've reached this epic tree.
I think we've reached a pinnacle of this walk.
That is unbelievable.
- Yeah. - I reckon that's about 450 years old.
- You reckon? 450. - At least.
And when you see these trees around us, these big old ones here,
they're sort of fallen monarchs, I call them,
fallen monarchs,
and they really are sort of a biodiversity hub.
When you think about all the years when they break down,
they create homes for all sorts of creatures.
It's so rich, the environment in Romania, and it's what drew me here.
Romania is the epicenter of biodiversity in Europe
and the nature, and I think that that needs to be shown.
Everything that runs through Romania is its nature,
its countryside, its rural activities.
I think that's what makes it unique and special.
You can say, yes, Bucharest has got nice restaurants and the hotels,
and you can go to Timișoara, that's all great, it's fabulous.
But the real USP of Romania sets it way apart from all the other nations
is its incredible richness of nature and wildness,
this ecosystem, these rolling hills of Transylvania
and the Maramureș, these locations are uniquely special.
And I think that's really why King Charles came here and fell in love.
And of all people that's travelled as much as he has,
to then actually identify Romania as a place which to buy a home
and spend time, is in itself a great attribute to the country.
Do you think it's changed?
I mean, you've been coming here now for longer than I have, so 12-14 years.
Have you seen positive changes?
I think that people are more and more conscious these days about climate change,
global warming, extinction crisis, mass migration, rising sea levels,
all these threats we face,
and they're conscious and they're understanding more.
And I think that people are starting to behave differently
and they're far more curious now,
mean, you know, people are prepared to come out into the forest,
people come from Western Europe, see this beautiful nature,
and that will create a whole new rural economy
based around tourism
and not necessarily extractive processes.
And I'm really sort of concerned
about the livestock industry because for me,
that's one of the biggest issues that we face with climate change.
Twenty seven percent of all the earth's surface,
less ice and less desert,
twenty seven percent has been logged, cut, burnt, destroyed
to grow livestock, that's cows, sheep and so on.
And I think we're going to see a change.
I'm sure there's going to be a change
in the way we value what food we eat and the food systems,
the way we produce food.
And that will create more space for nature to recover,
to sequester the carbon that we're so hell bent on producing,
and that will create a healthier ecosystem.
So I'm actually very positive that I think
that Romania is waking up to the fact
that it is a custodian of these wonderful ecosystems
that need to be preserved for the benefit of everybody.
We have the resources here in this country
to be able to harvest forest in a sustainable way and replant.
Yes, I also think added value is very important.
So rather than let some big foreign investors
that come over here and put up their huge mills
and export sheet products,
sheet materials and sown goods without any added value, it's a crime.
A new economy based around nature, tourism will create so many jobs.
You know what it's like when you have a lodge in a rural area and visitors come,
it's almost one member of staff to one client.
That's very different model from farming, very different model.
And that is where I see the farmer's wife, the farmer's son,
the daughter, all the family coming back into the community
and working in a mixed industry.
I call it like a living landscape.
Romania has some really unique selling points
and it's all about the countryside.
It's not for me about the cities.
Yes, the cities are very nice,
but to compete with Vienna, Budapest, you know, Prague, Paris, Rome,
I mean, how can you compete with those cities?
It's just almost impossible.
Let the city guys and the folks that just want to go and obsess about
architecture and museums and theatre and all that.
Let them go to those places.
But Romania has got its own theatre.
This is Romania's theatre.
Nothing like what there is anywhere else in Europe.
This is a theatre. This is what people should come to see.
Have you ever seen that movie Sliding Doors?
- Indeed. - Yeah.
Well, here's a good example.
You guys at home watching this
would be watching something completely different.
Never have seen Flavours of Romania.
We wouldn't be here, none of us.
I would never have discovered Romania.
My life would be totally different
and all of the team's life would be totally different
if it wasn't for you bringing me here in 2010.
So thank you very much for doing that. Much appreciated.
I think Romania owes you
a big vote of thanks for all the charity work that you're doing
and all the conservation work you're doing here.
I know it's a bit of a cliche,
but if there was ever time to hug a tree, I think it's right now.
- Let's do it. - Feel that energy.
There are no lower branches or hardly any.
They've fought to capture the light, so they've had to grow really tall.
And then, of course, an old one collapses of an old age
or in a storm, and that then knocks a couple of others down.
And here you have a huge opening, blows like fresh,
and then all the saplings can rise up and the strongest one will make it.
And the deer come in, the wild boar come in.
They all do their job.
You got to remember, every species in the world
has a part to play, except humans.
Literally, every species has a part to play.
- Everything... - We have catapulted ourselves
so far out of the food chain.
Everything lives in a beautiful trophic cascade.
And it's tough and sometimes it's mean and it's brutal, but it works.
We meantime live outside the trophic cascade
and all we want to do is attack it is attack it.
And that's the problem. We really need to get some humility
around the way we deal with nature.
Well, that's it for the Maramureș and sadly, that's it for us for this year.
We've shown you Romania in the summer and the autumn months,
but now the days are closing in.
There's ice on the roads, wet leaves and mud,
so it's too dangerous to continue.
However, we'll be back in the spring
to travel around Bucovina and the west side of Transylvania.
Meanwhile, let me leave you with some shots of the winter,
which demonstrates Romania is as breath-taking
during the colder months, as it is at any other time of the year.