<p>The Merry Cemetery is a cemetery in the village of Săpânța, Maramureş county, Romania. It is famous for its brightly colored tombstones with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the people who are buried there in addition to scenes from their lives.</p>
<p>The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction.The cemetery’s origins are linked with the name of Stan Ioan Pătraş, a local artist who sculpted the first tombstone crosses. In 1935, Pătraș carved the first epitaph and, as of the 1960s, more than 800 of such oak wood crosses came into sight.</p>
<p>The inscription on his tombstone cross says: " Since I was a little boy I was known as Stan Ion Pătraş Listen to me, fellows There are no lies in what I am going to say All along my life I meant no harm to anyone But did good as much as I could To anyone who asked Oh, my poor World Because It was hard living in it"</p>
