Maramureș - Mocănița - Cascada Cailor

Tour Details

Departure Location and Time:

• Chișinău – Circului Street 33 (Circus parking in Chișinău) – 22:00
• Iași – Palace of Culture – 03:30

Included in the Price:

• Round-trip transportation by bus
• Accommodation for 1 night in a guesthouse/hotel/motel
• Licensed guide
• Medical insurance
• Excursions as indicated in the program

Not Included in the Price:

• Tickets for entrance to tourist attractions
• Personal expenses
• Meals
   

Additional Services:

• Single room (30 euros)
• Seat in the first 5 rows on the bus (10 euros)
• Additional seat on the bus (45 euros)
• Guide in foreign languages (200 euros)
• For seniors, age > 66, an additional fee is charged for medical insurance (5 euros)

Notes:

In the case where the client is alone and has not paid for a single room but for sharing (the client agrees to stay in a room with another tourist or tourists), but until the day of departure, the travel company has no similar clients who are also alone but have paid the standard price for sharing, the client is obliged in this case to pay the supplement for a single room.
 

Itinerary

Day 1. Chișinău - Iași – Bârsana Monastery (approx. 490 km)

Meeting with the accompanying guide at 21:30, Circus parking in Chișinău for boarding the bus. Departure at 22:00 on the route: Chișinău - Iași – Bârsana Monastery.
 

Day 2. Arrival at Bârsana Monastery

We will visit the following tourist attractions:

- Bârsana Monastery, located in the Iza Valley, is an icon of the Maramureș Orthodox Christian soul, a hope for a blessed future, a holy place where nature unites with the Church in a cosmic Liturgy. What fascinates at Bârsana Monastery, beyond the spirit of good monastic order, is the perfect stylistic unity and the flawless artistic sense that govern the entire settlement, along the line of a tradition enriched by creative piety. The purity of the lines at Bârsana is like a remedy for the eyes and the heart: philokalia (love of beauty).

Next is the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and Resistance:

The Memorial of the Victims of Communism and Resistance consists of the museum located in the former political prison in Sighetu Marmației and the international center for the study of communism based in Bucharest. The memorial aims to reconstruct and preserve the memory of the resistance in Romania. The Sacrificed Procession, a bronze statue group created by sculptor Aurel I. Vlad and placed in the inner courtyard of the former prison, now the Memorial Museum of the Victims of Communism and Resistance.

Sighet Prison was built in 1897 as a common law prison by the Austro-Hungarian administration. In August 1948, it became a place of detention for a group of students, pupils, and peasants from Maramureș. In May 1950, over a hundred dignitaries from all over the country (former ministers, academics, economists, military personnel, historians, journalists, politicians) were brought to Sighet prison, some of them sentenced to heavy penalties, others not even judged.

The detainees were kept in unsanitary conditions, fed poorly, and prevented from stretching on the beds in the cells during the day, without heating. They were not allowed to look out the window (those who did not comply were punished to stay in the "black" and "shed," cell types without light). Eventually, blinds were put on the windows, so only the sky could be seen. Humiliation and mockery were part of the extermination program. In 1977, the prison was decommissioned and entered a process of degradation.

Merry Cemetery:

Merry Cemetery is a cemetery in Săpânța, Maramureș County, famous for the brightly colored crosses and naive paintings depicting scenes from the life and occupation of the buried individuals. On some crosses, there are even verses mentioning, often with humorous nuances, the respective persons.

The uniqueness of this cemetery lies in its differentiation from popular culture, which considers death as a sad event. It has been hypothesized that Stan Ioan Pătraș (1908-1977) was inspired by the culture of the Dacians, about whom, from Ovid Densușianu onwards, it is taught that they considered death as a joyful event. His apprentice Dumitru Pop-Tincu (1955-2022) continued Stan Ioan Pătraș's work from 1977. The first epitaph dates back to 1935, and from the 1960s onwards, the entire cemetery has been populated with about 800 such crosses, carved from oak wood, becoming an open-air museum of unique nature and a tourist attraction.

Since 2009, the cemetery has been the venue for the annual "Long Road to the Merry Cemetery" festival.

Săpânța-Peri Monastery:

Săpânța-Peri Monastery is a monastic settlement in Transylvania, located in the northern part of the village of Săpânța, Maramureș County.

In 1391, the grandchildren of Dragoș Vodă donated lands and goods to the Peri Monastery, and a stone church was built. For over 300 years, this stone church served as the headquarters of the Romanian Bishopric of Maramureș, later being built by the craftsman Ioan Macarie a place of prayer for the Greek-Catholic community in the surroundings. The monastery bore the patronage of the Holy Archangel Michael during the time of the voivodes of Drăgostești. At Săpânța-Peri, "Psalter," "Gospel," "Sunday Legend," "Voroțean Code," and "Acts of the Apostles" were translated and copied into Romanian for the first time.
 
Day 3. Ride with Mocănița Maramureș– Cailor Waterfall-Iași- Chișinău (approx. 490 km)

Mocănița- Maramureș:

The Vișeu de Sus forest railway (also known as the Mocănița from Valea Văsarului) is a narrow-gauge railway in Maramureș County that runs from Vișeu de Sus, through the Văsarului Valley, to the Carpathians, at the Coman station, near the border with Ukraine. The railway is used for both forestry and tourism and is classified as a historical monument.

Cailor Waterfall:

Cailor Waterfall is located near the tourist resort of Borșa, in the northeastern part of the Rodna Mountains. The water gathered in a glacial cirque flows over a limestone cliff called "Podul Cailor" in several steps, resulting in the largest waterfall in Romania. It is located at an altitude of 1300 meters, and the water drop is 90 meters.

NOTE: Cailor Waterfall is visited only if the weather conditions are favorable.

Departure home between 17:00 and 18:00.
 

Day 4. Arrival in Chișinău 01:00-06:00

Prices for Entry to Tourist Attractions:

• Mocănița Maramureș - 84 RONI adult, 74 RONI student/pensioner, 56 RONI student (6-16 years)
• Merry Cemetery - 10 RONI
• Cailor Waterfall - ascent + descent adults: 40 RONI/person, children (under 12 years*): 25 RONI/child
• Memorial of the Victims of Communism and Resistance - students, students: 5 RONI, pensioners: 10 RONI, adults: 20 RONI

Prices are taken from the internet, and Panda Tur is not responsible for their accuracy or any changes.