Traditional Romanian villages

Perhaps the best place of starting the exploration of Romania is its rural area, far from civilization and close to unspoiled nature. Wandering through the Romanian lands, you’ll discover the warm people of villages and their greetings to visitors. Apparently, time did not affect the lifestyle of the Romanian peasant. Moreover, in the villages hidden in the valleys of the mountains or highlands, time flows differently, more settled. From fresh healthy food, natural wines from the original local festivals to experience of staying in households or modest but warm and welcoming pensions, all the details are authentic, heartfelt offered and fully Romanian. Especially rural traditions are visible to visitors, and their values are passed from generation to generation. Our people are distinguished by special warmth and native sense of humor that visitors also will find as a treasure.

In the historic county of Maramures, the villages seem stuck in time. People still dress like their ancestors almost two thousand years ago. In villages in the valleys of Iza, Mara or Tisza, men wear tight peasant trousers, sandals and coarse-stuff coat and women wear Romanian peasant homespun skirt.

The center of this universe is the extraordinary civilization of wood, born from a hindrance: Catholics Hungarian nobles forbade Orthodox Romanians in XIII century, from raising stone churches. Thus was born, in the hands of local craftsmen, Maramures gothic style, reflected in the painted churches and monumental gates, carved with painstaking specific motifs – the sun, the tree of life, girdle