Cemeteries So Beautiful, You Wouldn't Mind Spending Eternity in Them
CIMITIRUL VESEL
Săpânţa, Romania
When you put the words "death" and "Romania" together, it usually conjures up images of dark, gothic, Dracula-inspired scenery. But Săpânţa's Cimitirul Vesel—or the "Merry Cemetery" in English—is actually anything but gloomy. The sky-blue graves here are marked with hand-carved, intricately-painted crosses, then adorned with an image of the person below and a poem about his or her life.
But there's no hagiography here: the poems seek to represent the true life of the deceased, and drinking problems, infidelity, and other less-than-flattering traits are fair game for Dumitru Pop, the crosses' creator.
Tour: The Merry Cemetery is often a stop on larger tours of Romania; visit romaniatourism.com for more information.
Photo: Funky Food London/Paul Williams/Alamy