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Annals of Valahia University of Targoviste. Geographical Series (2019), 19(2): 62-72 DOI: 10.2478/avutgs-2019-0007 ISSN (Print): 2393-1485, ISSN (Online): 2393-1493 © Copyright by Department of Geography. Valahia University of Targoviste

THE ANTHROPIC TOURISM FUND AND ITS ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN THE MARAMURES COUNTRY

Maria Emilia IEPAN BILCEC

University of Oradea, Universității Street, no 1, Oradea, Bihor County, România Doctoral School in

Geography e-mail: bilcecmariuca@yahoo.com

Abstract

The anthropic tourism fund is the sum of recreational items built by people over time. The anthropic tourism fund is the one that has made Maramureş famous throughout the world, due to it’s important tourist flows are heading towards this territory. In Maramureş, the emergence and development of an ancient civilization led to the creation of an extremely rich and original tourist fund. The tourism in the Maramureş Country has had a great dynamism in recent years, amid the existence of a valuable cultural and natural tourist patrimony as well as the changes and the complexity of the tourism fund of the Maramures Country (natural and anthropic), the elements of which are arranged in a harmonious combination, this region has a strong political, social and economic significance in the last years and a high attractiveness. Keywords: Maramureş, church, monument, wood, Merry Cemetery

1.INTRODUCTION

"The tourism fund consists of the total natural and socio-cultural-historical (anthropic) re-

sources of touristic capitalization that form the basis of the potential supply of a territory (C.

Zwizewski et al., 1987) after N. Ciangă, 1998.

The tourism fund includes two categories of tourism resources according to their genetic

features: attractive objectives belonging to the natural environment and objectives of anthropogenic

origin.

The two types of attractiveness objectives are complementary and determine the develop-

ment of some forms of tourism and, of course, the attractiveness of a region.

The types of tourism that contribute to the full satisfaction of the tourist demand in

Maramureş are: cultural tourism in the first place, but without forgetting the recreational tourism or

the balneary tourism that nuances the tourist offer. A tourist region is characterized by the full satis-

faction of tourist flows through the types of tourism that can be practiced there, resulting in a tourist

system characterized by both specificity and diversity.

Therefore, there is a direct link between the tourist region of Maramureş Country, its tourist

image and the types of tourism that can be practiced and which depend on the tourist resources and

their arrangement. The 60s and 70s of the 20th century have shaped an obvious antagonism be-

tween rural areas and urban ones with the mystification of the city and the blame of the country-

side which leads to the emergence of a strong exodus from the rural to the urban environment. The

disinterested attitude towards rural architecture, rural life, traditions and habits at that time is gradu-

ally changing, these factors becoming the main resources outlining the current rural tourism offer.

The pollution phenomena, stress, demanding urban agglomeration, deterioration in the quality of

life and rapid social changes in major cities have led to the recognition of rural values, the direct

consequence being the return to nature, to authenticity.

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Figure 1. Maramureș Country: touristic map

2.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The Anthropic Tourism Fund of Maramureş Country includes:

Historic edifices

The historical edifices present in Maramures are Dacian and medieval fortresses. Among the

Dacian fortresses can be listed the ones from Sighetu Marmatiei on the Solovan hill and the Dacian

fortress from Oncesti from the 1st century BC.

In the Middle Ages there were fortresses in Barsana on the Cetate hill, at Sarasau in the

place of the Iron Gate, mentioned in documents in the years 1389, 1408 and at Bogdan Voda on Ce-

tatuelul hill.

A castle is built to defend salt mines, this "Castellum" gives the name of Coştiui. One can

see the connection between the names of some hills and the location of fortifications on these

heights: "Hill of the Citadel", the name of a street in Sighetu Marmatiei, or the Cetate in Barsana,

Subcetate the name of Onceşti, XIV century, as well as the Cetăţul şi Valulul hills at Bogdan Vo-

da, the Cetatea din Sarăsău Hill.

Among the fortifications whose traces can be seen in Maramureş can be mentioned: the Da-

cian fortification from Bogdan Voda on the Gruiul Valului hill and the fortifications remaining

from the two world wars present in the Maramures Mountains and the Prislop step.

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Religious edifices

The religious edifices of Maramureş Land highlight the religiosity of Maramures, but also

represent an important tourist resource due to their old age, and uniqueness.

Figure 2. Wooden Church of the Cosăului Valley

"If the peasant houses and the other annexed wooden constructions reached the end of the

seventeenth century to perfect perfection, then we can say without doubt that they are the synthetic

expression and the culmination of the creative genius of these local people "(George Cristea and

Mihai Dăncuş, 2000, Maramureş a living museum in the center of Europe).

Most wooden churches date back to the 17th and 18th century and replaced other missing

churches under different circumstances, for example at the last Tatar invasion of 1717 destroyed the

churches in the villages they passed through. The oldest wooden church in the Maramureş Country

is the church of the Ieud Bald (also called the Church of the Hill), built in 1364, and the largest and

newest one is the Sapanta-Peri Monastery located in Livada Dendrological Park Săpânţa.

A traditional Maramurean church has the following rooms: the porch or the shrine (which is

not compulsory), the women's narthex, the men's nave, and the altar.

For the construction of the churches, the oak was used on Mare's valley and Lower Iza, and

in the middle Iza area, Vişeu and Borşa used the resinous ones. Here is an enumeration of the most important ancient Maramures churches and the date of

their construction: Deseşti - 1770, Hărniceşti - 1770, Hoteni - 1657, Breb - 1700, Corneşti - sec.

XVII, Calinesti Susani - 1758, Calinesti Josani - 1663, Sârbi Josani - 1665, Sârbi Susani - 1532,

Budeşti Josani - 1643, Budeşti Susani - 1595, Valea Stejarului - 1860, Rona de Jos - sec. XVI,

Bârsana - 1720, Strada - 1667, Glod - 1700, Rozavlea - 1717, Sieu - 1760, Botiza - 1796, Poienile

Izei - 1700, Ieud Church from Deal - 1718, Săliştea de Sus Buleni - 1722, Săliştea de Sus Nistoreşti

- 1680, Moisei - 1600, Borşa - 1717, Ruscova - sec. XVIII.

In recent years grandiose wooden churches have been built: Barsana Monastery, Sapanta-

Peri Monastery, Ieud Monastery, Orthodox and Greco-Catholic Churches in Plopsori Ieud, Botiza

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Monastery, Dragomiresti Monastery, St. Luke's Church at Sighet Hospital, Vişeu Church from the

Upper Church of Borsa Complex.

Figure 3. Bârsana Monastery

Among the ancient stone churches it is worth mentioning the Reformed Church in Sighet -

sec. XII, the Romano-Catholic Church of Sighet, built in 1730, the Church of Sarasau dating from

the sec. XIV century. Also new churches of stone or brick were built in almost all the villages of

Maramures. These churches are beautifully painted and attract the interest of many tourists.

Among the synagogues present in the Maramureş Country can be remembered the syna-

gogue from Sighetu Marmaţiei from the 19th century.

The cemeteries that are of interest from the tourist point of view in the Maramureş Country

are "The Merry Cemetery" in Săpânţa and the Graveyard of the Poor of Sighetu Marmaţiei.

"The Merry Cemetery" is the work of the sculptor Stan Ion Patras, which made this ceme-

tery to be one of the most unusual and most visited tourist attractions in Maramures.

Figure 4. The Merry Cemetery

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The "Merry Cemetery" is under the auspices of UNESCO, and in 1998 at the Funeral Mon-

uments Symposium held in the United States. It has been hierarchized as the first of its kind in Eu-

rope and the second in the world, before it in this ranking is the Valley of Kings in Egypt.

The uniqueness of this cemetery lies in the fact that on the crosses of oak wood the crafts-

man synthesized in some verses, sometimes humorous, the life of the missing ones, using the tech-

nique of bas-relief and painting with vivid colors on a blue background.

The Cemetery of the Poor is a monument dedicated to the memory of the dead prisoners in

Sighet prison between 1950-1955.

Cultural edifices

The most important museums in Maramureş are found in Sighetu Marmaţiei and are:

Maramureş Museum, Memorial of the Victims of Communism and Resistance, Memorial House

Doctor Ioan Mihaly de Apşa, Memorial House Elie Wiesel.

Figure 5. The Village Museum of Sighetu-Marmației

Maramuresean Museum was founded in 1926, at the Congress of Geography Teachers of

Romania, in the presence of the scientist Simion Mehedinti. In 1954 the museum is re-established

and is currently organized in four sections: the Department of History and Archeology, the Depart-

ment of Natural Sciences, the Ethnography Section and the open-air section on Dobăieş Hill, called

the Maramureş Village Museum.

The most important section of the museum is ethnography and it has rich collections of ag-

ricultural inventory, a collection of popular masks and folk costumes, tools from the household tex-

tile industry, elements of folk architecture.

The Village Museum on Dobăieş hill includes houses and households grouped in the main

sub-areas Mara-Cosău and Iza inferior, Iza Mijlocie, Vişeu-Borşa and Subzona Tisei and the Rus-

cova basin.At the Village Museum can be admired a wooden church from the 16 th century trans-

ferred from Oncesti village.

The Memorial of the Victims of Communism and the Resistance in Sighet was created in

1993 and includes the International Center for the Study of Communism and the museum with 45

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exhibition halls, a place of silence and prayer, the Corps of Sacrifices "statuary group of Aurel Vlad

and the Cemetery of the Poor fitting.

Other museums in the Maramureş Country are the Romanian Peasant Museum in Drago-

mireşti, the Museum of Paintings and Old Religious Books from the Bârsana Monastery, the St

John Patras Museum House in Săpânţa, the Museum of Folk Architecture organized in the house of

the former political leader of the interwar period Ilie Lazar, Pipas from the village of Tisa, com-

mune Bocicoiu Mare. More recently in the village of Ieud, a traditional home was turned into a mu-

seum (Pleş family).

Memorial and commemorative plaques

At Mosaic, the sculptor Vida Geza built a monument in memory of the 31 Romanians killed

by the horticles in the Second World War, this monument is located on a promotor where the 12

carved stone figures of Maramures are watching over the village.

Another monument related to the atrocities that marked Maramureş in the middle of the 20th

century is the "Soap Monument" from Sighetu Marmaţiei erected in memory of the Jews killed in

the Nazi camps. A monument was built in Bogdan Voda commune in honor of voivode Bogdan Vo-

da that founded the independent state Moldova.

There are numerous statues and commemorative plaques in the cities of Maramureş Coun-

try. The monument of the Romanian soldier, the bust of the academician Ioan Mihaly by Apsa, the

busts of Octavian Goga, Lucian Blaga, Liviu Rebreanu from Sighet.

Human activities with a touristic function

Each year on the second Sunday in August, an impressive folk festival takes place in the

Prislop Pass, where the inhabitants of the Suceava, Maramures and Bistrita Nasaud counties meet,

the festival called Hora de Prislop. "

Other folkloric events in Maramureş Country are: The tradition "Tânjaua" preserved in sev-

eral villages on Mara (a traditional spring tradition, which is the most diligent farmer in the village),

"The Rupt of Sterpelor" from Bogdan Voda, Sânzienele " How many flowers on Iza n Up "in Dra-

gomiresti," Codes from Ieud "," Flower proud of Iza "from Budesti," Maramuzical "and" Wedding

Festival "from Vadu Izei, Winter Festival of Customs and Customs in Sighet.

Religious monasteries and pilgrimages attract many foreign tourists to Maramureş, as well

as a larger number of Maramures who are known for their profound religious feelings.

The most important monuments are the ones from Barsana Monastery "The Entrance to the

Church of Our Lady" on September 21, the Monastery of Moses with the patronage "The Assump-

tion of the Virgin" on August 15, Sfintia-Peri Monastery "Saint Archangel Mihail" - November 8 at

the Sighet Orthodox Cathedral "Saint Archangels Michael and Gabriel" on 8 November.

Ethnographic tourist resources

Craftsmanship has arisen due to a developing economy that has persisted in the villages of

Maramures until the premodern period. Woodworking is an ancient occupation, in this place where

a real civilization of wood has developed. "The Maramures living isolated from the civilized world have been forced to produce all the

tools necessary for the various branches of the household, by inventing and building with great skill

the woods: the water mills, the rugs for washing the carpets, the dough for thickening the fabric, its

attachments, the plow and the harrow, the oloierniţele, drill for the corn unfolded, the measuring

gauze, the spades and the spoon, the spoon and the spoon, the various instruments and the shep-

herd's vessels, the ramps, the little ones, the chopsticks, the dumps, breaking hazelnuts, whistles,

etc. Then the tiara or the war of weaving with all its annexes; the hemp crushing, the wooden

toothed razor, or the hedgehog for the combing of the wool and hemp, the spindle and the spinner,

the pear and the pearl. These characteristic objects of an ancient Romanian life, about which the

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chronicles do not mention, imprinted on the Maramureş people an archaic pattern, being sheltered

by the currents of transformation, remained almost intact until nowadays "(Al. Filipascu, 1997).

Torso, weaving and sewing are women's pursuits and are practiced throughout the year but

especially in the seated winter.

Famous are the women from Săpânţa, Botiza, Călineşti, Sieu, Ieud, Bârsana, Petrova, Dra-

gomireşti for the hooks they make.

The pottery has only continuity here at Sacel, the ceramics produced here is Dacian, but the

oven used is Roman. The master works together with the family of various vessels (blide, jugs,

mugs, straightening), but also masks, bells, toys highly sought after by tourists.

Figure 6. Potter of Săcel

Other crafts are: the blacksmith practiced in all the villages, Bocicoiel, Bârsana, Stramatura,

Dragomireşti, Breb, the shore to Moisei, Borsa, Botiza, Poienile Izei etc.

Particularly agricultural techniques are still preserved in all the villages of Maramures: ani-

mal breeding, bees, harvesting of hay, etc.

The port of Maramures has many elements of originality and comes to enrich the ethno-

graphic tourist dowry. We distinguish two types of popular costumes, one winter and one summer,

with women and men each having their own specific costume.

The male costume consists of the following pieces: white shirt, wide-sleeved, slightly orna-

mented, summer goths not too wide and short to the middle of the calf; winter white woolen woolen

wool, a wide chime (walnut) up to 30 cm. Men wear lace or gubes made of wool, beautifully orna-

mented leather combs, straw hats or felt, winter boots.

The women's costume is composed of blooming blooms in young and black women in el-

derly women, a white shirt with many ornaments, the foot, the vines in vivid colors (predominantly

red and black), the lance, the coat or the winter guba, the coats, and as the ornaments the scarves

and zgărdanele.

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Of particular importance are the popular song and the game that express the joy of living

and have kept a profound Romanian archaic character in spite of the heavy times of oppression

throughout history.

On the occasion of weddings and celebrations, the song and the popular game bring together

the members of the village communities. Among the elements of popular architecture are the

Maramures gates that have won their fame through the rich ornamentation, the harmony of the pro-

portions and the balance of the construction. The gates of Maramures have a practical access to the

household and a magic defense role of the household and of the family members living here.

Figure 7. Traditional gate of Maramureș

The motifs that adorn the gates are ancient and have magical, pre-Christian meanings. The

most common motifs encountered on the Maramures wooden gates are: twisted rope, sun, life tree,

moon, crown, wheel, flowers, cross, snake and horns.

In the past, the gates were the privilege of the nobles, ordinary people had the right to con-

struct only a "vrani" through which the household could be seen.

Trojitos and grave signs are another category of monuments that can be found in the

Maramureş Country. The oldest trout in Maramureş is the Redicenian Trinity dated to the 19th cen-

tury. 17th century and is raised on the border of Berbesti by the noble family Rednic.

The grave signs are called "crosses" by the peasants of Maramures and are very numerous,

the oldest and most interesting are the stone crosses from Botiza and Stratie dating from the 18th

century.

The house and the farmhouse together with the technical facilities of peasants occupy a cen-

tral place among the ethnographic touristic objectives. "Maramureş's household comprises two

components: the state - the respective household (garden or orchard, kindergartens, courtyard with

the house and the cattle bypass with all annexes) and the lands outside the household (hay, arable

land, forest) construction for the wintering and wintering of animals "(George Cristea and Mihai

Dăncuş, 2000). The traditional houses are built on a stone foundation called the "mur" over which

solid oak soles are placed, and the walls of beams of oak or fir are raised over the soles. The houses

are built in the "blockbaum" system, the beams being joined at the corners in the Romanian dumps

"at the old houses of the year 1700 and in the German cheetah" at the newest.

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A traditional house has the following rooms: a porch with pillars and arches called "shatra",

a tent and a pantry for food in the central area, on the left side of the living room and on the right

side of the guest room.

Figure 8. Traditional house in Ieud

The shack with the stable is a simplest construction consisting of: the cow stable and the

hull from where the hay was placed in the manger through a "shutter". Another building is housed

for storing firewood, which is located near the house. The shed is made of four wooden posts, over

which a mobile roof is placed, this construction being used for storing the hay.

Figure 9. Whirlpool made by wooden

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The Maramures fountains are built in two types: the well-known wells (the oldest) and the

fountains with wheel and chain spread after the First World War.

Traditional fences are artistically knitted in spice or in crowns covered with drani, in the

past there were also fenced hedges.

Peasant technical installations are mills, pits, water-powered valves, and manually-operated

technical installations such as mills or installations for grinding corn and grain.

All the ethnographic wealth can be seen in the villages of Maramures: the gates and the

houses, the wooden churches, the folk costumes and folk costumes mostly dressed in celebrations.

Most traditional houses with wooden houses and woodcutters, covered with drank, with traditional

gates and fencing, can be seen on the Izei Valley (especially in Bogdan Voda, Ieud, Sieu, Barsana),

Mare Mare and Cosa Valley (at Vadu Izei , Berbeşti, Fereşti, Serbi, Budesti, etc.).

3.CONCLUSIONS

The country of Maramures is an ancient geographical and historical region maintained in the

conscience of its inhabitants over a millennium in the form of a mental construction recognized by

neighbors, being grafted on the structure of a "country" unit whose physical and geographical is lo-

cated in the upper basin of Tisa and having the polarizing center at Sighetu Marmatiei. The

"Maramures Tourism System" is a dynamic structure that includes both the natural and anthropo-

genic attractions, the tourist infrastructure and the tourist flows.

The analysis of the natural and anthropic tourism resources of the tourism infrastructure re-

vealed the quality (diversity, uniqueness) and the quantity, tourism resources in the Maramureş

Country. At the same time, the inferior quality of road infrastructure, correlated with the distance

from the major emitting centers, is a restrictive factor for the flows that visit the region. For the

Maramureş Country it is necessary to organize the tourist space that is in accordance with the eco-

logical, economic and social needs of the analyzed region. This organization must be based on the

existing arrangements, but first of all it is meant to create the premises of the future tourist facilities

in order to dynamize tourism in Maramureş. Also, the problems specific to tourism development in

the regions mosaic from an ethnical point of view could be the mental differences between the in-

habitants of the villages of Maramures.

An important role in the impulsion of tourism in Maramureş Country has tourism associa-

tions. The NGOs have played a leading role in boosting tourism in the Maramureş Country because

the organization of the tourist space must be sustainable. Sustainable development through tourism

is a way through which the territorial system of the Maramures Country consisting of the two sub-

systems (Romanian and Ukrainian) can be rebuilt from a functional point of view. The "Maramures

Tourist Bridge in Sighetu Marmaţiei (RO) - Solotvino (UA)" project is an eloquent example.

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