The Maramures County

Thanks to its richness in gold, silver, lead, copper, salt, its large pastures and natural hay fields, forests and agricol fields, its fauna and flora, this county was inhabited many millenaries ago.

The municipality of Baia Mare is the capital city of this county.

Now, the population consists in Romanians (81 per cent), Magyars (10.5 per cent), Ukrainians (6.8 per cent), Gypsies (1.3 per cent), Germans (0.6 per cent) a.o.

Of this surface of 6,215 sq.km, 43 per cent is a mountain zone with the Rodna Mountains and their Pietrosul Massif (2.303 m) - the highest one in the Oriental Carpathians and volcanic zones with the Gutai and Tibles Mountains ( 1.300 up to 1.800 m above sea); 30 per cent are hills, plateaus and piedmonts
and 27 per cent are depression, meadows and terraces. In the middle of the Maramures, Rodna, Gutai and Tiblets Mountains there is the Maramures Depression, the largest one in Romania (75 km long and 20 km wide). Up the mountains the winter reigns till May-June.

The picturesque lakes situated near by the town of Baia Sprie are visited thanks to their beauty: Bodi-Ferneziu, Bodi-Suior, Nistru Lakes, the Blue Lake, the man-made lake of Firiza.

Characteristically to this county of Romania are the hydromineral sources (over 100 springs) especially the ones near by Baia Borsa, Viseu de Sus, Baiut and Poiana Botizii.

The Maramures county has 62 hunting grounds with a surface of 587,000 ha. There are also eight zones of natural reservation.

The county is rich in ethnographic and folk elements. The folk art is preserved here as a very original form: houses, gates in wood, tools, textures, pottery, churches built in wood uniqually in the world, distinct customs. The Maramures county has its gates opened to the tourists who want to know its original folk culture: the museums in Baia Mare and Sighetu Marmatiei; over 200 monuments of folk architecture, the Borsa, Izvoarele and Mogosa Spas. Very original are also the villages situated on the Iza, Mara, Viseu and Tisa Valleys, forming real open-air museums. Unique in the world is the Merry Graveyard from the village of Sapanta.

In this county there are eight museums, 67 historical monuments and sites, 363 architectural monuments and piles as well as 13 historic zones in towns and villages.