4. Wooden Gates

In Maramureş, wood has always been a resource used in multiple ways: from the plate from which people eat to the shelter which protects the villagers and the wooden churches in which they worship. When the people of Maramureş smell wood, they feel at home. The wooden gates are symbols of the Maramureş village. The themes carved in the poles of the gates show a symbolic territory located between the outer world and the homestead, between the neutral space and the sacred realm; their role is to protect the house and the family. The twisted rope, the sun, the tree of life, they are all expressions of some of the great myths in Romanian culture. In nowadays Maramureș, old wooden gates and houses are still to be seen, especially in the villages on the Cosău and Mara Valleys, but also in the Village Museums of Baia Mare and Sighetu Marmaţiei.