Fascinating Cemeteries You Should Visit in Romania

Discover some of the coolest cemeteries you should visit in Romania. You’ll have a great time seeing two or three of these special landmarks during your next vacation. Plus, you can uncover interesting history details otherwise difficult to understand.

Bellu Cemetery

1. Bellu Cemetery

Bellu opens our list of beautiful cemeteries you should visit in Romania. It’s one of the best places to visit in Bucharest, a local attraction for those who wish to see more than the Old Town.

The cemetery is a veritable ‘garden of souls’ where the local elites built splendid sites to mark their lives. Almost 200 of these are historical monuments. Take your time to look around, this is one of the most authentic spots of the capital.

Gheorghieff Mausoleum, Bellu Cemetery

2. The Jewish Cemeteries from Bucharest

Bucharest had an important Jewish minority until the repressive years of WW2. But most Jews left Romania for good after the end of the war. The architectural heritage that still survived the war disappeared a few decades later. Entire neighborhoods were demolished overnight at the orders of communist dictator Ceausescu.

The Jewish Cemetery Filantropia

3. The Jewish Cemeteries all around Romania

More Jewish cemeteries from Romania deserve a visit. You’ll find the biggest one in the outskirts of the Pacurari neighborhood in Iasi. This is one of the oldest in the country and the burial place of the pogrom victims from 1941. Over 10,000 Jews were exterminated, in a few days, during the extremist regime of Antonescu.

Consider visiting also the Jewish cemeteries from Sighetu Marmatiei, Aiud, Alba Iulia, and Ramnicu Sarat.

The Jewish Cemetery, Sighetu Marmatiei

4. The Paupers’ Cemetery

The Paupers’ Cemetery, part of the Sighet Memorial, marks the memory of the political prisoners killed by the communist regime. At least 54 of them were buried in secret on the land where the cemetery exists today. Few survived the horrors, only to be surveilled and harassed for the rest of their life.

5. The Evangelical Cemetery from Petresti

You won’t find this small cemetery from Alba County in any tourist guidebooks. Present-day Petresti is only a fading image of a past beautiful village with a strong German community. The small Lutheran cemetery and fragments of the fortified church are the only pieces that show the past presence of the German ethnics.  Don’t miss a visit here, it’s a rare attraction even for a destination like Transylvania.

The Lutheran cemetery from Petresti

6. The Evangelical Cemetery from Garbova

If you’re lucky enough to find the doors opened, you’ll feel like you stepped back in time. The Lutheran cemetery surrounds the ruins of the hilltop 14th-century fortification.

The Lutheran cemetery, Garbova

Also visit the nearby fortified church of Calnic, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

7. The Evangelical Cemetery from Sighisoara

The Evangelical Cemetery, Sighisoara

8. The Merry Cemetery

The Merry Cemetery from Sapanta is the most famous landmark on our list. Its distinct feature is its funny perspective on life and death. All the blue crosses have funny poems and small paintings that honor the dead and their passing by.

The Merry Cemetery

9. The multi-ethnic cemetery from Sulina

Over one century ago, the multi-ethnic cemetery from Sulina was built on the shore of the Black Sea. Back then, Sulina was the headquarter of the European Commission of the Danube. It was a cosmopolitan place where officials, businessmen, adventurers, pirates, and sailors lived or passed by.

The cemetery was as diverse as the city itself and is one of the few proofs of this multicultural past. Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Jewish, Muslims, and Old Believers found their peace in this seashore graveyard.

Decades after Sulina lost its cosmopolitan culture, the cemetery lost its sea view. The landscape change was the direct consequence of a useless communist attempt to drain the wetland.

Find out more about the cemetery on Discover Dobrogea.