Dumitru Pop-Tincu

Dumitru Pop Tincu is a craftsman known especially for making wooden crosses in the Merry Cemetery from Săpânța, Romania, but also for other objects, smaller or larger, carved in wood. From 9 to 14 years old Dumitru was trained by Ioan Stan Pătraș, the initiator andcreator of the famous cemetery in Sapanta, obtaining the sculptor-painter diploma.
The passion for art has always existed. In his youth, when he left Maramureș, he worked in a furniture factory in Timișoara. After 7 years he returned, but the Master Stan Pătraș had already passed away. Thus, he decided to carry on what Stan Ioan Pătraș started. He still remembers the first cross he made. He was a very good craftsman, but the difficult part was to write the texts. Families never said what message to write on the crosses and he had to find out from other sources, from neighbors and other people in the community.
From 1980 he became the trustee of the Ioan Stan Pătraș Memorial House. The crosses are made of oak wood and are carved only between March and November. All the activity is taking place in a barn. Until a few years ago, Dumitru Pop Tincu used to go to the forest himself to choose the wood he wanted to cut. This was left to get dry for 2-3 years.
The wood carver Dumitru Pop Tincu is now known both in Romania and abroad, making 3 crosses for England and 2 for France. In the Belu cemetery in Bucharest, Romania, there are also 4 crosses made by him. In Timișoara, Ploiești or Constanța one can also find his works. The crosses he makes are like those found in the Merry Cemetery of Sapanta.
Dumitru is nowteaching someone to continue his activity, but in addition to crosses, he also paints the scenes from people’s lives: weddings, baptisms or choirs. Asking about him in the village of Sapanta, tourists can easily find their way to his workshop.