Danuţ Hotea is a 37 years old woodworker from Sighetul Marmaţiei, Maramureş (North of Romania). He fell in love with the old wooden houses from Maramureş and started saving and renovating them. He was overwhelmed by the peace and happiness that this houses can give to the one living in them and decided to share this feeling with others.

The north of Romania, in general, and Maramureş in particular was known for it’s wooden buildings (churches, houses, gates) and wood craftsmen, but in in the last decades less and less people are doing this craft, mostly because the old people are not able to do it anymore and the young people begin to flee from old traditions.

Many of the old wooden house are in ruin because many people from Maramureş left the country in the search of a job and they are not used to live in these small, old houses anymore. Some lucky houses are sold for very little money, other are used as fire wood.

Danuţ rescues this living monuments and restores them, or if it is to late to save them he uses the old wood for building other constructions.

Danuţ Hotea doesn’t build only houses, he also makes gazebos, tree houses, or who knows what else people commission him for. He also learned how to carve the wood.

His work took him in Italy, Switzerland and France, but what he likes more is reconditioning old houses in his home town of Sighet.

Here is his facebook page CasedinLemnVechi.

Story taken from wonderful-romania.com, who had translated into English  Adela Pârvu‘s article.