Buy an authentic 'Dracula Coffin' for $136
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2011/09/20/bargain_coffins_from_transylvania_where_else/
The Associated Press
Bargain coffins from Transylvania. Where else?
By Alison Mutler
Associated Press / September 20, 2011
SIBIU,
Romania-Times are so hard in Romania that people joke they cannot
afford to die. Yet in the mountains of Transylvania, carpenters are
churning out cut-price coffins in a bid to beat the rising costs of
death.
Ilie Troanca says he’s beating the recession blues with
bargain coffins that sell for around euro100 ($136) in Transylvania,
home of the Dracula legend.
So far, he’s sold just a few hundred,
but the coffins have only been on the market for a couple of months. He
has already attracted plenty of attention far beyond the Transylvanian
city of Sibiu, 300 kilometers (188 miles) northwest of Bucharest.
“I
saw there was an opportunity and that we had unused space,” said
Troanca, director of the Sibiu state timber and forest industry, which
oversees 180,000 hectares (445,000 acres) of oak, beech, pine forests.
The
no-frills coffins sell for 350 to 450 lei (euro82 to euro106 or $112 to
$145) plus 24 percent sales tax, depending on the wood and the
complexity of the design. Oak is the most expensive, while beech and
pine are less pricey.
Coffins are big business in Romania, a
country of 22 million, which has an aging population but where scarcely
anyone is cremated. Regular coffins can sell for hundreds or thousands
of euros depending on how fancy they are, and in addition to buying a
plot, families often have to pay bribes to graveyard caretakers to
secure a decent burial site.
Long slices of wood from the trees
that cover the Carpathian Mountains were stacked outside Troanca’s
workshop like bread sticks.
“This would have become firewood” if we hadn’t used it, he said.
It takes about one day to craft an inexpensive coffin before it is painted
or lacquered. There are two designs, rectangular or hexagonal, which
has a six-cornered lid.
“It’s a good idea,” said Sorin Ceausila, a
42-year-old carpenter who was jobless before being hired to make
bargain coffins. “We all die and someone has to make the coffins.”