Whether you consider it Southern Bukovina, separated for now from their kin across the border in the Ukraine, or you call it Northern Moldavia with family ties torn by the border between Romania and Moldova, it is most certainly a very special corner of the world. This isolated corner of northern Romania was alway sparsely inhabited. From small bands of settlers who approached from the west, from Maramureş in the mid 14th century to a limited influx of Huțel shepherds from the north, it wasn’t until the Habsburgs annexed the region in 1774 that any sense of settlements, of village life began to develop. The Habsburgs remained in power until the end of World War I. With the fall of their centuries old empire, this rustic corner of the world came home to Romania. But in
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