The Legend of the Lovers of Teruel

Hoy hemos estado en el museo "El Costurero" y nos han estado contando leyendas y una de ellas ha sido la de los amantes de Teruel.

The legend

Section of a huge modern painting

As the story goes, Teruel in the 1200s was home to Juan Diego de Marcilla and Isabel de Segura—he, the second son in his family and unlikely to receive much of an inheritance, and she the only child of a wealthy nobleman. Diego and Isabel were madly in love with each other, but their romance was doomed unless he could prove himself worthy to her father. Diego convinced this Don Pedro to give him five years to make his fortune and return triumphant. He promised Isabel he would come back for her, and that they would get married soon.

Isabel waited those five years for Diego, yet never heard a word from him either good or ill. She turned down countless suitors and engaged in stalling tactics to prevent her father from marrying her off. Meanwhile, Diego was involved in wars against the Muslims to the south, be they inland or coastal battles. Yet he was too late, and failed to return to Teruel before the end of the fifth year. Don Pedro wasted no time in arranging a marriage for his daughter against her will, which was held the very next day.

Romantic-era painting

Although he would enter the city gates of Teruel laden with gold, Diego was devastated when he learned that Isabel had already gotten married just a single day earlier. Heartbroken, he came to Isabel’s quarters at night and begged her, “bésame, que me muero” (“kiss me, for I am dying”). Isabel refused, saying that she was now a married woman. He asked her once more for a final kiss, but she denied him again, and Diego died at her feet.

The next day at the funeral, Isabel got up from her seat in the church and pushed back the coffin’s veil, kissing Diego and giving him in death the kiss she had denied him in life. Instantly she died, embracing the body of her deceased lover.

Moved by Isabel’s expression of love for Diego, the families decided to bury the two lovers together, side by side in the Church of San Pedro.