High relief of Aniceto Marinas in "La Escalinata"
Los Amantes de Teruel is one of the popular legends of the province of Teruel, but over time it is also becoming a legend known throughout Spain. That itself makes us wonder what was real in those stories and what is legend.
Today we are going to delve into this Teruel history. First We are going to know his story and then what was real in it.
The Lovers of Teruel: the legend told for generations
The Marcilla and Segura families
It is said that in the city of Teruel, around the end of the XNUMXth century and the beginning of the XNUMXth, there were two powerful families, it is about the Marcilla and the Segura.
The Marcilla arrived in Villa de Teruel in search of increasing her heritage as it is new land and offer many opportunities with their repopulation. They came from Navarre, were noblemen, and had money.
The Sure, he came from Guipuzkoa, they did not have titles but they did have a lot of money that they had earned with their business dedicated to the textile sector. Just like the Marcillas, they arrived to continue expanding their business by trading with the Muslims who already populated the Teruel lands.
the two families they settled in the same street (now renamed Calle Amantes in honor of this story) and began to have offspring. The Marcilla family had many children including Diego, the Segura family had an only daughter, Isabel.
Elizabeth and Diego
The two children were neighbors and shared their childhood between games, but by adolescence those games became something more: love arose. At that time Diego decided to go talk to Isabel's father to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. However, Isabel's father rejected him because although Marcilla's family had titles and money, Diego was not the firstbornI was not going to inherit anything.
Diego did not give up on that and decided to go to war to earn money and titles to be able to be with Isabel. Faced with that idea, Isabel's father told her that if he returned from the war with titles, fortune and within a maximum period of 5 years he could marry with your daughter.
Isabel and Diego said goodbye, promising each other eternal love with the expectation of being together in the future and Diego went to war.
"Lovers of Teruel" Juan García Martinez, Prado Museum
Diego went to war
The weeks, months and years went by... and the news of Diego did not arrive, nobody knew what was happening with Marcilla. Isabel's impatient father decided to find her a suitor with fortune and titles to his daughter: Don Pedro de Azagra. But Isabel said that she was not going to get married before the 5 years that she had promised to wait for Diego had passed.
When there were only 3 days left to meet the 5-year deadline, news finally arrived from Diego to the town of Teruel. A messenger returned and announced that Diego had died in battle. Faced with this devastating news, Isabel could not make any more excuses and had to marry Don Pedro. They got married just the day the 5-year term expired and while the entire town was already celebrating that union... trumpets were heard outside the town announcing the return of a regiment from the war and Diego's return with the. The young man returned triumphant, with titles, with money and still in time.
meeting after the war
Upon entering Teruel, Diego discovered that Isabel had married with the Azagra and without being able to believe it, he went in search of his beloved so that she herself could confirm it. Isabel confirmed Marcilla's fears, all saddened to see him alive.
Isabel was already married and that prevented the two young people from being together. Diego, embarrassed by the situation, asked Isabel for a single kiss, only one, in exchange for the 5 years of war that had passed. Isabel denied him that kiss when she was already home and owed fidelity to her husband. Diego continued to insist, begging her for that kiss: "Isabel, one kiss, just one please, because if I don't love you, I'll die." She continued with the refusal and Diego's heart could not bear the rejection, he froze and fell dead at Isabel's feet. Isabel went to look for her husband to tell him what had happened and before that story Don Pedro reproached him for not having kissed Diego. Together they moved Diego to his parents' doorway for fear that people would think that Don Pedro had killed Diego in a fit of rage upon finding him alone with Isabel. They were not heard by anyone.
the funeral
When afterwards the Diego's funeral in the Church of San Pedro de Teruel, a hooded person in mourning approached the altar, removed the shroud that covered Diego and kissed him. It was Isabel, who was finally giving him that kiss that he had denied Diego so much in life. Just give it to him, she too died instantly.
Given this, the town of Teruel was so shocked and fearful of what had happened to Diego and Isabel that they decided bury them together in the Marcilla chapel that was in the Church of San Pedro.
"Lovers of Teruel" Muñoz Degraín, Prado Museum
The historical part of the legend of the Lovers of Teruel
The legend of the Lovers was transmitted orally for centuries in the city of Teruel and upon reaching the XNUMXth century, the people of Teruel began to consider what was real in that story. It was decided to open the tomb of the Lovers and investigate.
En 1533 two mummies were removed from the chapel of Saints Cosme and Damien, where the Marcilla chapel had originally been located. Those mummies were a man and a woman who nowhere stated that they were married or family.
The Mummies of the Lovers
Forensic tests were carried out on those mummies over time, those tests ruled out that they were family, they were temporarily located in the 18th century, they also reflected an approximate age between 22-XNUMX years when they died. Also I know He ruled out death by poison and a knife.
All these results showed that the story spread by the people of Teruel could be real. Now, finding out that everything happened exactly as it has been passed down orally for generations is very difficult. The historical data is there: we know where they lived, that they existed, we have the mummies and forensic evidence, and everything that has not been able to be ascertained with historical data comes from oral tradition. Everything together forms the legend of lovers, between history and legend.
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In 1955 the mummies were transferred to two sarcophagi that make a whole and sculpted in alabaster by Juan de Ávalos. There they continue to rest, holding hands in alabaster, but without getting together because they could never be together. But the Turolenses say that you have to look at the shadow of the sarcophagus where the hands do join because in the end in eternity they did rest together.
From Juan to Diego
The legend came a time when literature began to pass and there they changed the name of the lover, Diego was originally called Juan Martinez de Marcilla, but When this story reached literature, they decided that Diego was more poetic than Juan and they changed his name. To this day he can be found referred to as Juan, as Diego or as Juan Diego.
Los Amantes de Teruel "she is stupid and he is stupid"
In the XNUMXth century, the legend also reached opera at the hands of Tomás Bretón. When premiered this opera in Madrid a critic put that as a criticism and mockery of that too romantic story. That tagline has accompanied the history of the Lovers and the city of Teruel itself since then. It has disseminated that story that came from the XNUMXth century because everyone knows that there are some Lovers of Teruel even though their history is unknown.