Legend has it that Isabel and Juan Martinez grew up together in 13th century Teruel. Both were from noble families of the city. She was the daughter of Don Pedro de Segura, a wealthy merchant. And he, of the Marcilla, a family of lineage but who had lost their great estate because of a plague of that devastated the region in 1208.

Isabel’s father rejected his daughter’s suitor because he considered that his fortune was not enough, since he was not the first son of his family. Juan asked for five years to improve his economic situation and went to war. Five years passed without news of the young man, and thinking that he had died in battle, Isabel agreed to marry the suitor her father had chosen for her. On the same day of the wedding, Juan returned from the war laden with riches, but it was too late. She still loved him, but she was married. He asked her for the last kiss but she refused. Broken with grief, Juan died right there at her feet. Regretting not having given him the last kiss, Isabel came to his funeral the next day. This time she did kiss him, and right there, she collapsed next to him. The people of Teruel understood the death of the two young men as a sign of true love and both were buried together.

 

 

Sources:

Arrizabalaga Mónica. (2018). Los amantes de Teruel. In España: La Historia Imaginada: De Los Antiguos Mitos a Las Leyendas contemporáneas (pp. 84–89). essay, Espasa.