Hello, dear friends. I hope you're having a great time. Today I wanted to continue with the stories of impossible loves. I hope that the story I bring you today, even if it doesn't speak of the forbidden love of some writer, is to your liking.

If there is a moving story that we should all know, it is the story of The Lovers of Teruel. This story, which some have it as a legend, but others as real, has not only inspired films and series, but also paintings and poems. Beyond the doubt that these two characters really existed and that the story happened in the way that has been transmitted through time, today we are going to know it and we will draw our own conclusions. Come with me:

The story of The Lovers of Teruel has its origin in the thirteenth century and tells the love story between two young Teruel, Isabel de Segura and Juan Martinez de Marcilla (also known as Diego de Marcilla). It is said that they met in the market and that it was love at first sight. Since childhood their love manifested, so much so that Juan de Marcilla expresses to Isabel his desire to marry and she corresponds his feelings. At that moment they promised to marry one day, but Isabel told him that first her father had to give her permission. We must say that Juan was from a very modest family, although with a surname, and Isabel was the daughter of a very important merchant.

In 1212, Juan, having grown up, went to see Pedro de Segura, father of the young Isabel, to ask for his daughter's hand in a gesture that normally meant an honour for any father who had a daughter who was a matchmaker. But unfortunately this time it did not turn out that way: the father did not give Juan permission to marry Isabel. Let us remember that Isabel had said that in order to marry Juan, the father had to agree to his marriage. In other words...

In this part of the story there is speculation and it is said that perhaps Don Pedro had already seen a better option in another nobleman, or if his fondness for money was far superior to any other consideration; the truth is that he did not dare to snub a member of a family that, although it had lost its fortune, had so much prestige in Teruel; so Pedro made the following statement to the suitor: "I give you five years to earn a fortune with which you can support my daughter; if you get it you will have my permission to marry her".

It is said that since that year King Peter II was recruiting troops to go to the crusade against the Almohads, Juan said goodbye to his girlfriend and marched swiftly to Zaragoza and she promised him that she would wait for him.

History says that the years passed, and Isabel's wait became eternal, especially if we consider that at that time there was no internet or smart phones and especially women were married very young. Well, without mentioning that her father was raising her to get married as soon as possible.

It is then that when she was long into the fourth year, and without hearing from Juan in his quest for wealth, she engaged with another nobleman believing that her beloved had died. This time, Isabel and her father, a little ambitious, chose the rich and elegant: Pedro Fernández de Azagra. Isabel's father, Pedro de Segura, aware that he had to fulfill the given word, set the wedding date as the same day that the deadline given to Juan de Marcilla was fulfilled.

Some historians say that Juan was delayed because while he was in the war he was seduced by one of the wives of the Emir of Valencia, Zulima, who, seeing that Juan despised her, does everything possible to prevent Juan from meeting his beloved Isabel again. Nowhere do they tell us what manoeuvres Zulima used to stop Marcilla.

The same day of the wedding a knight full of great wealth arrives to Teruel and it was the knight, Juan de Marcilla who had returned with sufficient fortune to marry his Isabel. So it makes its appearance in full celebration and causes an enormous uproar among the families of the bride and groom. It is not known how, but Juan Marcilla managed to talk to Isabel alone. At some point in the conversation full of complaints that he had not expected it, Juan begged her to give one last kiss to which she, already married, refused.

It is said that it was so much pain and anger in Juan that he fell senselessly to the ground and died on the spot. Sadness had broken his heart.. It must be said that in some passages of history is reproduced the dialogue between Isabel and Juan, and it is said that he told her: Kiss me, I die; and she refused to miss his role as wife, and he said again: Kiss me, I die, and that's when he fell: dead ...

The Marcilla family took charge of the body and prepared, for the following day, a funeral of the present body. Before beginning this ceremony that the family had prepared, Isabel, dressed in her wedding dress, approached and gave the corpse the kiss on the mouth that had denied Juan and for which he had died. Then, after giving her the kiss, she fell unconscious to the ground; as some of those present approached, they found that Isabel had also died.

When they realized that they had died of love, they decided to bury them in the same grave so that they would remain together forever and still remain to this day.

The lovers of Teruel

The fact is that if on 14 or 15 February they are in Teruel, Spain, they attend the celebrations held every year by the inhabitants of the city on the occasion of the Wedding of Isabel de Segura, an extraordinary and festive event, or they can attend the Mausoleum of the Lovers where the work of the sculptor Juan de Ávalos is found.

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