Romanian Romeo and Juliet buried holding hands in monastery

Archaeologists excavating the inner courtyard of a former Dominican monastery may have discovered a Romanian Romeo and Juliet after unearthing the bodies of a young couple who were buried holding hands.

Experts from the Cluj-Napoca Institute of Archaeology and History of Art are working on what they believe is the former cemetery of the monastery have already uncovered several bodies.

But discovering the couple holding hands was a surprise as double burials were extremely rare in that period.

Main researcher Adrian Rusu said, “It is a mystery and rare for such burials at that time. We can see that the man had suffered a severe injury that left him with a broken hip from which he probably died. We believe the injury was caused after he was hit by something very blunt and hard.”

“Because of the fact that the young woman obviously died at the same time and was presumably healthy we are speculating that she possibly died of a broken heart at the loss of her partner.”

Rusu explained that because suicide was regarded as a sin in the medieval ages, it is unlikely she killed herself. If she had, they would not have been buried together like they were in a holy place.

“They were obviously buried together as a tribute to the love they had for each other,” he said. He estimated that the two bodies were buried somewhere between 1450 and 1550.