Biertan, Romania

Matrimonial Prison

The Matrimonial Prison is one of the most curious sights of Biertan, a small room in one of the towers of the fortified church. It is said to have helped keep the village's divorce rate famously low for three centuries.

Stone archways and passages inside the walls of the Biertan citadel

About Matrimonial Prison

According to local tradition, couples who wished to divorce were first locked in this room together for up to two weeks, by order of the Lutheran bishop. They had to share a single bed, a single table, a single plate, a single spoon and a single cup. Most of them, the story goes, came out reconciled, and only one divorce was recorded in 300 years.

The tiny room, furnished as it might have been, is part of the visit to the citadel, whose walls, towers and passages wrap around the church.

Ask for it as you enter the citadel, then climb on to the church with its carved altarpiece.

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