Picturesque Biertan, one of Transylvania’s seven Saxon UNESCO World Heritage villages, feels frozen in time. Horse-drawn carts are still a part of daily life, and local residents gather to trade their wares in a cobbled village square. At the heart of the village, a 15th-Century fortified church towers over the surrounding structures from its hilltop perch.

美丽的别尔坦，这个被国际教科文组织列入世界遗产的七个撒克逊村庄之一，这个村子仿佛在时间的长河中凝固住了脚步。马车依旧是当地人日常生活的一部分，他们也还是会聚集到村子里那个用鹅卵石铺就的广场上买卖生活物品。在村子的中心位置，一座建造于15世纪的教堂矗立于山顶，俯瞰着周遭的一切。

Inside the church grounds, along one of its fortification walls, is a small building with a room inside barely larger than a pantry. For 300 years, couples whose marriages were on the rocks would find themselves here, locked away for up to six weeks by the local bishop in hope that they would iron out their problems and avert a divorce.

在教堂内部的一段防御城墙旁，有一个小小的建筑，里面有一间只比食品储藏室大不了多少的小房间。300年来，但凡婚姻中遭遇危机的夫妇们都会来到这里，由主教将自己锁在屋子里长达6个星期，他们希望能够在这段时间中找到解决问题的方法，从而避免离婚。

It may sound like a nightmare – but records show that this ‘marital prison’ was rather effective.

这听起来也许有些不可思议，但事实证明这个“婚姻牢房”相当有效。

In the 300 years there has only been one divorce

300年来这里只发生了一例离婚案

“Thanks to this blessed building, in the 300 years that Biertan had the bishop’s seat we only had one divorce,” said Ulf Ziegler, Biertan’s current priest.

“多亏了这座神圣的建筑，在别尔坦拥有主教以来的300年里，这里只发生过一桩离婚案。”别尔坦现任神父Ulf Ziegler这样说道。

Today, the small, dark prison is a museum complete with long-suffering mannequins. The room has low ceilings and thick walls, and is sparsely equipped with a table and chair, a storage chest and a traditional Saxon bed that looks small enough to belong to a child. As couples attempted to repair their marriages inside this tiny space, everything had to be shared, from a single pillow and blanket to the lone table setting.

如今，这个小小的、昏暗的“牢房”已经变成了一个博物馆，里面摆放着人形模特模拟那些夫妇们当时的情境。房间的天花板很低，墙壁很厚实，屋内零散摆放着一张桌子、一把椅子、一个储物箱，还有一张老式的撒克逊床，床看上去很小，只容得下一个小孩。夫妇们在这狭小空间里寻求办法修复婚姻的时候，必须和对方共享每样物品，比如同枕一只单人枕、同盖一条毯子，或者共用一张单人桌。

Lutheranism, the religion of the Transylvanian Saxons, governed most aspects of life, and although divorce was allowed under certain circumstances – such as adultery – it was preferred that couples attempt to save their union. So a couple seeking divorce would voluntarily visit the bishop, who would send them to the marital prison to see if their differences could be reconciled before they parted ways.

路德教，作为特兰西瓦尼亚撒克逊人的宗教，几乎管束着当地人们日常生活的方方面面。尽管在有些情况下是可以离婚的（例如通奸），但人们还是倾向于想办法拯救自己的婚姻。因此想要离婚的夫妇们会主动来这里找主教，然后主教会将他们关进“婚姻牢房”，看看双方是否能够和好，不至于分道扬镳。

“The prison was an instrument to keep society in the old Christian order,” explained Zielger, who noted that it also protected women and children, who were dependent on the family unit to survive. If a divorce did occur, the husband had to pay his ex-wife half of his earnings, but if he remarried and divorced again, the second wife was entitled to nothing.

“这个牢房是将社会秩序维持在旧有的基督制度下的一种工具。”Zielger这样解释道。他提到这也是保护妇女和儿童的方式，因为他们的生活依赖于完整的家庭。夫妻双方一旦离婚，男方必须把自己一半的财产给女方，而如果男方再婚后又一次离婚，那么他的第二任妻子将得不到任何东西。

In the 12th Century, Saxon settlers ‒ originally from areas that today are France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany ‒ were invited by Hungary’s King Géza II to settle rural Transylvania and protect it against threats from Tatar and Ottoman invaders, as well as develop the area economically. Transylvanian Saxons were industrious craftspeople; Biertan became an important market town and cultural hub with a 5,000-strong population in 1510.

12世纪时，祖上由今天的法国、比利时、卢森堡和德国迁徙而来的撒克逊居民响应匈牙利国王Géza二世的号召，前往特兰西瓦尼亚农村定居，保护那里免受鞑靼人和奥斯曼侵略者的威胁，并发展当地的经济。特兰西瓦尼亚萨克逊人是一群勤劳的人民，他们让别尔坦成为了商业重镇和文化中心，并令人口数在1510年达到了5000人之多。

Walking through the streets of Biertan as the sun begins to disappear behind the rolling hills, a few locals sit outside drinking beers and a farmer moves his hay cart through the village. The imposing church, with its nine surrounding fortification towers, is illuminated by bright lights and its purpose evident: it was a central point for the early Saxon settlers ‒ a place of safety and worship.

当太阳开始消失在连绵的山丘后，我漫步在别尔坦的街上，一些当地人坐在屋外喝着啤酒，还有一个农夫赶着装满干草的马车穿过村子。那座雄伟的教堂，连同它周围的九座守护塔，一齐被灯光照亮，其地位不言而喻：这里曾是早期萨克逊居民聚居的中心，是一个既安全又备受尊敬的地方。

The view from the church’s nearly 11m-high fortification walls next to the marital prison extends out across the village and surrounding countryside. Many current residents work their land using old-age farming techniques, and trade their wares to earn a living. Weather-worn shepherds can be spotted in the surrounding green hills herding sheep ‒ a scene that likely hasn’t changed much over the past several centuries.

站在“婚姻牢房”旁几近11米高的防御围墙处，整个村庄和四周的田野尽收眼底。现在仍有许多居民采用旧时的技术耕田，并通过与他人交易物品谋生。牧羊人在四周绿色的山丘上放着羊群，风雨无阻，这样的画面延续了几个世纪，几乎从未变过。

Life continues to move at a slow, meditative pace; however, these days there is less economic and religious pressure on struggling couples to remain together.

这里的生活以一种缓慢的、充满禅意的节奏继续着。不管怎样，现今对于处在困境中的夫妇来说，双方如果要想维系婚姻，其中牵涉到的经济和宗教压力较小。

“The reason to remain together was probably not love. The reason was to work and to survive,” Ziegler said. “If a couple was locked inside for six weeks, it was very hard for them to have enough food the following year, so there was pressure to get out and to continue to work together.”

“那些夫妻们之所以选择继续在一起或许并不是出于爱情，而是基于工作和生存的考虑。”Ziegler说道，“如果一对夫妻被锁在‘牢房’里长达6个星期，那么他们会很难为来年储备够食物，所以出于这种压力他们必须走出‘牢房’共同工作。”

Ziegler believes that, even today, the concept of a marital prison has potential lessons for any modern marriage. And he’s not the only one: he says that he’s received requests from couples looking to use the prison to repair their own struggling marriages.

Ziegler坚信，即便是今天，“婚姻牢房”对新时代的婚姻仍旧具有潜在的教育意义。持这种观点的并不止Ziegler一个，他说他收到过不少夫妇的请求，希望通过“婚姻牢房”来修复他们苦苦挣扎的婚姻。

“In modern families, there is less and less time for each other, we are more selfish than our ancestors,” Ziegler said. “We suffer from loneliness, which is why today we need to talk more, so we can find out what is important to us and what connects us.”

“在现代家庭里，双方留给对方的时间越来越少，比起以前的人，我们要自私得多。”Ziegler讲到，“我们备受孤独的煎熬，所以我们应该多花点时间与对方交谈，这样我们才能明白对我们来说什么才最重要，什么才是彼此间的维系。”

*原文来自BBC  Travel频道。仅做翻译练习之用。*