Researchers are now using DNA analysis and forensic studies to uncover the identities and histories of the people buried inside the monastery’s tombs. (Image: Institute of Culture of Barcelona) Archaeologists in Barcelona have uncovered the skeletal remains of Elisenda of Montcada, one of the most influential queens of medieval Europe, during excavations to mark the 700th anniversary of the royal monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes.

Investigations inside the historic monastery, founded in 1326, revealed 25 skeletons spread across eight graves. Along with the queen’s remains, researchers also discovered several mysterious burials, including those of a man with knife wounds to the skull and a pregnant woman whose partially mummified remains still contained a fetus.

Queen Elisenda was the wife of James II of Aragon and played a major political and religious role in medieval Catalonia. After her husband’s death in 1327, she spent the rest of her life near the monastery she founded in Barcelona.