In May 1925, Countess Maria di Collalto told the Austrian newspaper Neues Wiener Journal of the legend which had inhabited her castle for many years.
The story goes that during the Venetian Republic the most important families of the “Mainland Domains” were the Camino and the Collalto. It goes without saying that the two houses hated each other and fought fierce battles for centuries. One day peace finally broke out and the truce was ratified in the usual way by a wedding, this time between Count Tolberto Collalto and Chiara da Camino.
The relentless conflict seemed to have calmed down but something was wrong: Chiara was jealous of her husband and her behaviour undermined the stability and the happiness of the couple to the extent that when Tolberto was called up for war, she was not that unhappy.
On the day of his departure, Tolberto went to his wife’s chambers to say goodbye. Alongside his wife was Bianca, the daughter of one of the family’s employees who grew up with the old Count’s children, who she was very fond of. Bianca, who had been appointed by Tolbert as the head Countess Chiara’s female staff, stared at the Count with tears in her eyes whilst he offered his hand in farewell.
The Countess noticed this and, filled with jealousy, as soon as her husband left she first had the young woman imprisoned in the underground jail beneath the castle and then had her walled up in the tower. Bianca’s pleas were all in vain, even though she swore she had never had a relationship with her master.
When Tolberto returned from war he discovered the terrible deed and, frightened by his wife’s fury, threw her out of the house. Since then, Collalto tradition says that the ghost of Bianca appears to members of the family, who were very fond of her during her life, when there is news of great joy or a terrible disaster.
In the interview with Neues Wiener Journal, Countess Maria di Collalto explained that her grandfather, Prince Solmshich, said that he had seen Bianca appear in Pirnitz castle, in what is now the Czech Republic, on the day that he proposed to his wife.
“In the same castle, Bianca is said to have appeared when my brother Rambaldo died, just as she is said to have been seen in Castle San Salvatore in Susegana”.
