Legend has it that on the night of the 20 July, the ghost of a young woman dressed from head to toe in white wanders the halls of the castle, reading from a golden book.

The girl is Biancamaria, daughter of Count Giuseppe Martinengo, who was lured into the castle’s moat by fireflies, and drowned the night of 20 July 1480.

Legends aside, the Padernello Castle feels like a castle out of a fairy tale, with its working drawbridge and encircling moat. It was built at the end of the 14th century by the Martinengo family, who owned it until the death of the last heir. After changing owners a few times, the castle was abandoned in 1961 until in 2006 the Padernello Castle Foundation started a long series of renovation projects.

Today the castle hosts a variety of cultural, artistic events, food and wine tastings and is the seat of one of the two “Earth Markets” organised by the Slow Food Association in Lombardy.