The legend of Azzurrina from Montebello

Guendalina was the daughter of Ugo Malatesta, governor of Montebello, a town in central Italy. She was a beautiful girl, with light blue eyes and light blue hair.  Thus, her nickname was Azzurrina, from the Italian word azzurro, which means light blue. In fact, her real hair colour was white, because she suffered from albinism. At that time it was considered a symbol of bad luck and albino children were mistreated. Therefore, to make her look similar to the other girls, her mother decided to dye her hair with black dye, but the result was a light blue shade, instead. Furthermore, Azzurrina’s father provided her with two guards that would surveil her all day long, because he was afraid that she could cause misfortune. 

On 21st June 1375, Azzurrina was playing with a ball, under the surveillance of the guards Domenico and Ruggero, but at some point the ball rolled down the basement stairs and the little girl ran to catch it. The guards heard a scream and they rushed to the basement, but they did not find neither the ball nor the girl. And from that moment, nobody knew anything more about Azzurrina. 

Some people say that every year, on 21st June, in the castle of Montebello, it is still possible to hear the scream of the little Azzurrina, who had disappeared in the basement of her house. 

Tags: Albinism, castle; albinism; prejudices; ball; disappearance.