On the first hills of the Reggio Apennines, Quattro Castella houses four hills whose names, from east to west, are Monte Vetro, Bianello, Monte Lucio and Monte Zane, on which there are as many castles of which only that of Bianello has been preserved intact in the its structure.
Over the centuries Bianello was the residence and fortress of the Canossa family until the mid-18th century, then an elegant residence.
The castle has a compact volume set on a closed polygonal structural boundary.
A stone at the entrance to the walls says: "Comitissae Matildis opus" (Countess Matilde's work), but the castle is of an earlier construction, together with the other three.
The origin of the castle as a watchtower is already ascertained in the 10th century.
Matilda resided almost habitually in Bianello, here she hosted Henry IV penitent, before the meeting in 1077, here popes and princes stayed, and in 1111 Matilde received Henry V, back from the coronation in Rome, and was proclaimed by him imperial vicar in Italy.
After Matilde's death, Bianello remained to the Canossa family.
The castle has undergone numerous transformations that have made it an aristocratic residence: however, it preserves interesting structures of the primitive fortress and, in one room, a painting of the XIV century, which represents Matilde holding the pomegranate flower and the motto "tuetur et unit".
The whole building offers a suggestive panorama of one of the most fertile plains in the world.
