The House of Collalto (full name - ''Princes of Collalto and San Salvatore'') is an old and distinguished Austro-Italian noble house of Lombard origin, named after their seat at Collalto in

Susegana Susegana is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Treviso in the Italian region Veneto, located about north of Venice and about north of Treviso. History Traces of human presence from the late Bronze Age have been found in Susegana area ...

, now in the

Province of Treviso The province of Treviso () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Treviso. The province is surrounded by Province of Belluno, Belluno in the north, Province of Vicenza, Vicenza in the west, Pro ...

in Italy. Throughout its history, the house had their possessions in Italy,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

. Its name comes from Italian (colle alto - high hill).

History

There is no definite evidence on the house's origins, but tradition holds that they were initially

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

. The first documents about the house come from 958. In 1110, the castle Collalto in the hills near the Piave river was built. Later in the 13th century, Rambaldo VIII. had the castle San Salvatore built. The founder of the Austrian family branch was Marco Carlo Collalto, an ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV: at the court of

Innocent IV Pope Innocent IV (; – 7 December 1254), born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 June 1243 to his death in 1254. Fieschi was born in Genoa and studied at the universities of Parma and Bolo ...

. The family was raised to the rank of

Imperial Count Imperial Count (, ) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. During the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from a prince wh ...

in 1610 by

Emperor Ferdinand II Ferdinand II (9 July 1578 – 15 February 1637) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, Hungary, and List of Croatian monarchs, Croatia from 1619 until his death in 1637. He was the son of Archduke Charles II, Archduke of Austr ...

, who sold the Moravian possessions with the centre in

Brtnice Brtnice (; ) is a town in Jihlava District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,800 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division Brtnice cons ...

(''Pirnitz'') to Rambaldo XIII. On 22 November 1822, they were raised to the rank of

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

. The family belonged to the list of 16 Princely Houses that were not

mediatized Mediatization or mediatisation may refer to: * German mediatisation, German historical territorial restructuring * Mediatization (media) Mediatization (or medialization) is a method whereby the mass media influence other sectors of society, inclu ...

. The Italian possessions consisted of the castles Collalto and San Salvatore. The Moravian possessions gained by Rambald XIII were in the extent of 10,827 ha. The house owned them till 1945, when they were confiscated by

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

n state.

The family today

Nowadays, Prince Collalto is a wine producer in Sussegana near

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

and the acting head of the family is Princess Isabella of Croÿ, firstborn child of Prince Manfredo von Collalto und San Salvatore (b. 1932) and his wife, Maria de la Trinidad Castillo y Moreno (b. 1937), daughter of Joaquin Castillo y Caballero,

Marquis A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...

de Castro de Torres.

Coat of arms

Members

* Ramboldo, Count of Collalto, Holy Roman field marshal during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

Bibliography

* Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, fürstliche Häuser, Bd. 3, C.A Starke Verlag, Limburg a. d. Lahn 1953 * Franz Gall: "Österreichische Wappenkunde", Handbuch der Wappenwissenschaft, Verlag Böhlau, Wien-Köln-Weimar 1977,

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collalto Italian noble families Austrian noble families