Long before modern Europe drew its borders, an exceptional woman rewrote the rules of power in a medieval world dominated by men. Matilde di Canossa, the Great Countess, was not a figure to be left locked away in a castle: she was a fierce warrior, a polyglot diplomat, and an excellent strategist who in 1077 forced Emperor Henry IV to his knees in the mud and frost. As the first true sovereign of Italy, a woman who ruled an immense territory stretching from the Po Valley to Tuscany, she held the threads of destiny between the Papacy and the Empire. Her myth was consolidated within St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where she rests, the first woman in history, beneath a monument by Bernini celebrating her as the Honour and Glory of Italy. Yet her true legacy can still be breathed today, a thousand years later, throughout her lands. Today, an invisible and passionate army of historians, archaeologists, restorers, archivists, volunteers, and historical reenactors works tirelessly to preserve, conserve, study, and pass down her deeds, which were a crucial historical turning point for the Italy and Church we know today. By bringing the stones of her castles to light or decoding millennium-old parchments, these guardians of memory ensure that a trace of those extraordinary actions remains until the present day.