The White Lady of Hernals

Vienna · Austria · Church

Sooner would the bells ring on Good Friday, said Gundl. At midnight a woman in white pulled the bell rope — and Gundl was gone.

The vineyard watchman Christian Sündbock's foster daughter Adelgunde, called Gundl, was not like the other children of the village of Hernals. She was in fact the daughter of Count Stolzenberg, who had left her with the wine-grower and his wife. When the schoolmaster Peter Reimandl proposed and the count came to take his daughter home, Gundl answered that the bells of St Bartholomew's would sooner ring on Good Friday than she would leave her foster parents. On Maundy Thursday she was suddenly gone, and no search could find her. On Good Friday the church bells stay silent in memory of Christ's death — but at midnight all Hernals was woken by a full peal. The sexton ran up to the bell chamber and crossed himself: a woman dressed in white was pulling the rope. After the twelfth stroke she was gone.

FAQ

Where is The White Lady of Hernals located?

The White Lady of Hernals is in Wien, Austria.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.