Castello Vallaise, Castle in Arnad, Italy

Castello Vallaise, also called castello inferiore di Arnad, stands halfway up the hill above Arnad below the upper castle. The Vallaise family built it in the 17th century next to the ruins of an earlier manor, to which it was joined. The surviving block has three floors flanked by two square towers, a small courtyard with a stone-columned loggia, and seven crenellated towers marking the corners of the western court.

The Vallaise family built the palace in the 17th century near the ruins of an earlier manor, and two branches, the Vallaise-Romagnano and Vallaise-Montalto, long occupied its two distinct blocks. Between 1660 and 1670 Baron Félix-Charles-François de Vallaise gave it its castle appearance, while Alexandre de Vallaise, foreign minister under Vittorio Emanuele I and dead in 1823, turned it into a holiday residence. Sold in 1848 by Rosalie de Vallaise to the Turin merchant Giacobini, it passed through several owners until the De Bernardi family, and the Aosta Valley region bought it in 2010.

The castle's name comes from the Vallaise family, who built it in the 17th century; it is also called Palais de la Costetta, a name linked by assonance to the nearby maison forte de la Côte. Two branches of the family, the Vallaise-Romagnano and Vallaise-Montalto, long occupied its two distinct building blocks.

The castle sits halfway up the hill above Arnad, near the upper castle, and is closed to visitors during restoration begun after the regional administration bought it in 2010. The Saint-Joseph chapel stands along the access road, so it can be seen while walking up. The regional administration plans to open part of the castle and turn some rooms into a museum.

The hexagonal chapel in the terraced park, dedicated to Saints Joseph, Anthony and the Virgin Mary, holds a Baroque altar in polychrome marble. The castle itself is one of the least studied in the Aosta Valley, and no documents predating the 17th century survive, so its earlier layout remains uncertain.