Castello superiore di Arnad, Medieval castle in Arnad, Italy

Castello superiore di Arnad is a ruined castle on a natural rocky spur above the village of Ville, at the entrance to the Machaby valley. Its central building, built by the Vallaise in the 14th century, has battlements, large fireplaces and painted coats of arms, and is flanked by a slender tower housing latrines. The complex preserves Romanesque features without later additions.

The castle first appears in documents from 1207 mentioning a chapel dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Michael the Archangel. It served as a stronghold for local rulers across the centuries and shaped the region's power dynamics.

The central building, with battlements and large fireplaces, was erected under the Vallaise, who held the castle through the 14th century and in 1351 hosted Amadeus VI of Savoy for lunch. Coats of arms of the period are painted and scratched on its walls. The family abandoned the upper castle from the 15th century and moved to the palais de la Côte, lower in Arnad.

The castle remains in private ownership and does not allow public access to the interior. Visitors can still view the exterior and its position above the valley from nearby vantage points.

The slender tower beside the 14th-century main building holds the castle's latrines, a feature the sources call a unicum in Aosta Valley architecture of the period. It was probably modelled on the latrine tower built a few years earlier at the Palace of the Popes in Avignon.