Castello di Rivalta, Military museum and castle in Rivalta-Trebbia, Italy

Castello di Rivalta is a fortified manor house in Italy that now serves as a museum housing various historical collections and period furnishings. The structure contains multiple rooms including domestic spaces, storage areas, and specialized rooms such as a weapons display and billiard hall.

The earliest documented record of the site dates to the 11th century when part of the property was transferred to a monastery through imperial grant. Over subsequent centuries, the fortification was inhabited and modified by various families while maintaining its defensive function.

The name Rivalta comes from "ripa alta", the steep bank above the Trebbia where the castle stands. A legend tied to a family quarrel says the ghost of Pietro Landi returns to the castle whenever a descendant of his brother Galvano stays there. The medieval borgo is entered through a pointed arch beneath the 36-metre square donjon, built of brick and river pebbles.

The complex is reached at Rivalta, a hamlet of Gazzola on the Trebbia, and combines the castle with a walled medieval village entered through a pointed arch. The village gate is dominated by the square donjon, 36 m high and built of brick and river pebbles, whose walls still show damage from cannon shot. Outside the walls stands the octagonal Oratorio della Madonna del Ponte, made from a tower of the former drawbridge.

The square brick-and-cobblestone keep, 36 metres high, still shows dents from cannonballs fired during the sieges the castle endured. It began as the main tower of the complex and later served as a watchtower and a dwelling.