Rocca dei Tempesta, Medieval fortress in Noale, Italy

The Rocca dei Tempesta is a medieval fortress in Noale featuring three standing defensive towers and a northern keep surrounded by a water-filled moat. The entire complex shows the defensive layout that once protected the settlement from attack.

Ezzelino III da Romano built the fortress in 1245, and the Tempesta, feudal lords of Noale, completed it in 1272. In 1339, after Padua submitted to Venice, it housed Venetian administrators and troops. Besieged from 1378 to 1381, it was taken by the Paduans under the Carraresi, then retaken and restored by Venice. From the 15th century gunpowder made it obsolete, and in 1763 the Venetian governors abandoned it for the Palazzo della Loggia.

The name Tempesta comes from the family who completed the fortress in 1272 and ruled Noale as feudal lords. Inside the walls stood the lords' residence, a small church, kitchens, stables, prisons and storerooms, so the rocca worked as a self-contained stronghold. Since 1996 the last burials have been removed and the grounds are shown during guided tours and events.

The ruins stand on an artificial island in the Marzenego, inside an urban park; access is on foot from the northern entrance, where the 2006 restoration by architect Patrizia Valle began. The southern edge was long fenced off as unsafe and was restored in the final lot, completed in 2022. The site can be visited on guided tours or during events.

The fortress became Noale's cemetery in 1819, after the Napoleonic period, and kept that role until 1983, when the town built a new municipal cemetery. The last burials were exhumed in 1996, clearing the way for the restoration begun in 2006 by architect Patrizia Valle.