"Palio of Noale" Italy Local Custom Tip by Pierangelo

Noale. The first secure news of its existence goes back to a document drawn up “in Noale” in 1119. Sources however are not sufficient to give us an exhaustive historical picture as far as its origins are concerned. It seems nevertheless certain that from its very beginning the Tempesta family had been installed there. The members of this family, right from the documenting of the twelfth century, are considered holders of the office of Avogar to the bishops and chapter of the cathedral of Treviso. The bishops, to safeguard political, economic and military interests, granted in fee to the avogar lands, villas and “furnishings”. In 1181, in one of the truces imposed by the Lombard League in the conflict between Treviso and Padua, the Tempestas were endowed with the jurisdiction of Noale “on behalf of the Town of Tarvisii”, a formula that suggests a kind of protectorship which granted in full powers of lordship over the castle and its area. Noale’s origins, therefore, go back to that historical development in which, with the defeat of Imperial power by the Papacy in the struggle over the appointment of bishops (1122), new opportunities arose for the inauguration of free towns. This is also a period of great development for the infrastructure necessary in securing for the cities supplies and market outlets. Old routes were enhanced and new ones were created. There was organized a network of roads, canals and tended rivers. The zone was soon posted with military strongpoints, towers, castles and forts.
Of all the fortified centres of the area, Noale remains the only one that has preserved with any ease of observation the overall structure of fortification and is therefore an important historical and architectural piece of testimony to it in the zone bordering Padua, Treviso and Venice.