Castille de Papa Luna

 Today we visited Peñíscola. It was beautiful! The views were so amazing.

The Castle of Peñíscola is a fortress that occupies the highest area of ​​the rock on which the ancient city of Peñíscola is based. The castle also goes by. Castille de Papa Luna. 

The castle has quite a history. It’s not quite as old as Sagunto which was built mid 1st century…this one was in the 1200’s. There was information about the crusades, the Moors and Antipope Benedict XIII. So much history:

The castle was involved in various military conflicts of the Kingdom of Aragon, and later in the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, the Peninsula War and civil conflicts in the early 19th century, each of which impacted upon the state of the castle defences in some form.

But most of the displays talked about Benedict XIII. We were able to view his library, the room where he would meditate and talk to God. We saw the dining area and in some of the area there were short films to educate you on the history. One of the most interesting was the Templar, I think that is what it was called, were men would be made knights. There was a good video of that. Hattie wasn’t a fan of the dungeon. It reminded me of some scenes in the Kevin Costner movie, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. After all it was during the right time period, the crusades and all. 

We didn’t spend much time in the artillery garden. There was a cannon down there, and it would have been cool to see the moats. But we were all getting hungry. It was lunch time! Fun fact, they filmed parts of Game of Thrones at the castle. What a great day, living and breathing history with our girls.