The Pope Moon, one of the Hispanic figures more universally known and simultaneously controversial, moved in 1411 to Peñíscola turning his castle into palace and library pontificia. Of the walls and dependences of this strength they radiate ideas, feelings and prejudices on a complete, honest and virtuous man who had the audacity of persevering in his conviction of real Pope of the Catholic Church in an epoch marked by wars, ambitions, greeds and corruptions that they affected even to the high dignities of the Church, which spiritual power had to act deceitfully before the political and civil power.
The Castle is located in the highest zone of the crag, reaching a height of 64m on the level of the sea. His perimeter is of approximately 230 m and has an average height of 20 m. The Templars constructed this Romanesque work on remains of the former Arabic fort between 1294 and 1307.
Of similar characteristics to the constructed ones for the same gentlemen in Holy Land and Catalonia, stands out his seemed one with Miravet's castle, constructed 150 years before. Benedicto XIII realized small reforms during his stay in this castle transforming it into papal palace.
The factory of the walls is of carved stone and all the dependences cover with tunnel vaults, in slightly pointed occasions, which start of very simple fascias formed by a cord moldurado. The hollows of the doors are forged by arches of widely and generous dovelaje.
Emphasizes in the whole set the sobriety and solidity of his construction, so much in the stays templarias as in the strategic and dense dependences pontificias that there would realize later Benedicto XIII (between that there was installed one of the best libraries of the world). But, maybe, the major architectural interest of the castle is in the domed solution of the Police officer's Body and in the austerity and severe proportion of the Basilica of the Templars.
Used by Benedicto XIII and Clemente VIII as Basilica Pontificia, to the constructive characteristics of the rest of stays it joins the presbytery forming semicircular apse covered with a half dome of shell elevated on an arch toral and a small large window placed in the center of the apse that illuminates tensionalmente the space. In this Basilica the remains of the Pontiff rested during some time.
In this castle they preserve still remembranzas evocative of the presence of the Pope Moon and of his successor Clemente VIII, also Aragonese Gil Sanchez Muñoz, the second Pope of Peñíscola. The papal Basilica of Benedicto XIII, this austere ship of rectangular plant with slightly pointed tunnel vault and spherical cap on the apse; the lounge of the throne where it was receiving embassies and receipts; the lounge of the conclave; the study with windows to the sea; the rooms pontificias, etc. All this, used for two you eat of Peñíscola, it had served before the Gentlemen Templars and to the Montesianos that had here the headquarters and support of his commission.
The modifications introduced by Philip II for artillar the strength, as well as the bombardments suffered in the numerous wars and sieges, did not alter substantially the conformation of the castle, which there was declared Historical Artistic National Monument in 1931. In 1957, for ministerial order, his management was yielded to Castellón's Deputation, initiating this one his restoration
Though the Castle Templar constitutes, so much for suprivilegiado emplacement as for his architectural characteristics and his history, the most relevant of this " City in the Sea " (declared Historical - artistic Set in 1972); in Peñíscola there are situated other many artistic, historical and ethnological elements that will delight the visitor.
Haughty they are the walls that it ordered Philip II raised and that constitute a clear manifestation of the big knowledge and polished technical that as for fortifications had the most important military architect - engineer of the epoch, the Italian Juan Bautista Antonelli, who was the one who designed them, being constructed between 1576 and 1578. The Portal Fosc, called likewise of Philip II, is one of the three.
Grand it is the Portal of Sant Pere or of the Pope Moon, in whose central part shows the heraldry in stone of Pedro of Moon. It was the access to the strength from the sea, when the waters were coming at the foot of the wall and the boats were running aground in the same ramp at the foot of this portal. It ordered it the Pope constructed Moon in 1414.
Other places of historical - artistic interest of obliged visit are:
- The Parochial Temple of the Virgin of the Help, with tracería Gothic of the 15th century partly of her and architectural elements (brackets esculturadas) and door of Romanesque tradition.
- Déu d'Ermitana's Ermitorio de la Mare, close to the castle in the one that stays the image of the mistress of the city.
- The Park of Artillery, zone of bunkers and polvorines surrounded with palms and gardens.
Peñíscola, hospitable city, has been a crossroads of all the Mediterranean civilizations that from the dawn of the history come sailing along this sea of prosperity and culture. Phoenicians and Greeks, were followed by Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantine and Arabic... They knew All of his profitable situation, of his safety as uncompromising strength and of his suitability as habitat, so much for his climate as for having abundant sweet water that springs from the entrails of the rock in the own citadel.
In time already of the Christians, the mythical and enigmatic Gentlemen Templars settled themselves in the tómbolo, where already an Arabic strength existed and were not late in be persuading of the exceptional characteristics that it was assembling to be turned into impregnable strength.
Between the year 1294 and 1307 Templar was constructed the current castle on the remains of the Arabic fort. The promoters were frey Berenguer de Cardona, which was the Master of the Order of the Temperature in Aragon and Catalonia and frey Arnaldo de Banyuls, who was the commander of Peñíscola. The shields of both remain esculpidos in stone forming heraldic strips placed over the door of access to the castle and also on the door of the basilica.
The exceptional hardiness of his walls and vaults of arch lightly pointed and his total construction with magnificent factory of chairs, as well as his nudity and austerity in ornamental elements constitute the stamp of a military tremendously massive and sober architecture that, stylistically, passes between the Romanesque late one and an incipient Gothic.
Peñíscola's Castle is catalogued as Historical - artistic National Monument, distinction that was granted him in 1922. Nevertheless up to the decade of the 60 a regular regime of visits was not established. Nowadays it is the second Monument most visited of Spain, after the Alhambra of Granada.
(www.peñiscola.org) - To return above
Peñiscola's Castle, to the north of the Valencian Community, is in a privileged point of the Spanish Mediterranean.
The 79 km2 of extension of his municipality, 17 of which pass parallel to the littoral, distribute equitably between the forest surfaces and the hot Mediterranean cultures, between which there are not absent the orange tree, the olive tree and the almond-tree.
The ancient, crowned city for the one that was a mansion of the Pope Benedicto XIII, a castle - strength of s. The XIVth, it occupies an impressive crag that raises 64 meters on the blue of the sea; joined the continent for a cord of sand that time behind was swept by the waves during the temporary ones, transforming to the city in an ephemeral island.
In contrast with the old town, they find the new streets and avenues of the tourist zone. Hot waters in summer and autumn, distribute between the extensive beaches of thin sand to the north of the citadel and beautiful coves flanked by abrupt cliffs in the south.
Peñíscola is a name in the History, present in her from the most remote civilizations. Fortaleza that, for his extraordinary natural conditions: strategic emplacement rocky promontory encircled by the sea, except by a sandy language and providential abundance of springs, place has been coveted for any of the peoples come to our Peninsula.
THE FORMER CHERSONESOS There are abundant the archaeological vestiges found in the surroundings of the tómbolo, in the deposits of Poaig and Els Barrancs that confirm the poblamiento of these lands for some Iberian people (ilercavones), as well as the relation between these and the Phoenician merchants who came by sea (s. VII - I SAW a.de C.). In Peñíscola the Phoenicians proceeding from Tyro settled themselves, probably, and little later the Greeks of Zacinthos. Later there will come by sea Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantine and Arabic.
The most ancient written and credible testimonies it brings over of Peñíscola's knowledge in the ancient orb, it is necessary to look for them, nevertheless, in Hecateo's appointments (s. The VIth a.de C.) Estrabón (s. I a.de C.) and Rufo Festo Avieno (s. The IVth) that in his descriptions of the coast mention Chersonesos's city. Name that the Greeks would give to the city and which translation means, peninsula.
Peñíscola, Greek and Roman colony, will be an important port across which they will enter products manufactured (ceramics, fabrics, weapon, etc.) that the settlers will exchange for the valued wine and olive oil of the Iberians who populate the saws of the littoral. They will be likewise the Romans, who on having translated the Greek name of the city into the Latin (according to prestigious philologists, in the vulgar form peñiscola,
BANÁSKULA, THE ARABIC CITY From the year 718 in which Tarik concludes the conquest until 1233, Peñíscola's city lives under Moslem domain. There are known scanty details of this epoch. The Arabic geographers allude to Peñíscola (whom they will be call Banáskula or Baniskula for adjustment of the toponym to his alphabet) as impregnable castle close to the sea, which is populated, it has farm-houses, cultures, abundance of waters and important salt mines. From the strength, which will be a border with the Christianity, the Moors pirate the littoral and realize incursions in the Kingdom of Aragon.
Peñíscola will be a cradle of illustrious prominent figures as the King Lobo ' Mohamed ben San, Mardanis Abuses ' (1124) that it will achieve Moor supports unreino in the southeast españolfrente the African invaders, and the writer Alí Albata who will intervene in the negotiations with Jaime I.
THE RECONQUEST Though already it had tried it in 1225 surrounding her for two months, it will not be until 1233 when the king Jaime I will take possession of Peñíscola's city, recovering also the domain over the sea. It will be a pacific conquest. After Burriana's fall that makes the Arabic castles of the north isolated, the city will submit without fight and under certain agreements that respect the laws and Saracen customs.
On January 28, 1251, nevertheless, Don Jaime I will grant letter of population to the city to jurisdiction of Valencia, by virtue of which it will dispossess the Moors of all his goods properties that it will deliver to the new Christian settlers. This measure will propitiate the demographic and economic consolidation of the city, beginning a stage of prosperity.
Peñíscola has been a scene of the filming movies as The Leader of Anthony Mann or Calabuch de Luis García Berlanga.
In June, there is celebrated the Peñíscola Magic Summer. During July and August there celebrates the Festival of Classic Theatre Peñíscola's Castle. In August, the International Festival of Music celebrates Antigua and Baroque. Already in September, in the Gothic Lounge of the Castle and in the Audience and Conference hall of the city, there is celebrated the Cycle of Concerts of Classic Music. On having finished the year it is possible to enjoy a medieval market inside the walled zone, and in the gardens of the Castle members of the parish represent a portal of living Christmas crib.
Some Peñiscola's cultural entities are the Band of Music " Our Lady of the Ermitana " http: // www.bandamusicapeniscola.es, the Cultural Association of Moors and Christians, the Association of Dances and the magazine " Peñíscola, City in the Sea ".
* San Antonio Abuse. It is celebrated on January 17.
* Carnivals. They are celebrated for three days at the end of February.
* San Yokel. The holiday is celebrated in May.
* San Pedro. The holiday is celebrated at the end of June. Popular verbenas and release of heifers are realized.
* Employer holidays. They are celebrated from the night of September 7, in honor of the mistress of the locality, the Virgin of the Ermitana. They have been declared of tourist National Interest.
The principal days are a September 8 and 9, in which there is realized the maximum expression of these holidays " They Danses " or the Dances, which include music, dance, playful activities, rites and public manners of conviviality.
Last weekend the spectacular ones develop and colourists parades of Moors and Christians are historical representations, but of a history dress with the eyes of the people, which into the step of the centuries has been incorporating into his narrative different elements forming anachronistic passages in which Arabs are mixed, Turks or allusions to the war with the Frenchmen.
* Pilgrimage to the hermitage of San Antonio. The pilgrimage is realized on Sunday following that of Easter of Resurrection.
También, desde hace unos años, en las vacaciones de Pascua, se quema una
única falla en el municipio.
In the ancient seaworthy tradition of the locality and the fishing wealth of his coasts together with an excellent garden, there is situated the foundation of his gastronomy. In the kitchen peñiscolana emphasize the all i Pebre of Snuff or pulpits (Polpet '), the suquet of fish or remescló, as well as the seafood, dates of sea, snails (' caragol punxent '), mussels, sea crabs, etc. The different rices in his seaworthy varieties, the arrosejat or Rice to band, the omnipresent paella and the fideuá, also are a fundamental part of the diet of these lands.
Peñíscola's south littoral is scarped and rocky. It is splashed with tiny beaches and high cliffs that form peaceful coves. On this coast Irta's Saw is situated. Natural place from the year 2002, is a mountainous alignment with 573 m. Of maximum height and 15 km from coastal front.
The historical absence of human accessions of importance, they allow the presence of the natural and ethnological only values that have given in defining it as the last virgin saw of the Valencian Community. In the small coves that there draws The Saw Irta they are suitable for, the practice of the skin-diving or the fishing with fishline, they us present a dimension different from relation with the sea and the nature.
Irta's Saw relies on a system of signposting that it directs us for some of the ways of easier access; the points of beginning of itineraries think along the road that the Coast crosses South. The ways put up signs with indicators of wood are tracks of land adapted to travel with diverse means.
There exists the possibility of realizing tours astride, as well as crossed afoot by the paths of the high part of the saw, endowed with a specific system of signposting. In Irta's Saw we can visit the hermitage of San Antonio that dates back to the 16th century. The set is formed by the own hermitage, the house of the hermit and the hostelry that they delimit a court from whose railing spies the excellent panoramic one.
Country: Spain Autonomous community: Comunidad Valenciana Province: Castellón Region: Bajo Maestrazgo Coordinates: 40°21′36.77″N 0°24′9.63″E / 40.3602139, 0.402675 Altitude: 46m sobre nivel del mar Distances: 71 km to Castellón de la Plana
145 km to Valencia
220 km to Barcelona Surface: 78,97 km² Population: 7.894 hab. (2009) Density: 99,96 hab./km² National: Peñiscolano/a CP: 12598
Bus : www.auto-res.net -
www.hife.es Car : For the Highway A-7, taking the exit number 43 (Peñiscola / Benicarló), or for the National Road N-340 Plane : It will be able to find information of all the airports in
Reus (120km up to Peñiscola)
Castellón (40km up to Peñiscola)
Barcelona (220km up to Peñiscola)
Valencia (145km up to Peñiscola) Train : The most nearby station is in Benicarló, the people that is just next to Peñiscola, a bit more in the northern part. For more information visit
www.renfe.es Taxi : 964 460 506 - 619 038 260 - 650 896 125 Ship : SIf it wants to come with his own ship it can go to Benicarló's port or that of Vinaroz : www.marinabenicarlo.com