Qualla: Peniscola Castle https://qualla.com/peniscola-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/0/m/peniscola-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Peniscola Castle https://qualla.com/peniscola-castle Peniscola Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/peniscola-castle/ Photo credit mestdagh, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Knights Templar built many fortresses, but few so dramatic as the one perched on a rocky promontory 64 meters above the Mediterranean at Peniscola. Completed in 1307, the castle was designed as the centerpiece of a Templar kingdom that never came to be. Instead, it found a stranger destiny: a century later, it became the last refuge of a pope whom Rome refused to recognize, a man who clung to his claim over Christendom from this wind-battered cliff on the coast of Castellon.

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Image: mestdagh | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/0/m/peniscola-castle-wp/sp0m-peniscola-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Peniscola Castle: The Templars' Ambition https://qualla.com/peniscola-castle/ Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Knights Templar arrived at Peniscola, they found Muslim fortifications crowning the headland. They demolished every stone and rebuilt from scratch, finishing in 1307. The result was a fortress designed around an inner ward with a chapel at its heart, as was typical of Te...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/0/m/peniscola-castle-wp/sp0m-peniscola-castle-the-templars-ambition.mp3 0:06 2 full Peniscola Castle: A Pope on the Edge of the World https://qualla.com/peniscola-castle/ Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the early 15th century, the castle gained its most colorful resident. Antipope Benedict XIII, the last of the Avignon line of claimants to the papal throne, retreated to Peniscola after being deposed by the Council of Constance. He modified the fortress for use as a papal resi...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/0/m/peniscola-castle-wp/sp0m-peniscola-castle-a-pope-on-the-edge-of-the-world.mp3 0:06 3 full Peniscola Castle: Centuries Under Siege https://qualla.com/peniscola-castle/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. After Benedict's era, the castle's story became one of military reinvention. From the early 16th century, its defenses were overhauled to keep pace with the age of gunpowder. The Italian military engineer Giovanni Battista Antonelli redesigned the fortifications, transforming wha...

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]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/0/m/peniscola-castle-wp/sp0m-peniscola-castle-centuries-under-siege.mp3 0:06 4 full Peniscola Castle: The View from the Crag https://qualla.com/peniscola-castle/ Photo credit Pere prlpz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the castle stands restored and open to the public, its Templar bones still visible beneath the layers of later modification. Walking through the barrel-vaulted corridors, visitors trace the same paths that Templar knights, a stubborn antipope, and generations of Spanish sol...

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Image: Pere prlpz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/0/m/peniscola-castle-wp/sp0m-peniscola-castle-the-view-from-the-crag.mp3 0:06 5 full