HISTORY OF PENISCOLA

Peniscola is a name in history, present in it from earliest civilizations. Strong, for the extraordinary conditions: rocky strategic locations, encircled by the sea, except for a 
sandy tongue.
Peniscola, often called the "Gibraltar of Valencia," and locally as "The City in the Sea", is a fortified seaport, with a lighthouse, built on a rocky headland about 220 feet (67 m) high, and joined to the mainland by only a narrow strip of land .The present castle was built by the Knights Templar between 1294 and 1307. In the fourteenth century it was garrisoned by the Knights of ;Montesa, and in 1420 it reverted to the Crown of Aragon. From 1415 to 1423 it was the home of the schismatic Avignon pope Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna), whose name is commemorated in the Castell del Papa Luna.  
The Papa Luna, one of the most universally hispanic figures, moved in 1411 to Peniscola, turning his castle in to his palace and library. Walls and outbuildings radiate ideas, feelings and perjudices about an honest, honorable and virtuous man, who lived in an era marked by wars, ambitions, greed and corruption.