1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Peñiscola

PEÑISCOLA, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Castellón de la Plana, and on the Mediterranean Sea, 5 m. by road S. of Benicarló Pop. (1900), 3142. Peñiscola, often called the Gibraltar of Valencia, is a fortified seaport, with a lighthouse, built on a rocky headland about 220 ft. high, and only joined to the mainland by a narrow strip of sand. Originally a Moorish stronghold, it was captured in 1233 by James I. of Aragon, who entrusted it to the Knights Templar. In the 14th century it was garrisoned by the knights of Montesa, and in 1420 it reverted to the Crown. From 1415 it was the home of the schismatic pope Benedict XIII. (Pedro de Luna), whose name is commemorated in the Bufador de Papa Luna, a curious cavern with a landward entrance through which the sea-water escapes in clouds of spray.