Knights & Witch Hats

Witch Hats of Carcassonne

Both in France and Spain, one thing in abundance is the castles. It seems every feudal lord built one in his time and today many are beautifully restored.  Most of them are protected as historical buildings but some of them have hotels and restaurants built inside. Twice in our road trip we stayed at such hotels.
By a nice coincidence one of the books I'm currently reading is from George RR Martin's Game of Thrones series which is full of knights, evil queens and dragons so I was in the mood for my own castle experience.

The first one was in Spain, the wonderfully named Parador de Tortosa.  Parador means ‘inn’ in Spanish and that castle-hotel belongs to a Spanish boutique hotels chain, the Paradores.  So, the hotel’s name literally means ‘the inn at Tortosa’. Although Tortosa has a few nice looking buildings (most of them left from the Moorish era), the town itself is quite ugly and we found the Parador as one of the few attractions. The hotel was built on the entire interior of the 10^th cc castle so the sense of history was quite alive, not only in the building but also in some of the staff who were probably working in the castle since the time of the original owners. 

Two things are worth mentioning about this place, the castle’s history and the regional cuisine:

The Parador’s restaurant was placed in the Common Hall of the Castle, which was a good touch. The menu was mostly Catalan and some of the dishes were based on very old and traditional recipes. We tried some of them and believe me when I say that if a recipe doesn’t survive through times, there’s usually a good reason. Having said that most of our choices were pretty tasty like the paella with game & meat or the Fisherman’s Dish which is basically day old bread pan-fried with olive oil, spices & herbs and served with small portions of fish. It may sound weird, but the taste was there. And to wash all off, bottles of Rioja. Not bad.

Hotel Entrance

The castle of Tortosa was originally built by the Moors during their 700 years of occupation of Spain. In early 13^th cc the Lords of Spain said enough was enough and took the city back with the help of the Order of the Knights Templar. Then they gave this castle together with two others to the Order as a reward and extra protection of the region. From that day to their demise, they managed the castles at  Tortosa, Peniscola and Miravet.

It was quite interesting to reflect on the legends surrounding Knights Templar while staying in one of their castles. There were (and still are) many religious orders in Christianity, but none of them aroused the legends that surrounded the Knights Templar nor become the favourite of Hollywood, and with good reason.   It all started with the Crusades. After the Christians took Jerusalem from the Muslims, many knights and believers flew to the Holy Land either for pilgrimage or to fortify the Christian hold in the region. As usual, some were just looking for riches and fame. Among them were nine knights who approached the King of Jerusalem and proposed to form an order to protect the pilgrims from Muslims’ attacks. The King agreed and gave them some space in the premises of the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was believed to be built on King Solomon’s Temple.  The tiny order of nine knights took the impossibly long name of ‘The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon’ and the emblem of two soldiers riding on a single horse to emphasize that they were indeed poor. For the next nine years they didn’t do much fighting but spent most of their time digging. What exactly they have found was never confirmed but whatever it was, after a decade or so later, they suddenly became one of the most popular orders in Christendom.

The seaside castle of Peniscola

Many rich and powerful families got in line to join the order, which had one small condition. The knights had to be poor to join; therefore they had to donate their wealth to the Order. And many of them did. The Poor Soldiers of Christ become incredibly rich both in cash and in land. As if these were not enough, the Pope decided that the Knights Templar (someone thankfully shortened their name along the way) could pass borders freely, were exempt from taxes and answered to no earthly king but only to Pope himself.

Then came the combatant knights, the military successes and the international banking. The Knights Templar got so rich, they started to give loans to Kings and even the Pope himself. Well, somebody had to finance the Crusades. Since Christ himself forbade interest earnings, the Templars were collecting operating income in return for their services.  As a result, they not only become the first ever international corporation managing lands and business across borders, they became the first international bankers as well. Come to think of it, they also opened the way to Islamic banking which frowns upon interest earnings but rewards its clients with operating income. The ways of money don’t care about religion.

One of the few nice views from Tortosa

The Knights Templar also facilitated the first cross border fund transfers.  Imagine that you were a knight wishing to travel to Holy Land for a bit of pilgrimage and infidel-killing to guarantee your place in heaven. But the roads were long and dangerous especially around Constantinople, where the Turks were hunting anyone that came their way.  In order not to lose your life and your money, you gave your money to Knights Templars in return for a coded letter which confirmed who you were and how much money you gave to them. If you managed to arrive at the Holy Land alive, you could stop at any one of the Templar castles and withdrew your cash minus the ‘operating fees’. Sounds familiar?

In the end, money prepared their end. The Muslims, united around Saladin, managed to take back Jerusalem, decreasing the military importance of the Knights Templar.

The Templar castle at the cute village of Miravet

More importantly, the King of France ,  in order to finance his war with the Brits, was heavily in debt to the Knights Templar and didn't see a reason why he should pay them back. so he convinced the Pope (who was borrowing from the Templars as well) to look into some of their religious practices. As a result, by the Papal order and with incredible secrecy, almost all of the French Templars were arrested on Friday 13th October, 1307. (Ever wondered why Friday the 13^th was unlucky?).  After an investigation involving very innovative types of torture, most of the arrested knights confessed to whatever their inquisitors were asking and sometimes more.  They were all found guilty, their assets confiscated by Church without any mention to their debtors.  Their punishment was death by fire.

Their rise and dramatic fall fuelled many legends. My favorite ones are around the treasures they’ve found while digging the Temple of Solomon. According to the popular myths they have found The Holy Grail / The True Cross / Veronica’s Veil / Solomon’s treasures / Arc of the Covenant and took it (them ?) to America about 200 years before Columbus. But wait, didn't they bury most of the same under Roslyn Chapel ? Hmm, maybe they found two of each.

Cite de Carcassonne

Our second castle was in Carcassonne, France.  And what a beautiful fairy tale castle it is.  It is so big, the correct way to call it is a fortified city (La Cite) instead of a castle. With its Witch Hat towers & bastions and high double walls, Cite de Carcassonne seems like a Pixar animation come to life in giant proportions.It has quite a history as well, starting with Romans in 1^st cc and ending with a very skillful architect called Eugene Viollet-le-Duc around 150 years ago.  The region had it share of feudal and religious wars where Cite de Carcassonne came under attack more than once. 

Lovely at dusk

It was once an important border city between France and Spain. Later when the countries agreed to rearrange the borders in line with the Pyrenees the importance of the city was diminished and its Castle was left to ruin. Then one day in late 1800’s a brilliant architect was commissioned to restore it to its former glory. There was one hitch tough: The fortifications were very large & very old and every single owner added or changed something during the centuries which then got ruined, so Viollet-le-Duc had no idea how it looked like originally. Therefore he did the best he could and used some imagination. In the end, he decided to give the castle’s towers the pointed cones which were never used in that region before. The result is a beautiful castle with romantic fairy tale towers and an old town with lively restaurants, luxurious hotels and shops all placed inside its fortifications, so I guess he did well.

My knight in his (non) shiny armor

We spent a lovely day there visiting the Castle and walking on top of its high labyrinth of walls. Carcassonne has the additional advantage of being in Languedoc region, which is famous for its wines. After our tour in Bordeaux and Spain we were a bit spoilt by choice, but nevertheless the regions’ Corbieres were worth a try.