Peñíscola film locations

The walled town on its rock has been filmed for seventy years, and the town hall publishes a numbered walking route through it: 14 points and 5 productions, from Berlanga’s Calabuch in 1956 to a series shot in 2025. The whole thing is ±2 km and about 1 h on foot.

Why bother with the official leaflet when there are location lists all over the internet? Because those lists rarely say where their information comes from, and some of them place scenes at spots the council does not document. Here, every production is where the leaflet puts it, and nowhere else — even when that means a shorter list.

Game of Thrones: Peñíscola as Meereen

This is what most people come for. The sixth season used the old town as the free city of Meereen, and the leaflet documents 5 locations for it: Paseo de Ronda (the sea-wall walkway), Plaza Santa María, the Felipe II ramp, the Artillery Park, Portal Fosc (the dark gate).

Two of those are the ones you will recognise instantly. The Paseo de Ronda is the walkway that runs along the sea wall above the water, and the Portal Fosc is the dark stone gateway into the walled town. Both are free to walk and open all day — the castle itself charges admission, but the streets and the walls do not.

One thing worth setting expectations on: the town is a real, inhabited fishing village of narrow, steep, whitewashed lanes, not a preserved set. There is no signage marking scenes and nothing has been kept as it was dressed. What you get is the geography of the shots, which is exactly what the numbered route gives you.

All 14 points, and what was filmed at each

The order is the leaflet’s own numbering, which also works as a walking order. Where a point shows nothing, it is because the leaflet documents no shoot there — which is worth knowing before you climb.

From Ruta Peñíscola de cine (edición 2026), downloaded from the council’s own site (21 August 2026). One caveat we pass on rather than smooth over: the leaflet groups the two 2025 titles into a single entry and does not say which location belongs to which.

What the table gives away

Two things, and neither is in the leaflet’s prose. First, the concentration: 4 of the 14 points carry 3 productions each — Playa Norte (north beach), Playa Sur (south beach), the Felipe II ramp, the lighthouse — so if you only have an hour, those are the ones to walk.

Second, and more useful: 3 of the 14 points have no documented shoot at all (La Porteta, El Bufador (the blowhole), the Serra d’Irta natural park). The council includes them because they are worth seeing, not because anything was filmed there. Knowing which is which stops you hunting for a scene that was never shot.

The other four productions

Calabuch (1956) is the reason older Spaniards know this town: Luis García Berlanga’s comedy, shot around the port and the lighthouse, and the reason a rice dish here is named after it. El Cid (1961) brought Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren and used the walls and the north beach. Chiringuito de Pepe (2014), a Spanish TV series, is the most widely spread of the five across the route. And the two 2025 titles the leaflet groups together take the beaches and the lighthouse.

If you want the plates as well as the places, the council also publishes a «film dishes» leaflet, and the rice named after Berlanga’s comedy is on the menu at one of the town’s oldest restaurants.

Walking it: what to expect

The leaflet rates the route as ±2 km, about 1 h, medium difficulty — and «medium» here means the climb, not the distance. The old town is built on a rock: the lanes are stepped, steep and cobbled, and there is no flat way up. Wear shoes with grip and take water in summer.

Best time of day is early morning or the last hour of light, for the same two reasons: the lanes are narrow enough to feel crowded by mid-morning in August, and the low sun is what makes the walls photograph the way they do on screen.

Where to stay for the route

The route starts and ends in the old town, and almost none of the hotels are there — the hotel stock runs north along the seafront avenue. The Gran Hotel Peñíscola sits at number 132 of that avenue, 3,806 m from the castle in a straight line, from 69 € a night, with 4,427 Booking reviews at 8.2/10 (7 August 2026).

Be clear about what that distance means: it is a bus, a tourist-train or a drive into the old town, not a stroll — and in summer and at Easter the hotel runs its own shuttle to the historic centre for guests, which is the practical way to do the route without parking in a walled town where you cannot park.

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Also in English

The rest of what we publish in English:

• Beachfront hotels
• Hotels with a spa
• Hotels for families
• With parking
• Peñíscola Castle
• The beaches
• History of Peñíscola
• Getting there
• Parking
• Weekend break
• What to eat
• Reviews
• Hiking
• All hotels in Peñíscola

More detail in Spanish

The Spanish site has the full route with every point described, a page devoted to Game of Thrones in Peñíscola, the council’s «film dishes» leaflet, and the hiking routes of the Serra d’Irta with the official distances.

Go to the Spanish site