My priority today is to rest in preparation for the stages to come, and get over this nasty cold.

Ponferrada is best known for its famous castle, the Castillo de Los Templarios. Built by the Knights Templar in the 12th and 13th centuries, the castle guarded a strategic stretch of the Camino de Santiago in the kingdom of León.

The castle also housed the Templars’ library of about 1,400 ancient books.

The Templars have a fascinating and complicated history. They were both monks and knights, easily identified by their distinctive “cross pattée” that most people would recognize today (similar to the Maltese cross). Their string of castles protected pilgrims from Paris to Jerusalem, and they at one point owned the island of Cyprus.

Founded at the Temple of Jerusalem when it was held by the west (hence the name), their military might and banking prowess eventually made them too powerful. King Philip IV of France dissolved the order in the early 14th century, and had their leaders executed.

Freemasons trace their historic ancestry to Jacques DeMolay, the last grand master of the Knights Templar, executed on the Seine outside Nôtre Dame in 1312.

I restocked on cold medicine and visited the cathedral in the afternoon. With its huge Templar cross, there was no doubt under whose protection the church operated.