Crusader Castle

North Coast

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The wreck of a once-imposing Crusader castle, known in Latin as Castrum Pergrinorum and in French as Château Pèlerin (Pilgrims’ Castle), sits on a promontory about 750m west of Atlit Beach. It's inside a military base used for training by Israel’s marine commandos and so can’t be visited, but you can see it from the beach.

Built in the early 13th century, historians believe that at its height the castle held as many as 4000 soldiers. It was badly damaged in an 1837 earthquake, plundered for stone by the Ottomans soon after, and has remained skeletal ever since.

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