Coria information
In June, Coria's town gates are shut and wild bulls are released to roam the streets as residents and visitors scurry to safety during the annual festival of San Juan. Bulls are released day and night with crowds of spectators in the narrow streets darting for their lives into buildings and climbing up walls. It is reported that one year a woman left her frontdoor ajar and a bull charged upstairs and lodged itself in her kitchen like the proverbial "bull in a china store".
Visitor from all over Spain and other countries come to run with the bull.
Coria like Cáceres dates back to Roman times and two of its four gates are Roman. The city wall is a patchwork of Muslim and medieval battlements with an impressive castle tower (seen on the left).
Coria, perched above the Rio Alagón,
is dominated by a Gothic Renaissance cathedral with rich Plateresque
carving and a 16th century convent with a fine Renaissance cloister.
This full size cathedral is much larger than its counterpart church
or Con-cathedral in the capital of Cáceres. At the time
of its construction when the bishop established his seat here,
Coria and Cáceres were both similar sized small castle
towns. Over the centuries Cáceres far outgrew Coria and
became the capital of the modern province. Therefore, the historic
cathedral remains in Coria and Cáceres still does not have
a full-sized cathedral of its own. The bishop has residences in
both cities.
Caceres guide