Badajoz information
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.