Coca (Spain)

Coca community
Coca - View of the town with the Iglesia de Santa María la Mayor and the bell tower of San Nicolás
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and León
Province :	Segovia
Coordinates	41 ° 13 ′  N , 4 ° 31 ′  W Coordinates: 41 ° 13 ′  N , 4 ° 31 ′  W
Height :	785  msnm
Area :	98.45 km²
Residents :	1,763 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	17.91 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	40480
Municipality number  ( INE ):	40057
administration
Website :	Coca

Coca is a small town and a municipality (municipio) with 1,763 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the central Spanish province of Segovia in the autonomous community of Castile and León . The city is recognized as a cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) in the Conjunto histórico-artístico category .

Location and climate

The small town of Coca is located in the Castilian Meseta at an altitude of approx. 785  m and approximately halfway between Valladolid and Segovia . The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 400 mm / year) falls throughout the year, with the exception of the dry summer months.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2018
Residents	723	1,409	1,898	1,968	1,774

The mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the resulting loss of jobs in the countryside have led to a slight increase in the population in most cities since the middle of the 20th century.

economy

Coca is traditionally agriculturally oriented, but small traders, craftsmen and service providers have also settled in town. The city used to make a living from glass production . Today tourism plays an important economic role in the form of the rental of holiday apartments (casas rurales) because of the nearby Coca Castle .

history

Traces of human settlement go back to the Bronze Age. The Celtiberians had one of the largest settlements in the Duero catchment area . The place is said to have had about 7,000 inhabitants at that time. The settlement, which belonged to the settlement area of ​​the Arevacians , was strategically well protected by the two rivers Eresma and Voltoya , which surround the place to the west and east. Around 220 BC The Carthaginian general Hannibal moved through this area. As a result, it came under the rule of the Romans , whose consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus the local resistance in 151 BC. B.C. could break what Appian reports. The Romans called the place, which grew to 20,000 inhabitants, Cauca . One of the most important roads on the Iberian Peninsula , the route from Galicia to central Castile, also touched the city at that time. Cauca was hit hard again by the campaigns against Sertorius (74 BC), but then flourished again. In the second century it was a Roman municipium . Especially in late antiquity , Cauca was home to important Roman noble families, for example, the emperor Theodosius I was born here in 347. With the invasion of the Visigoths in the 5th century, the importance of the place declined rapidly. From about 712 Coca belonged to the sphere of influence of the Moors until Alfonso VI. of Castile recaptured the city in 1085. In the 15th century, Coca was owned by Don Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marqués de Santillana and then (1453) it came to the Bishop Alonso de Fonseca I , who was at times also adviser to the Castilian kings John II and Henry IV and in Coca had a citadel built. Napoleon also stationed a garrison in this castle from 1808.

Attractions

Castillo de Coca

• The town's landmark is the castle (castillo) , construction of which began by Moorish craftsmen in 1453 and was completed at the beginning of the 16th century. The core structure is surrounded by two crenellated walls made of brick , the flanks of which are protected by numerous round towers .
• Numerous remains of ancient buildings bear witness to the city's Roman past.
• The medieval city walls are also impressive.
• Two Celtic animal figures ( verracos ) are set up at the large city gate ; another is at the castle.
• The late Gothic Iglesia Santa Maria la Mayor was completed in 1520. The nave is covered by a star vault .
• The multi-storey bell tower (campanario) of the destroyed Church of San Nicolás is visible from afar . While the lower part consists of quarry stone masonry, the upper part is entirely made of bricks in Mudejar style .
• The Hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Merced is first mentioned in 1442. In 1907 it was completely restored.
• More recent are the imposing town hall (ayuntamiento) and the Centro cultural Fonseca .

Surroundings

• About a kilometer northeast of the city is the Ermita de Santa Rosalia , built in the 18th century .

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  City wall (muralla)

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  celtic verraco figures

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  Iglesia de Santa Maria la Mayor

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  Torre San Nicolás

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  Hospital de la Merced

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  Town hall (ayuntamiento)

literature

• Reinhart Wolf . With texts by Cees Nooteboom : Castillos, castles in Spain . Schirmer / Mosel Verlag , Munich 2001, ISBN 3-8296-0026-7 , pp. 16, 111, fig. 29
• Leonardy, Heribert J., Hendrik Kersten: Castles in Spain. A trip to the Spanish Middle Ages . Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2002, pp. 158–162

Web links

Commons : Coca (Spain)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Coca, sights - photos + information (arteguias, spanish)
• Coca, sights - photos + information (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
2. ↑ Coca - climate tables
3. ↑ Coca - population development
4. ↑ Coca story
5. ↑ Coca - Castillo
6. ↑ Coca - city wall