I left the hotel on the road directly to Coria, a city that I wanted to visit because it has one of the three cathedrals in Extremadura.
Founded before the Romans occupied the Iberian Peninsula, and known as Caura, the Romans gave it its present Latin name, Caurium, and this city was later granted Roman citizenship. Subsequently, in the Visigothic period, the Diocese of Coria was created which, except for the years of Muslim occupation, kept Coria as the episcopal seat until the 20th century, when the head of the diocese was divided to share it with Cáceres. After the Reconquest, Coria became the capital of a manor to which towns that still bear the name of Coria belonged, such as Guijo de Coria or Casillas de Coria. After its dissolution, Coria became the capital of the judicial district of Coria.
At present, Coria is the most important city in the northwest of the province and an important commercial and tourist center, preserving a large number of monuments and annually celebrating a festival of tourist interest in Extremadura and nationally in honor of San Juan.

First, I would arrive at the square of the new town hall, with a historic building. The next thing will be to continue towards the castle along Calle del Rey, we will see what remains of a medieval town of great importance for the Extremaduran nobility.





Coria Castle was built at the end of the 15th century by the Marquis of Coria and Duke of Alba de Tormes, the most powerful person in the city.

It was built on a Roman defensive construction and the keep stands out. It is currently closed and can only be seen from the outside, but there is a plan to try to enable it by restoring the interiors.



If we cross through the gate of San Francisco we arrive at Calle del Horno where we can see the entire wall of the old city.

At the end is the gate of the city or of the Guide. That was seen in the second image and we already arrived at Doctor Viera square where the cathedral is.

The cathedral seemed quite austere to me, not comparable to that of Plasencia, but it is true that it had everything necessary to be a cathedral and not a co-cathedral. It was built on the old mosque of the city, which had previously been a Visigothic temple. It is from the beginning of the 16th century and in the late Gothic style, with many additions in the Plateresque and Baroque styles, such as its bell tower.

The entrance to the cathedral is free but to access the cathedral museum and the cloister you have to pay, where there are different works of painting, sculpture and crafts.
The cathedral has a single floor plan, giving the impression of a collegiate church rather than a cathedral. The main altar has a large Baroque altarpiece from the mid-18th century. The floor is full of tombstones of bishops or nobles of Coria and some keep the names or heraldic shields but they have been deteriorated over time. It would not hurt if they were protected as in other cathedrals with a kind of protective glass.
What stands out the most is the Renaissance-style gate that closes the main chapel. The side chapels are much more recent, in the Renaissance and Baroque styles dating from the mid-18th century. The seating is also beautiful. In the Mudejar style, it has 71 chairs and is from the 16th century, with a place for the nobles of the city.

It has two sacristies, that of the canons and that of the beneficiaries. They are from the 17th century and give access to the bell tower that has a spiral staircase to go up.





Close to the cathedral is the Plaza de España, where several of the most significant buildings are located, such as the old town hall, an old building from the 15th century, and the episcopal palace, from the 16th century, where today there are a hotel.
Next door is the church of Santiago, built in the 16th century like the cathedral but inside it is almost entirely Baroque, and Mannerist Renaissance.
Adjacent to the Plaza de España is Calle de las Monjas, so called because it is located the convent of the Mother of God, the only one still standing in Coria. This convent was founded in the 13th century, although the current building dates from the 14th-16th centuries. The church of the convent is from the 16th century with a baroque main altarpiece from the 17th century and rococo side altarpieces from the 18th century. The cloister is Renaissance from the 16th century, with a well and a trapezoidal plan, with Mudejar pavement and a collection of paintings and ivories, highlighting a table by Pedro Machuca.



Calle de las monjas is full of houses with a lot of history on which either the year of construction is written or the coat of arms of the family that lived there is carved. The panel from the old city jail, now a museum, from the end of the 17th century stands out.



The museum has two floors, the lower floor is about the city of Coria and the jail and the one on the upper floor is a bullfighting museum. I was pleasantly surprised to see how carefully they had assembled everything in the museum, counting among others with 5 complete stuffed bulls. Not even in Seville and Huelva did a museum have so many bulls of this nature.
Also enough photographic material since Coria is one of the towns in Spain whose tradition is closely linked to the bull. Remember that in this area the large landowners and ranchers have been the ones that have had the most power in history.



It is also worth noting the palace of the Dukes of Alba, the Alhondiga and the remains of the old via Dalmatia in Rome. I would stop at Mercadona to pick up supplies to eat on the go.

My next destination was Alcántara, a city known for its Roman bridge. The river that it crosses had a very greenish color from the amount of algae that there was at that time of the year, early September after a very hot summer. The dam that is very close to the bridge also caught my attention. After seeing the bridge that must have been heavily defended in the times of Carlos V, who was the one who restored it, since it is the door from Portugal to all of Extremadura. It presents in its central arch an arch with the coat of arms of Carlos V, similar to that of other bridges of that time such as the Alcántara bridge in the city of Toledo.



Continuing the road with the car I go up Mérida avenue where the tourist office is located. I park in the Plaza de Portugal where there are quite a few places, and there are some restaurants and bars.
I head towards the historic center along the main street that gave access to the city for centuries. There is conception arch. Continuing straight ahead, passing by the palace house of the Barcos, I will arrive at a street where two of the city's hermitages are located, the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios and the hermitage of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Going to the west, I find the Plaza de la Corredera where there are different palatial houses from the 16th century. Some have been left in ruins and only the façade remains, such as the Roco palace.



Continuing along Zapatería street we arrive at Plaza de España where the church of Santa María de Almovocar is located.

This church was built on the old mosque. The first church was in the Romanesque style of which only the portal remains, from the 13th century, but three centuries later with the wealth of the town from the nobility of the 16th century it would be remodeled so that the interior is more in the Gothic style.


Behind the church is the monument to San Pedro de Alcántara that faces the back of the other church, which bears his name, the church of San Pedro de Alcántara. It is built on the house where the Franciscan Saint Peter was born. It was built at the end of the 17th century and from that date Franciscans of the same order resided as a convent. This friar was in his time the most popular man in town after his beatification. In the 19th century it stopped working and thanks to the people of the town this church survived from abandonment. It has been completely rehabilitated in the last 20 years. It has two baroque altarpieces inside but the importance is historical, not architectural, since the Franciscan order does not stand out for its luxuries.



At the end of the village is the convent of the Comendadoras del Santo Espíritu, which appears not to be open today but offers the best views of the Alcantara bridge to the rear. It is up to the imagination how the defense must have been in case the Portuguese troops wanted to enter the peninsula from that part.



Lastly, I would visit the exterior of the convent of San Benito because the appointment with the tourist office would be much later than the time I was at. These visits can be booked by phone in advance.
It was built in the 16th century after the total conquest of the peninsular territory. by order of the Catholic kings. The building is full of coats of arms of the Spanish Habsburgs on the outside, Carlos V and Felipe II. Inside there is a small cloister in a transitional style between Gothic and Renaissance.



Let's remember that the Alcantaras were families very close to the monarchy and helped a lot in their day to reconquer Spain with the Arabs.

Tras pasar esta localidad entraría a Portugal.

Finally I would arrive at Castelo Branco where I would stay. This city has little heritage, it is more of a residential city that brings together much of the rural population of the area. Due to covid restrictions I had to provide a COVID passport at the hotel.
Castelo Branco is a modern city, since it had hardly any relevance until the 16th century, although there are texts that speak of a Roman settlement before Christ. The name comes from the fact that there was a castle on top of the hill near the city that could have had defensive connotations. This castle was built before the 12th century with a defensive function, and the name would be given to the city from the time the fueros were granted to the settlement. The castle was guarded by temple knights who guarded it.
At the beginning of the 18th century, in the midst of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Bourbons would attack Portugal and almost completely destroy the castle. Reconstruction attempts have been made but part of the layout has been lost, only conserving the keep and the wall.

To visit Castelo Branco, I would first go to the center. You would pass by the Renaissance town hall and its square, the market square, the castle at the top and its walls, the palace of the Viscounts of Portalegre, a Renaissance building that houses the seat of the district's Civil government of Castelo Branco.
There is the center of contemporary culture and it has some hermitages in the city that are called capelas in Portuguese. As religious buildings is the church of mercy and next to the great episcopal garden. To enter the garden you have to pay and you can see numerous bronze statues from the 19th century and a large pond in the adjacent park.



Next to it is the Francisco Tavares museum. From its collection of some 5,000 pieces, important sets of Roman epigraphy, megaliths from the Bronze Age, goldsmiths from the Iron Age, as well as materials from the Neolithic and Paleolithic periods stand out.

Also part of the collection are pieces inherited from the Palace's treasure: painting, tapestry, sculpture and objects from the 16th to the 19th century. Embroidered fabrics are of great importance in the parts devoted to clothing, costumes, and antique bedspreads from Castelo Branco.
It also has an embroidery workshop in which the entire process of making fabrics is shown.



The most important religious building is the church of San Miguel, today co-cathedral of Castelo Branco, from the 16th century but its façade is rather Renaissance due to alterations it has undergone. These are neoclassical, baroque and rococo in style. Nearby is the convent of La Gracia and also has a chapel or hermitage, such as Nuestra Señora de la Piedad.



Finally the following day at night I would go up to the castelo where the best views of the city are. On the way up you can see a hermitage, la capela del castelo. The enclosure is illuminated with what is accessible without problems although normally at night there is no one. I met a photographer with his tripod by chance with whom I was chatting about Portuguese football.

Day 3, Castelo Branco and Nisa (CLICK to continue)

September 11, 2021