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Coca (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of Coca - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 April 2011

Presentation of Coca
Symbols of Coca

See also:

Presentation of Coca

The municipality of Coca (2,112 inhabitants in 2010; 9,845 ha; municipal website) is located in the west of Segovia Province, 50 km from Segovia.The municipality is made of the villages of Coca (capital), Ciruelos de Coca (78 inh.) and Villagonzalo de Coca (84 inh.).

Coca originates in the Celtiberian town of Cauca, then one of the biggest settlements in the valley of Duero. The town had some 6,000-8,000 inhabitants, a self-governing structure and a diversified economy, including trade. As reported by the historian Appian, Cauca was seized by treachery by the Romans in 151 BC; resettled by Scipio in 134 BC, the town was destroyed again during the Sertorian War. Rebuilt again, Cauca was granted the title of municipium, becoming a significant town in Hispania during the 4th-5th centuries. Emperor Theodosius the Great (347-395; crowned Emperor in the east in 379, last whole Emperor in 392) was born in Cauca.
Reconquerred in 1086 by King Alfonso VI, Cauca, protected by fortifications, became the capital of the Community of the Village and Land of Cauca, ruling 17 smaller villages.

The castle (castillo) of Coca was built by Alonso de Fonseca, lord of Cauca, with permission granted in 1453 by John II. The building was achieved at the end of the 15th century; a workshop minting Castilian and Portuguese coins to pay the workers was active in 1462. Built mostly with bricks in Castilian Mudéjar style, the castle of Coca significantly differs from the other fortresses built to protect Castile from the Moorish raids.
The other local hero of Cauca is Cándido López Sanz (1903-1992), owner of El Mesón de Cándido (Cándido's Inn), once the most famous restaurant in Segovia, awarded the title of "Best Inn-Keeper in Castile".

Ivan Sache, 21 April 2011

Symbols of Coca

The flag and arms of Coca are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 30 April 1997 by the Segovia Provincial Government, signed on 7 May 1997 by the President of the Government, and published on 20 May 1997 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 94 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Quadrangular flag, with proportions 1:1, vertically divided in two equal parts, yellow at hoist and the rest blue.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Or a pine eradicated vert, 2. Azure a bend gules fimbriated or. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown.

The flag is a simplification of the municipal arms, the charges having been removed.
The coat of arms (presentation) was designed by Francisco Delgado Calvo and Felipe Rodríguez Martínez, commissioned on 1 July 1996 by the Municipal Council to adapt the traditional arms of Coca to the standards of modern heraldry.
The oldest known representation of the arms of Coca is found on a seal dated 1611 kept in the municipal archives. The arms, surmounted with a seven-feathered helmet, show dexter a pine eradicated on a field or (described in 1645) and sinister a diagonal stripe running from the upper left to the lower right of a field azure. The shield is supported by two infants clad in gules and or. This design is represented as a sculpture on the facade of the Hall of the Community of the Village and Land of Cauca, mostly for decorative purpose.

Ivan Sache, 21 April 2011