Spain
The Castle of Coca is a castle located in the Coca municipality, central Spain. The castle was constructed in the 15th century and has been considered to be one of the best examples of Spanish Mudejar brickwork which incorporates Moorish Muslim design and construction with Gothic architecture.
A scale model of the castle has been built in the Mudéjar theme park and another replica built at a ratio of 1:25 is placed in the Minimundus miniature park in Klagenfurt, Austria.
Coca castle was owned by the well-known Spanish aristocratic family the House of Alba de Tormes (sometimes known as the House of Alba) until the mid-twentieth century.
They handed over the property to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1954.
Coca Castle was declared a national monument of Spain by Decree-Law on August 9, 1926. By the same decree, it was nationalized. The control of the castle itself and the adjoining land was taken over by the government of Spain from the House of Alba. No major restorative work was done until 1954 when state-sponsored repairs and renovations were started.
The Ministry in charge of the castle wanted to restore it so that they could open a school of forestry training. The repair and renovation work was conducted under the supervision of the Spanish Avante Garde architect Miguel de Los Santos Nicolás.
The team of architects, which included Francisco Pons Sorolla was given carte blanche by the General Directorate of Fine Arts. The renovations took four years and were completed in 1958. After the renovations the “Escuela de Capacitación Forestal” (Forestry school) was opened in 1958.