Santo Domingo de la Calzada

“To arrive is to have journeyed” - Diane Wheatley :-)

Santo Domingo de la Calzada is a lovely old walled city. The city was named after its founder, Dominic de la Calzada, who built a bridge, hospital, and hotel here for pilgrims on the French Way the most popular path of the Way of St. James. He began construction of the town's Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada (which is dedicated to him) and is buried in a tomb within an ornately mosaiced crypt.

The old town is beautiful. Lots of small streets and wonderful shops all enclosed within the ancient city walls. The city of course has spread outside these walls as well, but I didn’t venture that far.

I took a tour of the stunning cathedral. Unbelievable the panels, detailed stonework, silver and gold decor and of course the live rooster and chicken. Yup. A live rooster and chicken are caged within the cathedral and are changed out every two weeks for new ones. This has been a tradition for centuries.

Into the cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada there is the Gothic chicken coop of polychrome stone, built in the mid-fifteenth century and which houses a living rooster and a hen in commemoration of the miracle of the hanged pilgrim, one of the most widespread Jacobean legends throughout the Middle Ages.

“Tradition recalls how a German couple on the pilgrimage to Santiago with their son. On reaching Santo Domingo they stayed at an inn. The innkeeper’s daughter fell in love with the young man but the feeling was not reciprocated and in revenge she hid a tin jug among the Germans luggage. On the pilgrims departure from the centre the girl reported the robbery, leading to the capture of the boy, who was accused of theft and sentenced to hanging. His parents continued their pilgrimage and, on their return stopped to see the body of their son, to discover, surprisingly that he was still hanging but alive. Popular memory claims that the young man told them that it had been Santo Domingo who had helped him to stay alive while others claimed that it was the prayers of the parents for a saint to keep him alive by holding him from below. In any case the parents immediately went to the mayor to tell him about the miracle, he was sceptical and assured them that their son was as alive as the roasted rooster and hen he was about to eat. Immediately the feathers of birds returned and they came to life, confirming the prodigy and that gave rise to the famous saying: “Santo Domingo de la Calzada, where the chicken sang after being roasted.”

So there you have it - another part of my weird day hahaha.

After ages in the cathedral, I stopped by a sweet shop to try a local specialty Trufo La Vino Roja - red wine truffles. OMG. Amazing! I also tried a Rosè one as well and some kind of crispy lemon pastry. Just to be rounded of course!

Dinner was spent on at a terrace bar again where I tried the calamari and patates brava (fries with hot sauce and in this case, mayo too). All very good but man, the fried food is killing me, so hopefully this is the last of it for a while.

The plan is to walk tomorrow since I couldn’t find physio and hope for the best. I at least have a bed for tomorrow, so that’s new. I have been winging it as I hoped to do, but the towns are small and therefore spaces are limited. Figured I had better err on the side of caution for a change.Read more