Chickens in a Cathedral?!

The sun beats down on Plaza del Santo, the small, hot, and dusty, central square of Santo Domingo de la Calzada. Anyone standing in the square for even a few minutes will notice a steady stream of hikers arrive, take off their backpacks, lean their walking poles against a wall, and marvel at the buildings around them. They have arrived at one of the most important, and famous, landmarks on the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela.

On one side of the square sits a Parador, part of the luxury hotel chain owned by the Spanish Government. It seems an unlikely place for such a prestigious hotel, but Parador’s are renowned for sympathetic and luxurious renovations of crumbling historic buildings, and this building is no exception. It started its life as a pilgrim hospital in the 12th Century, offering safety, food and medical care to pilgrims for almost 900 years, before finally reincarnating as a hotel in 1995.

Opposite the Parador, on the other side of the square, there is a bell tower. The Torre Exenta has views across the rooftops and surrounding hills to anyone foolish enough to climb the stairs in the stifling heat. It stands as a separate building to the church it serves, and the real destination for pilgrims, the 12th Century Catedral de Santo Domingo de la Calzada. Made from sandstone blocks with a reddish hue, it feels slightly at odds with other cathedrals in Spain, but offering a kind of warmth often missing from its more austere, if more ornate, counterparts.

The Cathedral seems an unlikely addition for an otherwise unremarkable town of this size, population around 6,500, however, pilgrims and tourists flock here not only to see the cathedral, but the unlikely inhabitants housed within its walls. Here, a remarkable legend lives on, and can be witnessed every day. In the gloom of the Nave, just opposite the tomb of Santo Domingo and set high up the wall is a stone Gothic chicken coop, housing a white rooster, and a white hen. Whilst the birds are swapped regularly, there have been chickens housed here since at least 1350. They commemorate the Legend of the Hanged Pilgrim.

The story is one every pilgrim hears sooner or later. Around the thirteenth century, a young German boy, walking to Santiago with his parents, is falsely accused of theft and hanged. Grief-stricken, his parents continue on to Santiago, carrying their sorrow the only way they know how. Weeks later, on their return journey, they pass through Santo Domingo and find their son still alive, hanging but reportedly sustained by Saint Dominic himself. They rush to the judge, who dismisses them coldly. Their son, he says, is no more alive than the roast chicken sitting on his plate. At that precise moment, the chicken stands up and crows, the boy is freed and justice is finally done. And ever since, a pair of white chickens have lived inside the cathedral, a living footnote to faith, doubt, and the Camino’s fondness for the improbable.

Today little has changed as visitors arrive on foot, dust and sweat-streaked from Najera, 21km across the heart of the Rioja region. There is little shade, endless vineyards, and equally endless skies. Climbing the gravel track up the last ridge, the plain opens up in front of you and there, shimmering in the heat, Santo Domingo de la Calzada comes into view.

Others arrive in coaches, part of tours of Northern Spain and camino highlights, busy clicking and snapping, before boarding and heading out again. It is very different to arrive on foot, dirty, tired and yet fully present in the moment. Many pilgrims will head to the Parador as a special treat for their efforts. Perhaps they can hear the ghosts of past pilgrims who also stayed within its very walls. Both can gaze out at the cathedral opposite, and reflect on the miracle.

Souls inextricably bound beyond time, with one single purpose.