Santo Domingo de la Calzada 13.4 miles

We did make it to the May Day festival last night in Najera. I will post those fun pics first.

I felt like today was not so bad with the mileage, however the wind was cold and blowing directly at us the entire walk. I think it’s safe to say that it was a tough walk for every peregrino because of the wind.

We made it to SD de la C by 2 ish and had an amazing lunch dinner at a local restaurant with some Rioja as our reward. (I learned that the Rioja grape of the region is named after the River (Rio) Oja.

Santo Domingo is one of my many favorites. We are staying in the square of the cathedral, right next to the Cathedral, in a historical hotel that was an old hospital. After we ate, we toured the Cathedral which has a claim to fame with the miracle of the rooster and the hen. There is actually a hen cage in the middle of the church. The Cathedral is quite amazing.

I don’t want to bore anyone with the Google history but it is pretty cool. I want to first share the history of Santo Domingo, then the history of the miracle of the rooster and the hen.

Copied from the Google

From its beginnings Santo Domingo de la Calzada has always been linked to The Pilgrimage of St. Ja-
mes. lts founder, Domingo García, was born in Viloria de Rioja (Burgos) in 1019. He decided to devote his life to God and tried to enter the monasteries of San Millán and Valvanera but was not accepted.
Around the year 1040 he became a hermit in the forests which occupied the site on which this city
now stands. From his home he was able to see how difficult the pilgrimage was for those undertaking it and he began to work to help them by building
a bridge to cross the Oja River, a hospital where pilgrims could seek refuge, roads communicating
Nájera and Redecilla del Camino (Burgos) and a little church. Domingo received approval from Alfonso VI de Castilla who provided the piece of land where Domingo built the first church completed
in 1106, but which sadly no longer exists. When he died, on 12th May 1109, he was buried in the
middle of the Pilgrimage, which he had designed. His followers maintained the little village which later took his name and they continued his work, creating a confraternity, which nowadays works keeping his memories, traditions and beliefs alive
by working with pilgrims in the Hostel.