Santo Domingo de la Calzada
by tim76
Santo Domingo de la Calzada is another stop on the Camino de Santiago. It has very strong connections with the pilgrimage, as it's the burial place of the saint after which the town is named. This saint devoted his life to helping pilgrims, for example by building roads and bridges (calzada is Spanish for causeway).
An interesting story is associated with Santo Domingo: in the 14th century a young German pilgrim was falsely accused of theft and condemned to the gallows. The saint saves the boy and when his parents come to his body, they find him still alive.
While he's having dinner a magistrate hears about this and says: "that boy is as dead as this rooster and chicken that I was eating." At that moment the birds jump up from his plate and fly away.
To this day a chicken and a rooster are kept in the cathedral to commemorate the miracle.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada
by Aitana
Santo Domingo de la Calzada is on the banks of the Oja River. The village was founded in the 11th century by Domingo García, a priest who worked for the development of this area. He joined Gregorio, bishop of Ostia, sent to Spain to combat the locusts’ pest in Navarra and La Rioja. Later he built a bridge, a hospital and hostel for pilgrims on the Way of St. James. He built a paved causeway (calzada) between Logroño and Burgos.
La Rioja was annexed to the kingdom of Castile in 1076. Alfonso VI then supported Domingo him and his projects and in 1090 Domingo began the construction of a church dedicated to Christ and the Virgin Mary. He would be buried in this church, which is now the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
In memory of the most famous miracle of Santo Domingo, a rooster and chicken, with white feathers, are kept alive at the cathedral.