Nájera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Origins and the Camino

In the mid-11th century Domingo settled by the Oja river to help pilgrims.

That hospital is now the parador, opposite the cathedral. Alfonso XI granted the town city status in 1334, and the walls that still ring the old quarter are credited to Pedro I.

Anecdotes, curiosities and legends

Legend has it that a young pilgrim was falsely accused of theft and hanged. His parents found him alive on the gallows, held up by the saint, and when the judge scoffed that the boy was as alive as the roast rooster and hen on his table, the birds stood up and crowed.

Hence the Spanish saying that in Santo Domingo de la Calzada «the hen sang after being roasted». The cathedral's Gothic henhouse, from the late 15th century, always keeps a pair of white birds.

Pilgrim tip

Inside the cathedral, find the henhouse opposite the saint's tomb and wait a moment: tradition says that hearing the rooster crow is a good omen for the rest of your Camino.