Camino Day 11: San Millán de la Cogolla – Santo Domingo de la Calzada (19/03/15)

It was now time to get back to the main Camino Francés route after our detour to San Millán de la Cogolla. Returning to the Yuso visitor's centre we had our credencials stamped at reception and then took a few minutes to have a coffee and a chocolate bar from the vending machines in the foyer.

The bell tower of Santo Domingo Cathedral

We walked out into the entrance courtyard of Yuso at 11.30am and were immediately met by an enthusiastic coachload of German senior citizens who were just arriving for a tour of the monasteries. There was much excitement when they saw us and they began to gather round us as one of them asked me in English where we were from and whether were real pilgrims walking to Santiago? I explained that we were Irish, and indeed walking to Santiago, but in stages and on this trip we had only walked from Estella. Would I mind posing for photographs so that they could photograph my rucksack with scallop shell? No problem, I said, but pointed out that David's large white scallop shell which I had found near Luquin was so much larger than my weedy little Ventry example. The Germans gasped with approval upon seeing David's superior scallop and fell on him like a celebrity, snapping away whilst I stood back. I was filled with covetous scallop shell envy! :-)

Bidding auf wiedersehen to our German admirers we finally set off in the light rain. I had not slept that well the night before for two reasons. Firstly my mum was having an operation on her shoulder back in Ireland that morning and I was worried about her and how she would cope. But secondly, I was still thinking of the slump that I had the previous day at the roundabout and the interminable walk downhill to Berceo in the rain and that hill had built up into a major physical and psychological barrier in my fitful dreams during the night that had to be scaled to get back to the Camino. I trudged out of San Millán with slight trepidation, steeling myself for the ordeal before me.

Halfway to Santo Domingo

However, to our amazement the walk to Cirueña turned out to be much easier than we expected. Maybe it was because we had a good breakfast with plenty of protein from the yoghurt, cheese and chorizo, maybe the chocolate bars helped, maybe we were just in good spirits after seeing the monasteries and staying in a good guesthouse, but whatever the reason, we found the road up to the roundabout which had seemed so hard the day before, now seemed much easier. Apart from a short break to have a snack back at the roundabout, we set what we consider a blistering pace of 6km an hour and walked the 12 km to Cirueña in 2 hours! Not bad for a 59 year old and a 47 year old! I was reminded how unjustified my fears had been and what can seem a hard road one day, can seem easy the next - definitely something to remember in life.

David powering towards Ciruena

When we reached Cirueña, we knew we had rejoined the Camino Frances and I was delighted to see a familiar yellow arrow and greeted it symbolically like a long lost friend while I waited for David to catch up (if anyone was watching I am sure they thought I was mad!).

We decided to celebrate with a sandwich, in what looked from the outside, a very unprepossessing cafe called Bar Jacobeo. But never judge a book by it's cover - outward appearances can be deceptive! We stepped inside and the first thing I noticed was that there were several local extended families dining - always a good sign to see locals eating in a bar I feel. The second thing I noticed was that two policemen were also eating. My dad always used to say that if you see policemen eating in a cafe it is always a good sign that the food is good!

Bar Jacobeo

We had been thinking of a sandwich as I said, but the barman suggested the menu. Sure, why not we thought? It was 1.30pm and we could treat ourselves after the success of our San Millán detour! This turned out to be the best meal I have so far eaten! It was stupendous! It would have been served in a fancy restaurant and cost a fortune had it been in Ireland!

The superlative paella!

A terracotta jar of red wine came first - wine always gladdens my heart - so far so good, then a fabulous seafood paella for primo, full of scallops and prawns. Segundo was calamari and salad for David and for me the most wonderful squid in squid ink sauce - maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing dish, but rich, savoury and very filling. Dessert was what the Spanish call "flan" - creme caramel, and one of the delights of walking the Camino from a culinary point of view, is trying out the different homemade flans, often quite different from each other. Usually there are small cup sized affairs, but we were staggered after the first two courses when enormous cake-sized wedges of flan were brought out. It was solid, it was creamy and it was heaven! I needed an espresso to close the stomach! It cost E11 - nothing in my opinion for such a feast!

Squid in ink sauce

We literally waddled out of Bar Jacobeo wondering how on earth we could walk the remaining approximately 7km to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, but somehow we did, be passed by our two fellow police diners cruising slowly down the Camino trackway in a squad car - the first time we had seen the police patrol the Camino. In the end it took us 3 hours and 50 minutes to walk the 19 km from San Millán de la Cogolla to Santo Domingo de la Calzada.

Flan

We entered Santo Domingo past a potato packing warehouse. I had hoped to stay in the Cistercian Convent and hear the nuns sing Vespers, but when we rang the doorbell nothing happened and we found out at the information centre that the nuns go away on holiday in the winter and were not at home. No matter, we made our way down the street to Albergue Casa del Santo which is run by a Spanish Confraternity. Checking in with us at the same time was a very tall young German man (built like a barn door) called Aaron who was complaining about his legs - he had the ubiquitous shin splints. Also milling around in the foyer were several Koreans who we came to like and provided colour for the last part of walk.

David walking towards Santo Domingo

The albergue was interesting - a strange eclectic mix of original Medieval and Renaissance elements – the façade of the old Bishop’s Palace, with it’s arched gateway and courtyard, and original rooms with period furniture behind a glass door, combined with a very cold yellow - glass 1970's style chapel and modern extensions. The dormitory was up two flights of stairs and for so large a building seemed fairly cramped, but comfortable enough.

Because we were some of the last to arrive there were few beds left so I let the elderly David (!) have the only remaining ground floor bunk and I had a second level bunk beneath a plywood slanted ceiling. I made note to self, not to sit up suddenly during the night or I would smack my head on same!

The bathroom was also cramped and the floor was flooded as other pilgrims had already done their ablutions and as there was nowhere to hang clothes whilst showering it was hard to keep things dry. I had been spoilt by the albergue at Logroño and our guesthouse at San Millán and I could feel myself getting irritated, but I reminded myself that this was not the right attitude and that on the Camino I should accept each day as it comes and try not to complain.

David and I were particularly keen to wash some clothes but checking around in the back garden we found that there were no washing machines and tumble driers and as it was too cold to dry clothes on a line, I decided to reluctantly shelve the idea until I got to Belorado.

Palace of  the Marquis of Fuerte Hijar

Time was getting on and we wanted to see Santo Domingo before the sun set, so we made our way into town. This ancient town is full of character and we saw Spanish tourists wandering around with their families as well as pilgrims. Some of the heritage buildings seemed dilapidated like the 18th Century Baroque Palace of the Marquis of Fuerte Hijar, with it's broken shutters and collapsing roof, but most of the town was well kept and shone in the evening sunlight as the morning’s rain had long since cleared.

Dog in Plaza Santo

The town is named after it's founder; Santo Domingo de la Calzada - St Dominic of the Roadside. Santo Domingo is one of the most interesting historical figures linked with the development of the Camino. Born in 1019 in the nearby village of Viloria as Domingo Garcia, he studied at the Abbey of Valvanera and then San Millán before being rejected by the authorities there for not being of a sufficient intellectual standard. Not to be thwarted in his call to serve God, Santo Domingo retired to live as a hermit on the site of the present town and decided to dedicate his life to serving  pilgrims on their way to Santiago. In 1044 he built a bridge over the rio Oja as well as a pilgrim hospital (which is now a Parador) and a church which later developed into the cathedral.

Artist's impression of the early development of Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Aymeric Picaud, who wrote a medieval account of the Camino says that Santo Domingo also "built the stretch of the road between Najera and Redecilla del Camino". In 1076 Alfonso VI extended his rule over La Rioja and gave his unconditional support to the work of the saint. He died in 1109 and around his tomb the "Burgo de Santo Domingo" grew up into the town we see today.

Portal of Cathedral

We made our way first to Plaza Santo. Opposite the Cathedral was the baroque facade of the small Hermitage Chapel and we decided to step inside it first and found a delightful 16th Century vaulted interior. The sense of peace compared with the hustle and bustle of the Plaza outside was palpable and we sat for a while enjoying the opportunity to reflect and seek God after a busy day.

Inside the Hermitage Chapel

Returning outside we next climbed the 18th century cathedral bell tower and this afforded fine views of the narrow streets below; the remaining stretches of the town's ramparts; the surprising proximity of the modern road, busy with lorries on the flat plain to the north of the town, and also a close up of the bells themselves. I also was also interested in the graffiti on the stonework around the bells - including some cross pattees - an ancient symbol of pilgrimage that I have also encountered in Ireland at pligrims sites such on the Saint's Road in Dingle, Co. Kerry.

David on top of the bell tower

View up inside of bell tower

Looking towards Belorado from Bell tower

Bell tower graffiti

Descending, we then went into the cathedral - the gothic church of San Salvador.  The original church was consecrated in the 12th century and had quite a dark interior. It was built over Santo Domingo's original Romanesque church and has Latin Cross ground plan with three aisles, a ribbed vault and a Romanesque ambulatory behind the high altar which had carvings in fine relief which were uplit, and therefore easy to see and which I enjoyed a lot. Floral motifs are interspersed with human figures including my favourite; King David playing a lute - a fitting theme for a house of worship considering that David organised the Levitical choirs for the Biblical Temple in Jerusalem.

A fine renaissance gilded retable by Damian Forment dating from 1537 - 40, with an impressive silver altar has been moved into a chapel on the north side so as not to obscure the ambulatory.

Apse

Apse carving detail

King David

Nearby in the south transept is the impressive mausoleum of Santo Domingo himself. The saint originally requested to be buried in the middle of the road he had done so much to develop, outside the church he had built, however with the construction of the later cathedral, his tomb became incorporated within it’s walls. The Romanesque tomb is still at the old street level – I descended down some steps below the floor level of the cathedral to view it in a fairly austere stone chapel adorned with a statue of Santo Domingo himself with a kneeling follower at his feet and with some scenes of the passion and resurrection of Christ on the walls.

Tomb of Santo Domingo

Detail of Scenes from the Passion of Christ on wall of Santo Domingo's tomb

Over the sepulchre soars a gothic canopy with a recumbent statue of the saint at the floor level of the cathedral. At one end of this is an altar featuring another, presumably Baroque, statue of the saint, complete with staff, Gandalf-like beard and brown cloak, within a niche and standing on a silver plinth within a silver arch decorated with florid scallop shell and floral motifs. At his feet stand two cockerels which brings us to the most bizarre sight in the cathedral.



Gothic canopy over Santo Domingo's tomb



Near the mausoleum on the west wall of the south transept is a late gothic carved niche with a renaissance grille behind which is a cage containing a pair of live white chickens – a cockerel and a hen! This structure is called the Gallinero or Chicken Coop of Santo Domingo. The tradition of keeping chickens in the cathedral is linked to the most famous miracle associated with Santo Domingo. There are as usual, various versions of the story but basically, it is said that in the 14^th Century an 18 year old German pilgrim called Hugonell from the Diocese of Cologne was on pilgrimage with his parents and stayed in an inn in Santo Domingo. The innkeeper’s daughter made sexual advances to Hugonell, who refused them. The spurned girl was filled with anger and hid a silver cup in Hugonell’s bag to get revenge and then informed the town authorities that Hugonell had taken it. Hugonell was sentenced to death and hanged. As his grief stricken parents were preparing to leave they heard their son’s voice telling them that he was still alive as Santo Domingo himself was holding him up by the feet. They rushed to the house of the town judge who was just sitting down to a dinner of two roast chickens, a cock and a hen, and told him their story. The judge scoffed at them and replied that their son was no more alive than the chickens on his plate whereupon they jumped up miraculously from his plate complete with feathers and began to flutter around proving the boy’s innocence!

Altar of Santo Domingo

This miraculous story in fact has elements that occurred again and again across Medieval Europe – versions appeared in places like Utrecht, Toulouse and Barcelos on the Camino Português. In 1307 for example, the Welsh rebel William ap Rhys was hanged at Swansea Castle and was claimed to have been raised from the dead when Lady Mary de Briouze had prayed to St Thomas de Cantilupe, the deceased Bishop of Hereford. Upon his recovery ap Rhys had claimed that de Cantilupe had held him up by his feet when he was on the gallows. The story of roasted chickens being resurrected is more unusual, although a version involving resurrected geese does appear in an old English carol.

The Gallinero

The chickens kept in the cathedral today are supposedly the descendants of the roasted ones and the Religious Order that runs the albergue keeps a spare pair in a chicken coop in the garden, which I saw and swaps them over every two weeks. The tradition of keeping chickens continually in the cathedral only dates from 1965 (which was a Catholic Holy Year) as prior to this they were only seen between the 15^th April and 13^th October. Supposedly it is good luck if a pilgrim hears the cockerel crow – I was reminded of something Heinz had said a couple of days earlier in the café in Azofra “I will sit there all day if I have to, to hear the b*@~#$ bird crow!!”

The holy chickens!

Also within the cathedral was an interesting museum. However alongside the usual ecclesiastical items, engravings and manuscripts was a Playmobile Holy Week exhibition! This consisted of elaborate dioramas of scenes from the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Christ and also one of an Easter Sunday parade in a Spanish town. At first David and I were a bit dubious of the whole concept, but after watching fascinated children interacting with the story of Easter Week as they examined the dioramas with their parents, we decided it was a great way to portray the gospel message in an accessible way to small children.

Playmobile Advert

The museum also included an interesting exhibition of Chinese porcelain from different dynastic periods. I have no idea why it was being displayed, but I enjoyed seeing the Tang Dynasty Horse and the incredible smooth glaze of Song Dynasty ware – so far in advance of anything Europe could produce in the same period.

Playmobile flagellation of Christ

Back outside, David and I enjoyed wandering through the streets soaking up the atmosphere of the evening passiagata. We were still stuffed from our meal in Cirueña but felt we should have a light supper and also buy a few things for breakfast, so we called into a small supermarket and bought provisions.

Playmobile Via Dolorosa

Returning to the albergue we were dismayed to see a laundrette directly across the street from the front door – we could have done some much needed laundry after all but had somehow missed noticing it!

Tang Dynasty artefacts

In the albergue kitchen Aaron the German was frying up vast amounts of food and explaining to another pilgrim how he had been to see a GP for a steroid injection to reduce his shin splint pain. The Korean party suddenly returned. They consisted of an older very quiet gentleman, probably in his 60’s who always looked very serious, accompanied by a group of two young men, one very boisterous and one quiet and reserved, and about four young women who walked everywhere in flip flops. Upon entering the kitchen the boisterous Korean announced in an excited very loud voice “Santo Domingo - it is a Chicken Village!!” and proceeded to produce several souvenir pottery cockerels from a bag. The Koreans also produced several bottles of red wine to accompany their supper and the party went on in the kitchen long after we had retired to bed!

Song Dynasty Porcelain

I was tired, so I climbed up into my bunk to read a Henri Nouwen book I had brought. In the bed next to me was a Brazilian young man with dreadlocks and earrings called Alex, who was also suffering from severe shin splints. He spoke in a quiet hippy sort of manner and whilst reading I was amused to observe Aaron walk into the dormitory, his 6ft 5” bulk dressed in bedtime attire – a vest with nipples printed on the chest and psychedelic striped pants. Alex was limping out the door to the bathroom and stopped to slowly drawl “No way man! Like, what are you wearing? That is the most disgusting outfit I have ever seen anyone wear!” Aaron looked at him, smiled and replied in his heavily German accented English “Do not vorry Alex – you take life far too seriously – go to bed and relax and you feel much better in the morning!” The amusement, respect, tolerance and even affection that pilgrims show each other in the albergues summed up in one little exchange of banter!

Tomb in Cathedral