The Rooster of Barcelos ( pt, Galo de Barcelos) is a common symbol of Portugal.
Folk tale
The folk tale of the rooster of Barcelos, tells the story of a dead rooster's miraculous intervention in proving the innocence of a man who had been falsely convicted and sentenced to death. The story is associated with the 17th-century
calvary that is part of the collection of the Archaeological Museum located in Paço dos Condes, a gothic-style palace in
Barcelos, a city in the
Braga District of northwest
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a Sovereign state, country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southern Europe, Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes ...
.
According to the tale, a landowner in
Barcelos had stolen silver and the inhabitants of that city were looking for the thief. A man from
Galicia became a suspect, despite his pleas of innocence. The
Galician swore that he was merely passing through Barcelos on a
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
to
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...
to fulfill a promise.
Nevertheless, the authorities arrested the man and condemned him to
hang
Hang or Hanging may refer to:
People
* Choe Hang (disambiguation), various people
* Luciano Hang (born 1962/1963), Brazilian billionaire businessman
* Ren Hang (disambiguation), various people
Law
* Hanging, a form of capital punishment
Arts, ...
. The man asked them to take him in front of the
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility ...
who had condemned him. The authorities honoured his request and took him to the house of the magistrate, who was holding a banquet. Affirming his innocence, the man pointed to a roasted
rooster
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...
on top of the banquet table and exclaimed, "''It is as certain that I am innocent as that rooster will crow when they hang me.''" The judge pushed aside his plate, deciding not to eat the rooster, but otherwise ignored the appeal.
However, while the pilgrim was hanged, the roasted rooster stood up on the table and crowed as predicted. Understanding his error, the judge ran to the gallows, to discover that the man had been saved from death thanks to a poorly made knot. The man was immediately freed.
Some years later, he returned to Barcelos to
sculpt the ''Calvary (or Crucifix) to the Lord of the Rooster'' (Portuguese, "''Cruzeiro do Senhor do Galo''") in praise to the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...
and to
Saint James. The monument is located in the Barcelos Archaeological Museum.
Variations
In all cases, the folk tale of the Rooster of Barcelos is about a dead rooster that crows to prove an accused man's innocence. However, variations to the story include:
* The pilgrim is a guest whom the landowner invited to his banquet, where silver is stolen.
* The pilgrim stays at a local inn, and the greedy owner of the inn accuses the pilgrim.
* There are two pilgrims, father and son. The son is accused, and the father pleads his innocence by calling on the rooster to crow.
* The rooster crows as soon as the accused man declares it will, so the man is never taken to the gallows.
* The accused is not from Galicia.
* The miracle is located in La Rioja, Spain and associated to Saint
Dominic de la Calzada
Dominic de la Calzada (or Dominic of the Causeway) ( es, Santo Domingo de la Calzada) (1019 – 12 May 1109) was a saint from a cottage in Burgos very close to La Rioja (Spain), La Rioja.
Life
Born Domingo García in Viloria de Rioja, he was the ...
.
In popular culture
In the 1990s U.S. sitcom ''
Seinfeld
''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and fo ...
'', Elaine's first apartment, which she shares with a roommate who briefly dates Kramer, is shown furnished in kitschy style, cluttered with
bric-a-brac — including a rooster of Barcelos: It can be seen in the episode “
The Truth”, aired in 1991.
The rooster of Barcelos is used in the logo of
Nando's
Nando's (; ) is a South African multinational fast casual chain that specialises in flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken. Founded in Johannesburg in 1987, Nando's operates over 1,200 outlets in 30 countries. Their logo (also seen as a sort ...
, a
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to De ...
-based chicken restaurant chain.
See also
{{Commons category, Cock of Barcelos
*
Symbols of Portugal
*
Gallic rooster
The Gallic rooster (french: le coq gaulois) is a national symbol of France as a nation, as opposed to Marianne representing France as a state and its values: the Republic. The rooster is also the symbol of the Wallonia region and the French Comm ...
References
External links
Galo de Barcelos Video, by Daniel Oliveira PrinsThe legend of the Rooster of Barcelos at the Barcelos City Hall's website (Portuguese)
Portuguese folklore
National symbols of Portugal
Fictional chickens
Barcelos, Portugal
Mythological galliforms
Birds in mythology
Birds in art
Animals in Christianity
Camino de Santiago