What you can see on the Santo Domingo de la Calzada webcam
The camera stands on a wooded rise outside town and looks over farmland to the roofs of Santo Domingo, with the cathedral's tall bell tower near the middle and mountains faint on the horizon. It is a still image with the date and time, and it also plays as a time-lapse of the last 24 hours.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada and the cathedral's tower
From a wooded rise outside the town, this camera of the Government of La Rioja looks across ploughed fields and a line of trees to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The town stretches along the middle of the picture in a band of brown roofs, and near its centre the slender bell tower of the cathedral stands far above everything else: it was finished in the 18th century, stands apart from the church and, at about 70 m (230 ft), is the tallest tower in La Rioja. Pilgrims on the Way of St James cross farmland like this on the stage from Nájera, and the camera shows the weather they are walking in, from summer heat haze to winter fog. It is a still image with the date and time; it also plays as a 24-hour time-lapse.
Where the hen crowed after it was roasted
The cathedral keeps a live cockerel and hen in an ornate coop inside the church, the only cathedral in the world with animals living in it, under a papal permission of 1350. They recall the town's best-known legend: a young pilgrim, wrongly hanged for theft, was found still alive, and when his parents ran to tell the magistrate, he answered that their son was as alive as the roast birds on his table, which promptly stood up and crowed. The cathedral's baroque bell tower, finished in the 18th century, stands apart from the church and rises to about 70 m (230 ft), the tallest in La Rioja; local tradition says it was built separately because the ground beside the church was too sandy to hold it.
When to watch Santo Domingo de la Calzada
Santo Domingo is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. Pilgrims pass all year, but most walk between spring and autumn. Summer days are hot on the open farmland of the Rioja Alta, and in winter fog and frost are common.
Around Santo Domingo de la Calzada
Ezcaray and the Sierra de la Demanda are 9 miles (14 km) to the south, and Haro and its wineries 12 miles (20 km) to the north. Westbound, the Camino passes Grañón, the last village in La Rioja, before entering Castile.
Visiting Santo Domingo de la Calzada
The cathedral, its tower and the pilgrims' hostel stand close together in the old town, easy to see on foot. Bilbao airport, with flights from the UK and Ireland, is about 71 miles (115 km) away by road.
