The Miracle of the Hen (Lenda do Galo) was brought back to life in Barcelos in early June through a theatrical performance at the Paço dos Condes (Palace of the Counts) and an exhibition of clay figures at the Torre Medieval (Medieval Tower). The initiatives involved hundreds of participants and brought together schools, artists and local institutions in a collective effort to celebrate the town’s intangible cultural heritage.
The theatrical re-enactment took place on 31 May and was led by students from Rosa Ramalho School and Minho University, with technical direction by the theatre company A Capoeira. The open-air performance featured dozens of actors and drew a large audience, offering a contemporary interpretation of the legend. In parallel, around four hundred students from across the municipality took part in a ceramics workshop, creating clay representations of the story — roosters, judges, gallows, pilgrims — in a free and creative approach. The works are now on display at the Torre Medieval, in a collective exhibition promoted by Barcelos City Council and the Municipal Art Gallery.
On 7 and 8 June, the theatre group Teatro de Balugas performed its own version of the Miracle of the Hen, also at the Paço dos Condes, using live clay modelling as the central element of the narrative. The performance combined storytelling, puppet-like figures and live music, all delivered with humour. The show will now travel to Balugães, where it is set to be presented at the Romanesque Church of São Martinho, one of the main landmarks along the Portuguese Camino. The wider programme of events, organised by Barcelos City Council, will continue throughout July, August and September, with further presentations planned.
The Miracle of the Hen is one of the best-known stories along the Portuguese Camino. According to the tradition, sometime in the Middle Ages, a man was wrongly accused of theft and sentenced to hang. Before the execution, he asked to speak with the judge, who received him during a meal. The condemned man insisted on his innocence and claimed that the roasted rooster on the judge’s plate would rise and crow to prove the truth. Against all expectations, the rooster crowed. The judge rushed to stop the execution and the man was saved.
This narrative parallels an older version from Santo Domingo de la Calzada, in Spain. In that account, a young French pilgrim travelling to Compostela is falsely accused and hanged. His mother, desperate, prayed to Saint Dominic. Shortly afterwards, the young man was found alive, praying while hanging from the gallows, and a cooked chicken began to sing inside the pot. The authorities released him, and the saint’s fame spread. To this day, the cathedral in Santo Domingo houses a henhouse with a live white-feathered rooster and hen, and it is said that hearing the rooster crow is a good omen for pilgrims on their way to Santiago. Above the henhouse — built in 1445 — a preserved fragment of the gallows is kept as a relic of the miracle.
