Walking the Camino: Heritage Encounters on the Way to Santiago

FRH invites you to walk the world-famous Camino de Santiago alongside our member, Maaike de Jong. Over the coming weeks, Maaike will share weekly reflections from the trail, offering a unique insight at the rich heritage she encounters—not only in the form of historic monuments and sacred sites, but also through the living traditions, stories, and people that keep the Camino’s spirit alive.

Follow her footsteps and reflections each week on our Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

First stage | The story of Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Dear FRH community,

My name is Maaike de Jong. I work in the field of sustainability and cultural heritage, and at the moment I am on the Camino Francés, the historic pilgrimage route that leads to Santiago de Compostela together with my husband Alexander. Over the coming weeks, I will share images and reflections from the road, with a focus on SDG 11.4: safeguarding cultural and natural heritage.

Walking through northern Spain, heritage is not just something you visit in a museum,  it surrounds you at every step. Two stories in particular have struck me deeply:
 

• The bridge builder: Santo Domingo de la Calzada (1019–1109)
  Known as “the saint of the road,” Domingo dedicated his life to making the Camino safer for pilgrims. He built bridges over the rivers and laid causeways across the marshes, often with his own hands. His work is a reminder that infrastructure itself can be heritage, form of care and solidarity preserved in stone. Even today, pilgrims cross bridges that bear witness to his vision of hospitality.
• The miracle of the chickens. In the cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a live rooster and hen are still kept in memory of a medieval miracle. According to the story, a young pilgrim was falsely accused and hanged, but miraculously survived. His parents appealed to the local judge, who mocked them by saying their son was as alive as the roasted chickens on his plate. At that moment, the chickens jumped up and crowed. Since then, the presence of living birds in the church has become a tangible sign of faith, justice, and wonder, heritage that is both symbolic and very much alive.

These encounters show how heritage on the Camino is layered: it is physical (bridges, roads, churches), narrative (the legends and stories), and living (traditions that continue in practice today). For me, it highlights the importance of walking as a way of experiencing heritage not just as a monument, but as a living, shared reality.

I look forward to sharing more of these discoveries with you in the coming weeks, and to reflecting on how pilgrimage routes like the Camino can inspire our broader work of sustaining religious heritage.

Warm greetings,
Maaike de Jong

From left to right: Mosaic of the miracle of the chickens. Chicken coop on a portico inside the cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada. Façade of the cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada at night.