We present a small selection of legends and tales that run along our routes, some from ancient times, and that were transmitted orally from generation to generation.
Legend of the cotolay charcoal burner and the fountain of gold
Tradition says that Cotolay was a humble charcoal burner who lived on the slopes of Pedroso with little means. His life changed when he met Saint Francis of Assisi, who had made a pilgrimage to Compostela. The saint and Cotolay shared advice and teachings.
Before leaving, Saint Francis asked him to build a church. The charcoal burner told him that he had no resources, so the saint assured him that he would find what he needed at a spring near his hut. And so it was that Cotolay found a hidden treasure, with which he financed what we know today as the convent of San Francisco (1749).
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Legend of santa lucía’s dragon
The Codex Calixtinus tells us that Queen Lupa ordered the remains of the Apostle to be deposited on the mountain now known as Pico Sacro. There, the disciples who were carrying him found a female dragon, which they killed by making the sign of the cross, as this figure is related to the diabolical cults that were celebrated there. When she died, she released three eggs into the cave, which were never heard of again.
On the façade of the Church of Santa Lucía, there is a carved dragon that popular knowledge relates to this legend. This is an alternative ending for this reptile, which is said to have come badly wounded to die there.
In another version, when they were preparing the land to build the church, they found a buried winged dragon, which they considered to be one of the children of the beast.
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Legend of don álvaro de coimbra
In the twelfth century there was a Portuguese nobleman who one day, already advanced in years, decided to keep his promise and give Santiago a hug, and thus began a pilgrimage with more enthusiasm than strength. After several stages and many efforts, on the evening of July 24 he arrived at the outskirts of Compostela, but in the height of the Sar crossing, he was out of breath to continue, and thus the night surprised him. He closed his eyes and resigned himself to death while pronouncing: “Goodbye, beloved Coimbra! Too bad not to be able to get to Santiago!” However, at the last moment, a powerful force transported him to Mount Gaiás, specifically where the Prism of the Senses is located today, and thus, he was able to contemplate the city before dying with a smile on his lips, after having fulfilled his goal.
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Legend of juan tuorum, the holy man of bonaval
Juan Tuorum was an honest farrier, a venerable old man and the father of a beautiful maiden. His only sin was to defend the interests of his city. In 1330, Archbishop Berenguel returned to Santiago after a forced exile in Pontevedra due to pressure from the people of Compostela over a dispute related to the Temporary Jurisdiction of Santiago. With Berenguel’s return, revenge began, and some coward who had been rejected by Tuorum’s daughter identified him as the leader of the rebels who assaulted the archbishop’s chamber. Berenguel had him arrested and sentenced to death by hanging at Costiña do Monte (Almáciga). The people of Compostela waited outside the prison to accompany him to the gallows, but the execution was never carried out
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Legend of ramírez de arellano and the cursed stone cross in conxo
Manuel Joseph Ramírez de Arellano y Sotomayor was a nobleman who lived in the 18th century. According to tradition and documents of the time, one day he approached the estates that formed the lands of Conxo and there he fought a duel and died (in another document he was killed in an ambush). His mother paid for a stone cross to be placed on the site of his death with the following inscription: “Here is where D. Manuel Joseph Ramírez de Arella died do not pray to God for him. Year of 1718″. This inscription created confusion and the cross was considered a curse until the historian Pérez Constanti clarified that Arellano was the surname of the deceased, its original location was in Matacáns street, later it was moved to Fonseca, due to the works of the Ensanche, and nowadays, we can see it in the square of San Fins de Solovio.
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Legend of santa lucía’ s church bell
Bells have an important symbolic significance in our culture. If we look at the bell of the church of Santa Lucía, it is striking for its large size, which is disproportionate to the cavity in which it is ‘fitted’.
According to a story that goes around the parish, this bell came from the cathedral of León and travelled in a cart of oxen bound for the cathedral; however, as it was very heavy, the people who were transporting it decided to leave it there.
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Legend of the landlady, the witch of sarela
The meigas, those women with extraordinary or magical powers, are deeply rooted in Galician popular culture. In the spring of 1930, a news item appeared in the Compostela papers. It was about a woman: Josefa García, a landlady from Sarela de Abaixo, who was said to cure the evil eye. Josefa was arrogant, violent, insulting and obscene. It is said that she made evil spells and concoctions that could bring misfortune to a household (kill calves, cause stillbirths, …) or raise curses. In fact, he even claimed that if you gave her 500 pesetas she would end the world. Fortunately, it seems that nobody gave them to her.
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Legend of saint marcos
After passing the Lavacolla stream, you had to go up the coast of the Rexidoira. Saint Marcos went up as a pilgrim, who came to visit the Apostle Santiago. Almost halfway up the slope, another younger pilgrim catches up with him, who brings a pole with very worn sandals. Very talkative and, apparently, a good connoisseur of the way, St. Marcos asked him:
“Since you know so much about the road and the lodgings, could you tell me how long it will take to get to Santiago?”
“Oh, very much,” the kid replied. “I come from Germany and there is another one to go. See how many sandals? Well, I will have to spend as many more, since Santiago is at the end of the Earth, at the end of the world.” (When in reality only a league separated him from the end of the road)
St. Marcos, upon hearing this, became discouraged and decided not to continue. He also ordered the construction of a chapel right there, facing the opposite side of the city (the east).
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Legend of the stone virgin in the sar
In June 2020, a fisherman found a Gothic sculpture of the Virgin and Child in the Sar River as it passes through Conxo. The piece, dated from the fourteenth century, was extracted and transferred to the Museum of Pilgrimages in Santiago de Compostela. He believed that the sculpture, which weighs around 150 kilos, could have been used as a filling for an old dike. There has been speculation about its origin, and some hypotheses assign it to the monastery of Conxo or the disappeared grotto.
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