Magnet #331 - Galo de Barcelos, PortugalA friend of mine brought this magnet back for me from her trip to Portugal. It's O Galo de Barcelos, the unofficial symbol for Portugal.
As with most legends, his origins are so old, that no one knows for sure the story behind it, which leaves us with several versions.
One version is some rich dude in Barcelos gave a banquet, and piece of silver was stolen. One of the guests was accused of the crime, tried and found guilty - and the whole while, he swore his innocence. So, the magistrate gave him one chance to prove his case. The guy saw the rooster in a basket and said if that rooster crows, I'm innocent. It did. So the guy was set free.
There are other versions along the same lines, but say that it was a murder the guy (supposedly a Spaniard) committed, and that he had already been hung, and when the rooster (which was already roasted) came alive and crowed three times, the accused had miraculously survived the rope. He was freed, and went back to Barcelos and built a religious statue to thank the saints who had helped him.
Legends are fabulous, aren't they? Written word, people. Never underestimate the power of the written word.
Anyway, the real reason I picked today, was because I hadn't yet done my homework on O Galo, and somehow had thought this was a pretty chicken. And I was going to use that chicken to expound on the wonders of the best meal ever - scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns.
Yeah, the rooster was probably a little more fascinating than breakfast.
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