As a group of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago we were very interested in the story of our hotel, Casa Bendariz.

The owner, through a translator from a traveling Spanish family, told us that the house that we were staying in was 100 years older than the church. (The house, as recorded in a previous post, was built in the 1500’s.)

I asked if we could see the church. The storyteller said, “Yes, it is just around the corner.” (It was literally about 30 feet away but we were sitting on the opposite side of the house.)

The story continues. When the rocks were hewn for the church to be built, the decision was made for the cows from this farm to pull the rocks. They decided to let the cows go wherever they wanted and then they would build the church wherever the cows stopped.

The cows only knew to come home so that is where they walked and that is why the church is built so close to the house.