Rooster of Barcelos

A Galician pilgrim, leaving Barcelos for Santiago de Compostela, is accused of theft and sentenced to hang. Brought before a judge who is about to eat a roast rooster, he declares that the bird will crow to prove his innocence. The judge scoffs, but at the gallows the cooked bird stands up and sings. The judge hurries to the scaffold and finds the man alive, saved by a badly tied knot. The tale adds that the pilgrim later returned to carve the Cruzeiro do Senhor do Galo, now kept in the Archaeological Museum, housed in the ruins of the Paço dos Condes de Barcelos.

The rooster was first painted in loud, garish colours; today it appears in many patterns and in a more stylised shape that is still recognisable. Its standing as a symbol was tested in law. In July 2020 the municipality applied to register it as a trademark, and in November the national industrial property institute (INPI) refused, arguing that the Barcelos rooster is a well-known symbol of Portuguese popular culture. The Intellectual Property Court sided with the municipality on appeal, and in June 2021 the registration was announced: a black rooster with yellow beak and red crest, painted with bright, mostly red flowers.