First it was all sorts of birds that made up the collection of animals located in the cathedral of Barcelona; The zoological exhibition already gave prestige to the Crown and the Church in medieval times.
Up to twenty-four species of birds came to be gathered in the cloister. It is documented that the first goose was not contributed until 1677; Maybe it came a little late, true, but from the beginning of the 19th century only the geese were left, enlivening with their noisy presence the diminished patio that surrounds the pond presided over by the fountain. At some point they missed each other.
It is the foreign travelers who informed us of its reappearance, since this picturesque trivial detail in the mid-nineteenth century fed their curiosity and colored the story of such as Ford, Andersen or Street; all of them told in their book that there were geese, without specifying their number.
It is not clear if they were purchased; On the other hand, it is known that donations were accepted, such as that of the Marquis of Marianao in 1911.
They disappeared because of the uncivil war. In the 40s, four geese were given away.
Their number has centered modern chronicles, stimulated by what the imaginative Joan Amades, more folklorist and storyteller than historian, ventured in his day to, they say, recover the forgotten patron saint Eulàlia at the expense of the already exalted competitor Mercè. The fact was that it was taken out of the sleeve that there were thirteen geese, and that thirteen had to be neither one more nor one less in order to evoke that thirteen were the torments suffered by the Christian martyr and thirteen the years that she then counted. Who knows…
What is proven is that thirteen must be. Hence, in 2006, when one of them died, she could not be replaced by another, as she would have been immediately rejected by such a peculiar herd. The specialists explain that the entry could only be effective if you are a couple.
This chronicle is indebted to the unusual book Bèsties en sagrat, by Joan de Déu Domènech, whose trail I have followed as a writer. Passing through the cathedral archives inspired this delicious and impeccable work. He regrets that he did not find a publisher and had to pay for a print run that only 50 buyers have.
