First it was all kinds of birds that formed the collection of animals located in the cathedral of Barcelona; the zoological exhibition already granted prestige to the Crown and the Church in the medieval period.
Up to twenty-four species of birds were gathered in the cloister. It is documented that the first goose was not brought until 1677; it may have arrived a little late, true, but from the beginning of the 19th century only the geese remained, animating with their noisy presence the diminutive yard surrounding the pond presided over by the outlet. In some period they were missing.
It is the foreign travelers who informed us of its reappearance, since this picturesque little detail in the middle of the 19th century fueled their curiosity and colored the story of some such as Ford, Andersen or Street; all of them explained in their book that there were geese, without specifying the number.
It is not clear if they were bought; 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 civil war. In the 1940s, four geese were given away.
Their number has focused 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 high-profile 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 to evoke that thirteen were the torments suffered by the Christian martyr and thirteen the years she was then. Go find out…
What is proven is that there must be thirteen. Hence, in 2006 when one died, she could not be replaced by any other, as she would have been rejected at the time by such a peculiar flock. The specialists explain that the entry could only be effective if it is a couple.
This chronicle is indebted to the unusual book Bèsties en sagrat, by Joan de Déu Domènech, whose track I have followed as a writer. The passage through the cathedral archive inspired him to this delicious and impeccable work. I regret that I could not find a publisher and had to finance a print run that only 50 buyers treasure.
