/ # r V moj/cra] i/kib-t '. -fc*^.' / * ‘* '^ *' ” «;'t ^ ^ ■ i^- T \- W * *-^ -i* s >' fjr.. , 4 ^ , • flti. , ' ' ■ ,. * *■",■# ■t' *,f ’*' ' 'Ir ♦* ^ f ** • ".-<«i, 4 ft 4 , #“. j'-- ' • • # %■ r* .4 v.,,T. , # % . .♦ * ’:. : ai* %■ -j,j!' « « f • 2 «v^!'‘ 3K 9 %? „ # itt' *' (% ft «r * ft " ^ I ,.-* • • •^ # * • ^ - ^‘-•:,#S v.f^ . . •_. . . > i i •! i|r A- • > ; . • V ft* j ftV •-ft ^ ft ai'*#- ■ > ft »ft • ► 1 # »* r • ft X ft^ , ft' «<• » • T' 0* • • V * •»«» If , 5 f *. ■> -...^^H ' -“V V • -. ’ M '-Jlt '4-: ' X «' -ft i-r V ♦ *• *V -ftf •* .* * .#v *• *.;h ft '' ,* . *v » i ft :r* •*-.. , V I.: • ♦ • . ft > ft f ft • > ft ft ’-I ftl • ^ ^ ♦*, m »^ « .' v#J -■ 4 ' H# ‘ ftVi ft '4 H7 ft f • • • . » '. Jk '* -f „ • ; •■ .1 . ’ . •* '-.X X ft ft »?** • ft *'^,V ■.»«'^' ^ fti 4 •■■•■- * ^ I ,.,-/t*^ ^ ., ft'/ ' 9*14 • ftJ? ' ** ** •T-. ^4' #' • * • . V “ii, ‘ 4 . v * ♦ St « % H -3^ '* t. * ■ •. li . . ■ , ’ y K*^.^ .’f^ ^ ^ !► *# ■• € ? ■ . V ^ ‘ V • . %T.‘ M ' ^ - TS. * I • ■• » • • f . ’ . ♦ ' 4 4 41' >: <>*11 •« i< ' 4 ^ > , , -f>* t A /% Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/someaccountofgot00stre_0 FRONTISPIECE SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL PORTICU 13E DA GLORIA, SOME ACCOUNT OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE SPAIN. By GEORGE EDMUND STREET, F.S.A., AUTHOR OF ‘BRICK AND MARBLE ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY.’ 5T{if olli patfis. Uihrvr is thr gooti toau.” Jeremiah vi. i6. SEGOVIA, FROM THE ALCAZAR LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1865. The right of Translation is resern.'ed. LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS. THE EIGirj’ HONOUEABLE WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE, etc. At*. tt’c. , THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED AS A TESTIMONY OF THE AUTHOR’s RESPECT AND ADMIRATION. , ■/- f V R E FA C E. The book wliicli I liere commit to the reader requires, I fear, some aj^ology on my part. I feel that I have undertaken almost more than an artist like myself, always at work, has any right to suppose h.e can properly accomplish in the little spare time he can command. Nevertheless, I have always felt that part of the duty which every artist owes to his mother art is to study her developments wherever they are to be seen, and whenever he can find the opportunity. Moreover, I believe that in this age it is only by the largest kind of study and range of obser- vation that any artist can hope to perfect himself in so complex and difficult an art as architecture, and that it is only l)y study- ing the development of Gothic architecture in all countries that we can form a true and just estimate of the marvellous force of the artistic impulse which wrought sucli wonders all over Europe in the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. In a day of revival, such as this, I believe it to be necessary that we should form this just estimate of bygone art ; because I am sure that, unless our artists learn their art by studying patiently, lovingly, and constantly the works of their great predecessors, they will never, themselves be great. I know full well how much hostility there is on the part of some to any study of foreign examples ; but as from my boyhood up I have never lost any opportunity of visiting and studying our old English buildings, and as my love for our own national artistic peculiarities rather increases than diminishes the more I study the contemporary buildings of the Continent, I have no hesitation a 2 VI PKEFACE. in giving to the world what I liave been able to learn about Sj^anish art. What I have here written will no doubt be supplemented and corrected by otliers hereafter ; and much additional light will, I hope, be thrown upon the history of Spanish buildings and their architects. It will be found that I have referred to many Spanish authorities for the historical facts on which the dates of the buildings I have visited can alone be decided. Of these authorities none is more useful to the architect, none is more creditable to its authors, than the ‘ Notices of tlie Architects and Architecture of Spain, by D. Eugenio Llagimo y Amirola, edited with additions by D. Juan Agnstin Cean-Bermudez,’ in four volumes, compiled about the beginning of this century, but not published until a.d. 1829.^ This work, full of documentary evidence as to the Spanish architects and their works, appears to me to be far better in its scheme and mode of execution than any work which we in England have upon the buildings of our own country ; and, though it is true that neither of its authors had a very accurate knowledge of the art, they seem to have exercised great dili- gence in their search after information bearing on their subject, and to have been remarkably successful. Mr. Ford’s ‘ Handbook of Spain’ has been of great service to me, not only because it was the only guide to be had, and on account of the charm of his style, but because it had the rare excellence (in a Guide-book) of constantly referring to local guides and authorities, and so enabling me to turn at once to the books most likely to aid me in my work. The other works to which I have at some pains referred are mainly local guides and histories, collections of documents, and the like. Of these a vast number have been published, and I cannot pretend to have exhausted the stores Avhich they contain. Unfortunately, so far as I have been able to learn, no one of I liave quoted this book tliroughout as “ Cean Bermudez. Arq. de Esp.” PREFACE. vii late years lias taken up tlie subject of t1ie j\[ediseval antirpiities of Spain in tlie way in wliicli we are accustomed to see them treated by writers on the subject elsewliere in Europe. Tlie ‘ Ensayo Historico ’ of I). Jose Caveda is very slight and unsatisfactory, and not to be depended on. Passavant, who has published some notes on Spanish architecture^ is so ludicrously wrong in most of his statements that it seems probable that he trusted to his internal consciousness instead of to personal inspection for his facts. The work of Don G. P. de Villa AmiD is very showy and very untrustworthy ; and tliat of Don F. J. Parcerisa/ and the great work which tlie Spanish Government is publishing/ are both so large and elaborate as to be useless for the purpose of giving such a general and comprehensive idea of the features of Gothic architecture in Spain as it has been my effort to give in this work. Seeing, then, how complete is the ignorance which up to the present time we have laboured under, as to the true history and nature of Gothic architecture in Spain, I commit this volume to the reader with a fair trust that Avhat has been the occupation of all my leisure moments for the last two or three years, — a work not only of much labour at home, but of considerable labour also in long journeys taken year after year for this object alone, — will not be found an unwelcome addition to the literature of Christian art. I have attempted to throw what I had to say into the form which has always appeared to me to be the riglit form for any such architectural treatise. The interest of the subject is threefold — first. Artistic and Archaeological : secondly. Historical ; and lastly. Personal. I have first of all, therefore, arranged the notes of my several journeys in the form of one continuous tour: and then, in the concluding chapters, I have ^ Die Chx’istliclie Kiin.st in Spanien. ^ i\[oiminentos Arquitectonico.s de Leipzic, 185:3. Espaiia ; pnblicados a expensas del 2 Pispafia Artistica y Monumental, per Estado, bajo la direccion de una Comision Doll G. P. de Villa Amil y Don P. de especial creada per el Miuisterio de la Escosura, Paris, 1842. Eomento. — Madrid, 1 859-f35, and still in 3 Recuerdos y Bellezas de Espaua, per course of publication. F. J. Parcerisa, 1814, S:c. Vlll PREFACE. attempted a general resume of the history of architecture in Spain, and, finally, a short history of the men who as architects and builders have given me the materials for my work. To this I have added, in an Appendix, two catalogues — one of dated examples of buildings, and the other of their architects, with short notices of their works ; and, beside these, a few trans- lations of documents which seem to me to bring before us in a very real way the mode in which these mediaeval buildings were undertaken, carried on, and completed. (’ON T IvN TS. *o«- ciiAr. I. Irun, San Sebastian, Burgos L II. Burgos 12 III. Palexcia, Valladolid 5G IV. Salamanca, Zamora, Benavexte 78 V. Leon .. 105 VI. Astorga, Lugo, La Coruna 129 VII. Santiago de Compostella 140 VIII. Medina del Campo, Avila 160 IX. Segovia 180 X. Madrid, Alcala, Guadalajara, Siguenza 195 XI. Toledo 209 XII. Valencia 259 XIII. Tarragona 273 XIV. Barcelona 291 XV. Gerona, Perpinan, S. Elne 318 XVI. Manresa, Lerida 339 XVII. Huesca, Zaragoza 362 XVIII. Tarazona, Veruela 376 XIX. Tudela, Olite, Pamplona 391 XX. Summary of the PIistory of Gothic Arciiitectuke in Spain 409 XXI. Gothic Architects in Spain 448 Appendix. X CON^TKNTS. AT PETS EIX. rA(,E A. — Catalogue ol' dated examples of tSpaiiisli lliiildiiigs, from the tenth to the sixteenth century inclusive .. .. .. 4(17 ]>. — Catalogue of Architects, Sculptors, and Builders of the Clmrches, &c., mentioned in this volume 471 C. - — Documents relating to the construction of the new Cathedral' at Salamanca .. .. 482 D. — It 03 url Warrant for the payment of the Master of the Works at Santiago 489 E. — Memoir of the construction of the Cathedral at Segovia, by the Canon J nan itodriguez 490 F. — Catalogue of the subjects carved on the screens round the Coro of Toledo Cathedral 495 G. — Agreement between Jayme BAbre and the Sub-prior and Brethren of the Convent of San Domingo at Palma in Mallorca 500 H. — The Deports of the Junta of Architects assembled at Gerona to decide on the mode of building the nave of the Cathedral 501 1. — Contract between Guillermo Sagrera and the Council of the Fabric, lor the erection of the Exchange at Palma in Mallorca. 514 Index 517 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. (The Full-Page Engravings are Numbered in Order.) Frontispiece. Santiago Catliedral, Portico de la Gloria. Vignette on Title-page, Segovia from the Alcazar. Page Compartment of Nave, Burgos Cathedral 14 1. Burgos Cathedral, North-west View (from Fergusson) .. .. 25 Varieties of Crockets, Burgos Cathedral 28 2. Burgos Cathedral, Clerestory of Choir 29 3. Burgos Cathedral, View of Cloisters from the roof 30 Carved Capital, Burgos Cathedral 33 Transept Chapel, Las Huelgas 35 4. Las Huelgas, Burgos, north-west view 38 5. San Esteban, Burgos, Interior looking west 49 San Esteban, Burgos, Iron Lectern 50 6. San Gil, Burgos, Iron Pulpit 51 Prie-Dieu, Palencia Cathedral 59 Steeple of San Miguel, Palencia 62 Cloister, Sta. Maria I’Antigua, Valladolid 67 7. Salamanca Old Cathedral, Interior of Lantern looking east .. .. 80 8. Salamanca Old Cathedral, Exterior of Lantern 82 Archi volt, San Martin, Salamanca .. .. .. 91 9. Zamora, Bridge over the Douro 91 10. Zamora Cathedral, Interior of Nave looking east 92 11. Zamora Cathedral, Exterior from the south-west 94 Choir Lectern, Zamora Cathedral 96 Monument, la Magdalena, Zamora 98 San Vicente, Zamora 99 12. Benavente, East End of Sta. Maria 102 13. Leon Cathedral, Interior of Aisle round the Apse 108 Bay of Choir, Leon Cathedral 113 Interior of San Isidoro, Leon, looking north-east 123 14. Leon, South Transept of San Isidoro 126 15. Lugo Cathedral, Interior, looking north-west 132 Sta. Maria, la Coruna 137 16. La Coruna, Church of Santiago .. « 138 17. Santiago Cathedral, Interior of Lower Church 147 h xii ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Exterior of Clievet, Santiago de Compostella 149 18. Santiago Cathedral, Shafts in South Doorway 150 InscrijDtion on South Door, Santiago Cathedral 151 19. Santiago Cathedral, Interior of South Transept looking north-east 152 Central Shaft of Western Doorway, Santiago Cathedral .. .. 154 20. Medina del Campo, the Castle 160 Puerta de San Vicente, Avila 163 21. Avila Cathedral, Interior of Aisle round the Apse 164 East End, Avila Cathedral 165 Stone Roofing, Avila Cathedral 168 22. San Vicente, Avila, north-east view 170 23. San Vicente, Avila, Interior of Western Porch 172 24. Segovia, Interior of the Templars’ Church 184 25. San Esteban, Segovia, south-west view of Church and Steeple .. 187 26. San Millan, Segovia, north-west view 188 Capital in Cloister, San Martin, Segovia 190 Organ, Alcala de Henares 200 Domestic AVindow, Alcald de Henares 201 27. Guadalajara, Palace of the Duke del Infantado 203 28. Sigiienza Cathedral, Interior of Nave and Aisles looking north-east 204 San Cristo de la Luz, Toledo (from Fergnsson) 215 29. Toledo, Interior of Sta. Maria la Blanca (from Fergnsson) .. .. 218 Knocker and Nails on Door, Toledo 222 San Roman, Toledo 225 Sta. Magdalena, Toledo 226 Puerta del Sol, Toledo 230 Stone Roof of Outer Aisle and Chapels, Toledo Cathedral .. .. 239 30. Toledo Cathedral, Interior of Transept, &c., looking north-west . . 241 Diagrams of A^aulting, Toledo Cathedral 243 Chapels of the Chevet, Toledo Cathedral 245 31. Toledo Cathedral, Interior of North Aisle of Choir, looking east .. 246 32. A^alencia Cathedral, North I’ransept and Cimhorio (from Fergnsson) 263 The Micalete, Valencia Cathedral 264 Puerta de Serranos, Valencia 268 33. Valencia, Exterior of the Casa Lonja 270 Ajimez Window, Valencia 270 Apse of Choir, Tarragona Cathedral 277 Newel Staircase, ditto 278 34. Tarragona Cathedral, View across Transepts 280 35. Tarragona Cathedral, Interior of Cloister 282 Sculptured Abacus in Cloister, Tarragona Cathedral 284 West Front of San Pablo, Barcelona 293 36. Barcelona Cathedral, Exterior of Chevet 298 illustrations: xiii Page 37. Barcelona Cathedral, Interior of West End of Nave 301 38. Barcelona Cathedral, View of the Steeples, &c., from the Cloisters 304 Lock on Screen in Cloister, Barcelona Cathedral .. 305 39. Sta. Maria del Mar, Barcelona, sonth-west view 308 Interior of Sta. Agata, Barcelona 312 40. Barcelona, the Casa Consistorial 314 Ajimez Window, Barcelona 315 41. Gerona Cathedral, Interior looking east 322 Altar, Gerona Cathedral 327 Wheel of Bells, ditto 328 42. San Pedro, Gerona, Exterior from north-west 330 Spire of San Felin, Gerona 334 43. Manresa, Interior of the Collegiate Church 342 Wheel of Bells, Manresa Collegiate Church 345 44. Leri da Old Cathedral, View from Steeple .. .. 353 Cornice of South Transept Doorway, Lerida Old Cathedral .. .. 355 45. Lerida Old Cathedral, South Porch 356 Pendehtive, &c., under Lantern, Lerida Old Cathedral 357 Interior of San Pedro, Huesca 366 46. Church at Salas, near Huesca, West Front 368 Cloister, Tarazona 381 47. Tarazona, Campanile of La Magdalena 382 48. Abbey of Veruela, Entrance Gateway 384 49. Veruela Abbey Church, Interior 386 Chapel Altar, Veruela 387 Entrance to Chapter-house, Veruela 388 50. Tudela Cathedral, Interior of Choir 392 Angle of Cloister, Tudela 397 Castle, and Church of San Pedro, Olite 400 51. Pamplona Cathedral, Exterior from the north-east 402 GROUND PLANS. Plate 1. Burgos, Plan of Cathedral 34 2. Burgos, Plans of Las Huelgas, San Gil, and San Esteban .. .. 46 3. Palencia and Valladolid, Plans of three Churches .._ 61 4. Salamanca, Plans of old and new Cathedrals and San Marcos .. 104 5. Leon, Plan of Cathedral 128 6. Leon, Plan of San Isidore .. 128 7. Lugo, Plan of Cathedral 132 8. Plans of Churches at Benavente, La Coruila, Segovia, and Lerida 137 9. Santiago, Plan of Cathedral 158 XIV ILLUSTRATIONS. Page 10. Avila, Plan of Cathedral 168 11. Avila, Plan of San Vicente .. .. 176 12. Segovia, Plan of Cathedral 194 13. Sigiienza, Plan of Cathedral 208 14. Toledo, Plan of Cathedral 258 15. Tarragona, Plan of Cathedral 290 16. Barcelona, Plan of Cathedral 306 17. Barcelona, Plans of three Churches . . .. .. 310 18. Gerona, Plans of Cathedral, &c 338 19. Manresa, Plan of the Collegiata 311 20. Lerida, Plan of the old Cathedral 358 21. Huesca, Plans of the Cathedral and San Pedro 366 22. Tarazona, Plan of the Cathedral .. .. 378 23. Veruela, Plan of the Abbey Church, &c 390 24. Tudela, Plan of the Cathedral 398 25. Pamplona, Plans of Cathedral and of San Saturnino 408 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUIIE IN SPAIN. CHAPTEE I. IKUN-^SAN SEBASTIAN — BUBGOS. 8o little has it been the fashion hitherto to explore the Nortli of Spain in search of artistic treasures, that it was with some- what more than usual of the feeling that I was engaged in an adventure that I left Bayonne on my first journey West of the Pyrenees. Yet, in truth, so far as I liave seen there is little in the way of adventure to anticipate even there in these matter- of-fact days ; and, some slight personal inconvenience excepted, there is nothing to prevent any traveller of ordinary energy doing all that I did with complete success, and an uncommon amount of pleasure. For if there are no serious perils to be encountered, there is great novelty in almost everything that one sees ; and whether we wish to study the people and their customs, or to visit the country and explore it in search of striking and picturesque scenery, or to examine, as I did, its treasures of ancient art, we shall find in every one of these respects so much that is unlike what we are used to, so much that is beautiful, and so much that is ancient and venerable by historic association, that we must be dull indeed if we do not enjoy our journey with the fullest measure of enjoyment. Indeed the drawbacks about which so much is usually said and written — the difficulty of finding inns fit to sleep in, or food fit to eat — seem to me to be most enormously exaggerated. It is true that I have purposely avoided travelling over the well-beaten Andalusian corner of Spain ; and it is there, I suppose, tliat most English ideas of Spain and the Spaniards are formed. But in those parts to which my travels have taken me, but in which English travellers are not known so well as they are in Anda- lusia, I have certainly seldom found any difficulty in obtaining such creature-comforts as are essential. Somewhat, it is true. 2 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. I. depends npon the time of year in which a journey is undertaken ; for in the sjDiing, when the climate is most enjoyable, and the country gdoriously green and bright with wavy crojos of corn, the traveller has to depend entirely upon the cook for his food ; and has no other resource even where the cookery is intolerable to his English sense of smell, taste, and sight ! But in the autumn, if he chances to travel, as I have twice done, just when the grapes are ripening, he may, if he choose, live almost entirely, and with no little advantage to his health,, on grapes and bread, the latter being always pure, light, and good to a degree of Avhich our English bakers have no conception ; and the former tasting as none but Spanish grapes do, and often costing nothing, or at any rate never more than a merely nominal sum. On the whole, from my own experience, I should be inclined to recommend the autumn as the most favourable season for a Spanish journey, the weather being then generally more settled than in the spring. But, on the other hand, there is no doubt that any one who wishes to judge fairly of the scenery of Old and New Castile, of great part of Aragon, and of Leon, ought on no account to visit these provinces save in the spring. Then I know no sight more glorious in its way than the sea of corn which is seen covering with its luxuriance and lovely colour the endless sweeps of the great landsca^De on all sides; whereas in the autumn the same landscape looks parched and barren, burnt up as it is by the furious sun until it assumes everywhere a dusty hue, painful to the eye, and most monotonous and depressing to the mind ; whilst the roads suffer sometimes from an accumulation of dust such as can scarcely be imagined by those who have never travelled along them. Even at this season, however, there are some recom- penses, and one of them is the power of realizing somewhat of the beauty of an Eastern atmosphere, and the singular con- trasts of colours which Eastern landscapes and skies generally present ; for nowhere else have I ever seen sunsets more beau- tiful or more extraordinary than in the dreariest part of dreary Castile. So far as the inns and food are to be considered, I do not think there is much need ordinarily for violent grumbling. All ideas of English manners and customs must be carefully left behind; and if the travelling-clothes are donned with a full intention to do in Spain as Spain does, there is small fear of their owner suffering very much. But in Spain more than in most parts of Europe the foreign traveller is a rare bird, and if Chap. T. SPANISH INNS. 8 he attempt to import his own customs, he will unquestionably suffer for his pains, and give a good deal of unnecessary — because fruitless — trouble into the bargain. Spanish inns are of various degrees, from the Posada, which is usually a muleteer’s public-house, and the Parador, which is higher in rank, and where the diligence is generally to be found, up to the Fonda, which answers in idea to our hotel. In small country towns and villages a posada is the only kind of inn to be found ; and sometimes indeed large towns and cities have nothing better for the traveller’s accommodation ; but in the larger towns, and where there is much traffic, the Parador or Fonda will often be found to be as good as second-rate inns else- Avhere usually are. In a Posada it is generally easy to secure a bed-room which boasts at any rate of clean, wholesome linen, though of but little furniture ; and in the remoter parts of the country — as in Leon and Galicia — there is no difficulty in securing in the poorest Posada plenty of bird or fish of quality good enough for a gour- mand. The great objection to these small inns is, that nothing but the linen for the beds and the face of the waiting-maid ever seems to be washed. The water is carried to and fro in jars of the most curious and pleasant form and texture, and a few drops are now and then thrown on the floor of the comedor or eating- room by way of laying the ancient dust ; but washing in any higher sense than this is unknown. It must be said also, that the entrance is common to the mules and the guests ; and that after passing through an archway where the atmosphere is only too lively with fleas, and where the stench is something too dreadful to be borne with ease, you turn into the staircase door, and up the stairs, only to find when you have mounted that you have to live, sleep, and eat above the mules ; and (unless you are very lucky), when you open your window, to smell as badly as ever all the sweets of their uncleaned and, I suppose, unclean- able stables ! The kitchen is almost always on the first floor ; and here one may stand by the wood fire and see the dinner cooked in a mysterious fashion in a number of little earthen jars planted here and there among the embers ; whilst one admires the small but precious array of quaint crockery on the shelves, and tries to induce the cooking-maid to add somewhat less of the usual flavouring to one at any rate of her stews ! I confess, in spite of all this, to a grateful recollection of many a Posada, to a hearty appre- ciation of an olla podrida — a dish abused most by those Avho know 4 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. I. least about its virtues — and to some suspicion that many of the humblest have treasures in their unsophisticated cooks for which one longs in vain in our own English country-town inns, whicli of all I have seen seem to me to be the worst, in their affecta- tion of superiority, and in their utter inability to support their claim with anything more worthy than bad mutton-chops, doubtful beer, and wine about which there is no kind of doubt whatever ! So much for the Posada. In the Parador or the Fonda the enter- tainment is generally very fair, whilst in many the sleeping- rooms are all that need be desired. But even here the smell of the stables is often so intolerable as to make it very desirable to find other quarters ; and about this there is seldom if ever any difficulty ; for in almost all towns of moderate size there are plenty of houses where lodgers are taken in for a night ; and in these one may generally depend upon cleanliness, the absence of mules, and fairly-good cookery. In all — whether inns or lodgings — it is well to eat when the Spaniard eats, and not to attempt to do so at any other time, else much precious time and temper will assuredly be lost, and with results entirely incommensurate with the sacrifice. At what- ever hour you rise the maid will bring a small cup of chocolate and a vast glass of water, with some sweet biscuits or toast. And you must learn to love this precious cup, if you intend to love Spain : nowhere else will you get chocolate so invariably well made ; and if after you have taken it you drink heartily of the water, you have nothing to fear, and may work hard without fainting till you get your morning meal, at about eleven o’clock. This is a dinner, and can be followed by another at sunset, after which you can generally find in a cafe either coffee, chocolate, or iced lemonade, whilst you Avatch the relaxation of the domino-playing natives. Finally, there is seldom anything to quarrel with in the bill, which is usually made out for the entertainment at so much a day ; and when this has been paid, the people of the house are sure to bid you God speed — a dios — with pleasant faces and kind hearts. The journeys which I have undertaken in Spain have all been made with the one object of inspecting the remains of Gothic building which I either hoped to, or knew I should, find there. IMy knowledge of Spanish scenery has therefore been very much limited, and it is only incidentally that I am able to speak at all of it. Yet I have seen enough to be aide to recommend a great extent of country as thoroughly worthy of exploration by those Chap. I. OBJECT OF THE AUTHOR’S TOURS. 5 wlio care for nought but picturesque scenery. The greater part of Catalonia, much of Aragon, Navarre, the north of Leon, Galicia, and the Asturias, are all full of lovely scenery, and even in other districts, where the country is not interesting, there seem always to be ranges of mountains in sight, which, with the singular purity of the atmosphere through which they are seen, never fail of leaving pleasant recollections in one’s mind. Such, for example, is the view of the Guadarrama Mountains from Madrid — a view which redeems that otherwise forlorn situation for a great city, and gives it the only charm it has. Such again are the mountain backgrounds of Leon, Avila, and Segovia. In my first Spanish tour I entered the country from Bayonne, travelled thence by Vitoria to Burgos, Palencia, Valladolid, Madrid, Alcala, Toledo, Valencia, Barcelona, Lerida, and by Gerona to Perpifian. In the second I went again to Gerona, thence to Barcelona, Tarragona, Manresa, Lerida, Huesca, Zara- goza, Tudela, Pamplona, and so to Bayonne ; and in the third and last I went by Bayonne to Pamplona, Tudela, Tarazona, Siguenza, Guadalajara, Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, Avila, Sala- manca, Zamora, Benavente, Leon, Astorga, Lugo, Santiago, la Coruna, and thence back by Valladolid and Burgos to San Sebastian and Bayonne. Tours such as these have, I think, given me a fair chance of forming a right judgment as to most of the features of Spanish architecture ; but it were worse than foolish to suppose that they have been in the slightest degree exhaustive, for there are large tracts of country which I have not visited at all, others in which I have seen one or two only out of many towns which are un- doubtedly full of interesting subjects to the architect, and others again in Vhich I have been too much pressed for time. Yet I hardly know that I need apologize for my neglect to see more when I consider that, up to the present time, so far as I know, no architect has ever described the buildings which I have visited, and indeed no accurate or reliable information is to be obtained as to their exact character, or age, or history. The real subject for apology is one over which I liave had, in truth, no control. The speed with which I have been compelled to travel, and the rapidity Avith which I have been obliged to sketch and take dimensions of everything I have seen, have often, no doubt, led to my making errors, for Avhich, wherever they exist, I am sincerely sorry. In truth, the work I undertook was hardly the mere relaxation from my ordinary artistic labour for which it was first of all intended, and has been increased not a 6 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. I. little by the labour which I have undertaken in the attempt to fix by documentary evidence, where possible, the ages of the various parts of the buildings I have described. It will be observed that I have not visited the extreme south of Spain ; and this was from the first a settled purpose with me. We have already been treated almost to surfeit with accounts of the Moorish remains at Granada, Seville, Cordoba, and other places in the south ; but beside this my anxiety was to see how the Christians and not how the Moors built in Spain in the middle ages, and I purposely, therefore, avoided those parts of the country which during the best period of mediaeval art were not free from Moorish influence. The pages of this book are the best evidence I can give of the wisdom of such a decision, and I need only say here that I was more than satisfied with the purity and beauty of the Christian architecture of Spain, and that I have no hesitation in the advice which I give to others to follow in my track and to make good the deficiencies in my investigations, of which I am so thoroughly conscious. By this time travelling on the great high road through Spain via Madrid is much easier than it was when 1 first made the journey. The railway to Madrid is now either completed or all but completed, and it is possible to travel from Calais to Alicante on an almost unbroken line. It is a matter to be grateful for in most respects, yet I rejoice that I made my first journey when it was still necessary to make use of the road, and to see something on the way both of the country and of the people. It was after a hurried journey by night to Paris, and thence the next night on to Bordeaux, that I arrived, after a few hours spent in that interesting old city, at the end of the second day in Bayonne. Here my first work was to furnish myself with money and places in the Spanish diligence ; and in both these matters I received my first lesson in one peculiarity of Spaniards — that of using foreign words in another and different sense from that to which we are accustomed. Napoleons are said to be the best coin for use in Spain, and I furnished myself with them only to discover, when it was too late, that in Spain a Napoleon means a silver five-franc piece, and that my gold Napoleons were all but useless out of Madrid. And again, when I asked for places in the coupe of the diligence, I found that I was really trying to secure seats in the banquette — the coupe being called the berlina, and the banquette the coupe. At Bayonne there is not very much to be seen beyond the cathedral, the river crossed by the Duke for his attack on Soult, Cpiap. I. BAYONNE — BIARRITZ. ( • and a charming view from the top of the cathedral tower of the lower ranges of the Pyrenees. The Trois Conronnes is tlie most conspicuous peak, and its outline is fine ; but here, as generally in the distant views of the chain which I obtained, there is a lack of those snow peaks which lend so much beauty to all Alpine views. The exterior of the catliedral has been almost entirely renewed of late, and a small army of masons was busy in the cloister on the south side of the choir. It is to be hoped that the stoj3page of the funds so lavishly spent upon the Fi’ench cathedrals may happen before the Bayonne architects and masons have come round to the west end. At present there is a savage picturesqueness about this which is beyond measure delightful, whilst the original arrangement of the doorways and porches on the west and south, with enormous penthouse roofs over them, is just so far open to conjecture and doubt as to be best left witliout very much alteration. The general character of the interior of tlie cathedral is only moderately good, the traceries of the lofty traceried triforium and the great six-light windows of the clerestory in the nave being unusually complicated for French work. The choir is of late thirteenth century work, very short, with five chapels in the die vet. In the afternoon w e followed the stream and drove to Biarritz. A succession of vehicles of every kind, crowded with passengers, gave strong evidence of the attractions either of the place or else of the Emperor and Empress, who had been there for a week or two ; and the mob of extravagantly dressed ladies, French and English, who thronged the bathing-places and the sandy plain in front of the Villa Eugenie, accounted for the enormous black boxes under which all the vehicles seemed to groan. The view from the cliffs on the western side of Biarritz is strikingly beautiful, embracing as it does the long range of the Pyrenees descending to the sea in a grand mass above Fuenterrabia, and prolonged as far as the eye could reach along the coast of Biscay. The next morning we left Bayonne at four o’clock for Burgos. We had seats in the coupe, the occupants of the berlina on this journey being a son of Queen Christina, with his bride. In Spain every one seems to travel by the diligence ; you seldom meet a private carriage ; there are no posting arrangements ; and owing to the way in which the diligences on the great roads are crowded, it is very difficult indeed to stop on the road without running great risk of indefinite delays in getting places again. The drive was very charming. The sun rose before w^e reached 8 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUBE IN SPAIN. Chap. I. ►St. Jean de Luz,’ and we enjoyed to the full the lovely scenery. Crossing tlie Bidassoa at Irun, the famous He de Faisans was seen — a mere stony bank in the middle of the stream, recently walled round and adorned with a sort of monument — and then ensued a delay of an hour wFilst our luggage was examined and plombe in order that it might pass out of Guipuzcoa into Castile without a second examination. There is a rather characteristic church of late date here. It stands on ground sloping steeply down towards the river, and has a bald look outside, owing to the almost complete absence of window openings, what there are being small, and very high above the floor. The plan is peculiar : it has a nave and chancel, and aisles of two bays to the eastern half of the nave, so that the western part of tlie nave corresponds in out- line very nearly with the chancel. There is a tower at the west end of the south aisle. The groining is many-ribbed, and illus- trates the love of the later Spanish architects for ogee surface- ribs, wiiich look better on a plan of vaulting than they do in execution. The east end is scpiare, but the vaulting is apsidal, the angles of the square end being cut across by domical pen- (lentives below the vaulting. The most remarkable feature is the great width of the nave, which is about fifty-four feet from centre to centre of the columns, the total length not being more, I think, than a hundred and fifty feet. The church floor was strewed with rushes, and in the evening when I visited it the [)eople stole in and out like ghosts upon this quiet carpeting, TTiis church was rebuilt in A.D. 1508, and is of course not a very good example of Spanish Gothic. Fuenterrabia is just seen from Irun in the distance, very pret- tily situated, with the long line of the blue bay of Biscay to its right. From Irun the road to San Sebastian passes the land- locked harbour of Pasage : this is most picturesque, the old houses clustering round the base of the great hills which shut it in from the sea, between which tliere is only a narrow winding passage to the latter, guarded by a mediaBval castle. Leaving this (fiiarming picture behind, we were soon in front of San Sebastian. Here again the castle-crowned cliff seems entirely to shut the town out from the sea, whilst only a narrow neck of land be- • The church at Bidart, between west, and south walls. They are quaint Bayonne and the French frontier, is quite and picturesque in construction, and are worth going into. It has a nave about supported by timbers jutting out up- 1‘orty-live feet wide, and three tiers of wards from the walls, not being sup- wooden galleries all round its north, ported at all from the floor. Chap. I. SAN SEBASTIAN — MIRANDA DEL EBRO. 9 tNveeii the embouchure of the river on the one side, and a land- locked bay on the other, connects it with the mainland. We had been seven or eight hours en route, and were glad to hear of a halt for breakfast. Whilst it was being prepared I ran off to the church of San Vicente on the opposite side of the town to the Fonda. I found it to be a building of the sixteenth century — built in 1507 — with a large western porch, open-arched on each face, a nave and aisles, and eastern apsidal choir. The end of this is filled with an enormous Retablo of Pagan character, reaching to tlie roof. The church is groined throughout, and all the light is admitted by very small windows in the clerestory. The aisles have altars in each bay, with lietablos facing north and south. There is little or no work of much architectural interest here ; but it was almost my first Spanish church, and I had my first very vivid impression of the darkened interiors, lighted up here and there by some brilliant speck of sunshine, which are so characteristic of the country, and as lovely in their effects as they are aggravating to one who wants to be able to make sketches and notes within them. Leaving San Sebastian at mid-day, we skirted the bay, busy with folk enjoying themselves in the water after the fashion of Biarritz. The country was wild, beautiful, and mountainous all the way to Mondragon. At Vergara there was a fair going on, and the narrow streets were crowded with picturesquely dressed peasants; everywhere in these parts fine, lusty, hand- some, and clean, and to my mind the best looking peasantry I have ever seen. In the evening the villages were all alive, the young men and women dancing a wild, indescribable dance, rather gracefully, and with a good deal of waving about of their arms. The music generally consisted of a tambourine, but once of two drums and a flute ; and the ball-room was the centre of the road, or the little plaza in the middle of the village. At mid- night there was another halt at Vitoria, where an hour was whiled away over chocolate and azuearillos — delicate composi- tions of sugar which melt away rapidly in water, and make a superior kind of eau sucre ; and again at sunrise we stopped at Miranda del Ebro for the examination of luggage before entering Castile. Close to the bridge, on the opposite side of the Ebro to Miranda, is a church of which I could just see by the dim light of the morning that it was of some value as an example of Romanesque and Early Pointed work. The apse, of five sides, has buttresses with two half-columns in front of each, and an 10 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. I. arch thrown across from buttress to buttress carries the cornice and gives a great appearance of massiveness to the window arches with which it is concentric. The south doorway is of very fine Early Pointed style, with three shafts on each jamb, and live orders in the arch. On the road from Miranda to Pancorbo there is a striking defile between massive limestone cliffs and rocks, through which the Madrid Eailway is being constructed with no little difBculty, and where the road is carried up, until, at its summit, we found our- selves at the commencement of the arid, treeless, dusty, and emi- nently miserable plain of Castile, whilst we groaned not a little at the slow pace at which the ten or twelve horses and mules that drew us got over the ground. These Spanish diligences are cer- tainly most amusing for a time, and thenceforward most wearying. They generally have a team of ten or twelve animals, mostly mules. The driver has a short whip and reins for the wheelers only ; a boy, the adalantero, rides the leaders as postilion, and with a power of endurance which deserves record, the same boy having ridden with us all the way from San Sebastian to Burgos — twenty-five hours, with a halt of one hour only at Vitoria, The conductor, or mayoral, sits with the driver, and the two spend half their time in getting down from the box, rushing to the head of one of the mules, belabouring him heartily for two or three minutes till the whole train is in a mad gallop, and then climbing to the box to indulge in a succession of wild shrieks until the poor beasts have fallen again into their usual walk, when the per- formance is repeated. I believe that for a day and a half our mayoral never slept a wink, and spent something like a fourth of his time running with the mules : though I am bound to say that subsequent experience has convinced me that he was exceptionally lively and wakeful, for elsewhere, in travelling by night, I have generally found that the mules become their own masters after dark, walking or standing still as seemeth them best, and seldom getting over much more than half the ground they travel in the same number of hours of daylight. A few miles before our arrival at Burgos, we caught the first sight of the three spires of the cathedral ; and presently the whole mass stood out grandly, surmounted by the Castle hill on the right. One or two villages with large churches of little interest were passed, the great Carthusian Convent of Miraflores was seen on the left, and then, passing a short suburb, we stopped at the Fonda de la Bafaela ; and after an hour spent in recovery from dust, dirt, and horrid hunger, betook ourselves to the Chap. I. DEFILE OF PANCORBO. 11 famous Cathedral, with no little anxiety as to the result of this first day of ecclesiologizing in Spain. The railroad, which is now open to Burgos, follows very mucli the same line as the old road. As far as Miranda the scenery is generally very beautiful, and here there is a junction with the wonderfully-engineered railway to Bilbao, which is con- tinued again on the other side until it joins the Pamplona and Tudela Bailway near the latter city. It is therefore a very good plan to enter Spain by the steamboat from Bayonne to Bilbao, to come thence by railway, join the main line at Miranda, and so on to Burgos, or else by the valley of the Ebro to Tudela and Zaragoza. The passage of the Pancorbo defile by the railway is even finer than by the road ; and for the remainder of the distance to Burgos the traveller’s feeling must be in the main one of joy at finding himself skimming along with fair rapidity over the tame country, in place of loitering over it in a tiresome diligence. 12 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IJ. CHAPTER II. BURGOS. There are some views of Burgos Cathedral which are con- stantly met with, and upon which I confess all my ideas of its style and merits had been founded, to their no little detriment. The western steeples, the central lantern, and the lantern-like roof and pinnacles of the chapel of the Constable at the east end, are all very late in date — the first of the latest fifteenth century, and the others of early Renaissance work ; and their mass is so important, their character so picturesque, and their detail so exuberantly ornate, that they have often been drawn and described to the entire exclusion of all notice of the noble early church, out of which they rise. The general scheme of the ground-plan of the cathedral is drawn with considerable accuracy in the illustration which I give of it.^ The fabric consists of a thirteenth-century church, added to somewhat in the fourteenth century, altered again in the fifteenth, and even more in the sixteenth century. The substratum, so to speak, is throughout of the thirteenth century, but the two western steeples, with their crocheted and perforated spires, the gorgeous and fantastic lantern over the crossing, and the lofty and sumptuous monumental chapel at the east end, are all later additions, and so important in their effect, as at first sight to give an entirely wrong impression both of the age and character of the whole church. The various dates are, as well as the scale will admit, explained by the shading of the plan. The ‘ Plate I. This (as are all the other plans in this book) is made from my own rapid sketches and measurements. It is neces- sarily, therefore, only generally correct. But I believe that it, and all the others, will be found to be sufficiently accurate for all the purposes for which they are required. Without ground-plans it is impossible to understand any descrip- tions of buildings ; and they are the more necessary in this case, seeing that, with the exception of very small plans of Burgos and Leon Cathedrals, there is probably no illustration of the plan of any one of the churches visited by me ever yet published in England. I have drawn all the plans to the same scale, viz., fifty feet to an inch. This is double the scale to which the plans in Mr. Fer- gusson’s ‘ History of Ax'chitecture ’ are drawn ; and though it would facilitate a comparison of the Spanish with other ground-plans illustrated by him to have them on the same scale, I found it impossible to show all that I wanted in so very small a compass. Chap. II. BURGOS CATHEDRAL. 18 early clmrcli seems to have consisted of a nave and aisles of six bays, deep transepts, and a choir and aisles, with apses and chapels round it. The transepts probably had chapels on the east, of which one still remains in the north transept ; but this is the only original chapel, none of those round the chevet having been spared. Externally, the two transept fronts are the only conspicuous portions of the old church, but, on mount- ing to the roof, tlie hying buttresses, clerestory windows, and some other parts, arc found still little damaged or altered. Never was a churdi more altered for the worse after its first erection than was this. It is now a vast congeries of chapels and excrescences of every shape and every style, which have grown round it at various dates, and, to a great extent, con- cealed the whole of the original plan and structure ; and of these, the only valuable Medimval portions are the cloisters and sacristies, which are, indeed, but little later in date than the church, and two of the chapels on the north side of the chevet, one of which is original, and the other at any rate not much altered. The rest of the additions are all either of the latest Gothic, or of Renaissance. The principal entrances to this church of Santa IMaria la Mayor” are at the west end and in the north and south transepts — the two last original, the former a modern alteration of the old fabric, made only a few years ago, and of the meanest kind. The Archbishop’s palace occupies the space on the south side, of the nave ; and the ground on which the whole group of buildings stands, slopes so rapidly from tlie south up to the north, that on the south side a steep and picturesque flight of steps leads up to the door, whilst on the north, on the contrary, the door is some fifteen feet above the door, and has to be reached by an elaborate flight of winding steps from the transept. Owing to the rapid rise of the ground, and to the way in which the church is surrounded by houses, or by its own dependent buildings, it is very difficult to obtain any good near vieAvs of it, with the exception of tliat of the west end from the Plaza in front of it ; but the views from the Pi-ado, from the opposite side of the river, and from the distant hills and country, are all very fine ; and it must be allowed that in them the picturesque richness of the later additions to the fabric produces a very great effect. Having thus given some general idea of the plan of the church, I will now describe its parts more in detail. On entering the nave at the west end, the effect of the arcades, triforia, and clerestory is very fine, though much 14 GOTHIC AHCHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. damaged by tlie arrangement of tlie choir, which, as in most Spanish churches, is brought down into the nave, enclosed with close walls or screens, and entered only from the transept at its eastern end. An altar is placed against the western entrance of the choir, and the nave being only six bays in length, and equally divided, the view is — it may easily be imagined — very confined and cramped. Otherwise, the architectural features of the nave are thoroughly good. The original scheme evidently included two western steeples, the piers which support them — large clusters of engaged shafts — being larger than any of the others, yet of the same date. The nave columns are circular, with eight engaged shafts around them. The bases are circular, finished on squares, with knops of foliage filling in the spandrels. The abaci are all square in plan, and both bases and caps are set at right angles to the direction of the arches they support. One of the smaller columns carries the pier arch, the other three carry the transverse and diagonal groining ribs, whilst the wall ribs are carried on shafts on each side of the clerestory window. The pier arches are of ordinary early-pointed character, and well moulded. There is not much variety in the general design of the nave and transepts, though some changes of detail occur. The triforium in both is very peculiar, as will be seen by the illustration which I give of one bay of the nave. The openings vary considerably in number, and the piercings of the tympanum and in the enclosing arch are also sin- gularly arranged. I know nothing like this singular tri- forium elsewhere. It is cer- tainly more curious than really beautiful, but at the same time it is valuable, as seeming to prove this part of the work to be Chap. U. BURGOS CATHEDRAL. 15 from the hand of a native artist. The enclosing label is in all cases a segment of a circle, and filled with sculptured heads at short intervals apart. At first sight this triforium hardly seems to be of early date, having suffered by the addition of pinnacles covered with crockets in front of, and open traceried parapet walls between, the detached shafts on which the early traceries were carried ; the result is, that one of the most striking features in the church is completely spoiled, and a general effect of very poor and tawdry design is felt more or less throughout the whole building.^ The original clerestory still, in great part, remains ; it is simple, but good and vigorous in style, and with but one special pecu- liarity in its detail. The windows are for the most part of two lights, with a quatrefoiled circle in the head ; and the peculiarity referred to here is the omission to carry the chamfer round the extrados of the arched heads to the lights or the circle ; the effect produced is peculiar, the tracery not looking as if it were pro- perly constructed, but as if the wheel had been loosely placed within the arch without having any proper connection with it. I have noticed the same arrangement in a church at Yalladolid, and it must, I think, be regarded either as a freak of the workmen, or more probably as the exhibition of some degree of ignorance of the ordinary mode of executing the mouldings in window traceries. But here, with this one exception, as in almost all the details throughout the original work of this cathedral, there is little, if anything, to show that we are not in France, and looking at some of its best and purest thirteenth-century Gothic. There is no trace of Moorish or other foreign influence, the whole work being pure, simple, and good. In the aisles two only of the original windows still remain, and these show that tliey were lighted originally by a series of well-shaped lancets, with engaged jamb-shafts inside. The vaults are all slightly domical in section ; the diagonal ribs generally semi-circular, as also are the wall-ribs. The masonry of the cells is arranged in lines parallel to the ridge, but considerably distorted near the springing. The transepts, which, as has been said, are similar in their design to the nave, are of considerable size, and the view across * I have not thought it necessary to early shafts, as well as by the comi^lete draw these ruinous additions to the difierence in style. The original work early design. That they are additions is fortunately intact behind the added is easily proved by the way in which pinnacles, and there is nothing conjec- they are tied with bands of iron to the tural in its restoration. 16 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. them is in fact the best internal view in the church. One early chapel alone remains, — on the east side of the nortli tran- sept, — and its groined roof is remarkable. It is a square in plan, with its vault divided into eight groining cells, forming two bays on each side, and witli two lancet windows at the east end, each under a division of the vault. No one who has studied the groining of the churches in Poitou and Anjou — so decided in their local peculiarities — can doubt, on comparison of them with this chapel, that it was the work of men who had studied in the same school, and it is remarkable that we find it repro- duced in the lantern of the great church of the Convent of Las Huelgas, near Burgos, of which I shall presently have to speak. In both cases the vaulting is very domical, and the joints of the stone filling-in of the cells are vertical. This chapel suggests, too, the question whether the first idea was not here, as well as at Las Huelgas, to have a series of chapels on the east side of the transepts, though I should decide this in the negative, inasmuch as there is no mark of a chapel in the next bay to the north, and there was probably from the first a com- plete chevet to the choir. It will be as well, perhaps, to leave the description in detail of the early features of the exterior for the present, and to complete the notice of the interior first of all. And here it is necessary to say a few words as to the cathedral arrangements commonly seen in Spain, which exist in full force at Burgos, and must be constantly referred to in all my notices of Spanish churches. I Iiave already said that the choir proper {Coro) is transferred to the nave, of which it occupies commonly the eastern half ; the portion of the nave outside, or to the west of the Coro, being called the Trascoro,'' and that to the east of it the Entre los dos Coros C and in most great churches the Crucero^' or cross- ing, and the transept really do the work of the nave, in the way of accommodating the people. The floor of the nave proper is, indeed, too often a useless appendage to the building, desolate, dreary, unused, and cold; whereas in the transepts, the services at the altar and in the choir are both seen and heard, and this accordingly is the people’s place. A passage is some- times, or perhaps I ought to say is usually, made with low iron or brass screens or rails leading from the eastern gate of the Coro to the screen in front of the altar. This is especially neces- sary here, as the choir proper is deep, and the people are thus kept from pressing on the clergy as they pass to and fro in the Chap. IT. BUEGOS CATHEDRAL. 17 long passage from the altar to the Coro. Gates in these screens admit of the passage of the people from one transept to the otlier whenever the services in the Coro are not going on. The Coro is usually fitted with two rows of stalls on its north, south, and west sides, the front row having no desks before them, ddie only entrance is usually through the screen on the eastern side, and there are generally two organs placed on either side of the western bay of the Coro, above the stalls. In the centre of the Coro there is always one, and sometimes Gvo or three lecterns, for the great illuminated office-books, which most of the Spanish churches seem still to preserve and use. High metal screens are placed across the nave to the east of the Coro, and across the entrance to the choir, or capilla mayor as its eastern part is called. These screens are called rejas. Above the crossing of the choir and transepts there is usually an open raised lantern, called by the Spaniards the cimhorlo ; and behind the altar, at the end of the Capilla mayor, is usually a great sculptured and painted retahlo or reredos. All these arrangements are generally described as if they were invariably found in all Spanish churches, as they certainly are at Burgos and many others now ; and an acute and well-informed writer in the ^ Ecclesiologist ’ suggests that their origin may perhaps be looked for in the early churches of the Asturias and Galicia, since he had looked in vain, in both Spanish and Mozarabic liturgies, for any peculiar dogma or ritual practice which would have involved arrangements so different from those common in other countries. The grounds for my opinion will appear as I describe other churches in other places ; but I may here at once say that what occurred to me at Burgos Avas to some extent confirmed elseAvhere, namely, that most of these arrangements have no very old authority or origin, but are comparatively modern innovations, and that they are never seen in their completeness save where, as here, they are alterations or additions of the sixteenth or subsequent centuries, and they are usually Kenaissance in their architectural character. This is particularly the case in regard to the arrangement of the Coro, as well as to its position in the church. At present tlie bishop is generally placed in a central stall at its western end ; yet of this I have seen only one or tAvo really genuine old examples ; for, Avherever the arrangement occurs in a choir Avhere the old stalls remain, it Avill be found, I believe, that the bishop’s stall is an interpolation and addition of the sixteenth, seA^enteentlq or eighteenth century, and that Avliere the old Avestern screen c 18 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. remains, the throne bloeks up the old door from tlie nave into the Coro. The word Cimborio is only the Spanish term for our lantern. The early Spanish churches were like our own in the adoption of this fine feature, and, with such modifications as might be expected, the central lantern is still an invariable feature in most of them. The term Cimborio, however, seems to have no special significance, and, as I prefer the use of an English terminology wherever it is appropriate, I shall generally use the word lantern, rather than Cimborio. There are some of these terms, however, which it will frequently be convenient to use ; such, for instance, are the words Eeja, Coro, Capilla mayor, and Trascoro, all of which describe Spanish features or arrange- ments unknown in our own churches. At Burgos the Coro occupies the three eastern bays of the nave, and the only entrance to it is through a doorway in its eastern S(.*reen. The stalls, screens, and fittings are all of early Eenaissance work, and were the gift of Bishop Pascual de Fuensanta, between a.d. 1497 and a.d. 1512. There are about eighty stalls, in two rows, returned at the ends, and very richly carved, over the lower stalls with subjects from the New, and over the upper stalls with subjects from the Old Testament. In the centre of the choir, concealed by the great desk for the books (which, by the way, are old, though not very fine^), lies a magnificent effigy of Bisliop Maurice, the founder of tlie church. It is of wood, covered with metal plates, and very sumptuously adorned witii jewels, enamels, and gilding. He was bishop from A.D. 1213 to A.D. 1238, and his effigy ajDpeared to me to be very little later than the date of his death. A special architectural interest attaches to the life of this pre- late, for the tradition in Burgos has always been that he was an Englishman, who came over in the train of the English Princess Alienor, Queen of Alfonso YIII., and, having been Archdeacon of Toledo, became in a.d. 1213 Bisliop of Burgos. Florez,*^ how- * The Chapter entered into a contract with one Jusepe Rodriguez for these books ; but Philip II. insisted upon his being set free from this contract in order that he might work for him on the books for the Escorial, where he wrought from A.D. 1577 to A.D. 1585. — Cean Ber- mudez, Dice. Hist, de las Bellas Artes en Espana. Some illustrations of initial letters in the Burgos books are given by Mr. Waring in his ‘ Architectural Studies in Burgos.’ 2 ‘ Espaiia Sagrada,’ vol. xxvi. p. 301. G. G. Davila, ‘ Teatro Ecclesiastico de las Yglesias de Espana,’ iii. 65, says that Maurice was a Frenchman ; and he mentions tlie consecration by him of the Premonstratensian Church of Sta. Maria la Real de Aguilar de Campo, on the 2nd Kal. Nov. 1222. Chap. 11. BURGOS CATHEDRAL. ID ever, doubts the tradition, and observes that his parents’ iiames, llodrigo and Oro Sabia, were those of Spaniards. Two years before the cathedral was commenced he went on an embassy through France to Germany, to bring Beatrice, daughter of the Duke of Suabia, to marry King Ferdinand; so that, even if he were not of English birth, he was at any rate well travelled, and had seen some of the noble works in progress and completed in France and Germany at this date. In a.d. 1221 he laid the first stone of his new cathedral: — “Primus lapis ponitur in fundamento novi operis ecclesiae Burgens: xx. die mensis Julii era millesima quinquagesima nona die Sancte Margarite.”^ Florez gives two other similar statements, one from the Martyr-* ology of Burgos, and the other from the Chronicle of Gardena. The King and the Bishop are said to have laid the first stone in the grand column on the epistle side of the choir ; and the work went on so rapidly that in November, a.d. 1230, when he drew up directions as to the precedence of the various members of the chapter, their order of serving at the altars, and of walking in processions, the Bishop was able to write, “ Tempore nostrce translationis ad novam fabricamT ^ Bishop Maurice was buried in the church, and his monument was afterwards moved to the front of the Trascoro (or screen at the west end of the choir) by Bishop Ampudia, before his death, in A.D. 1512. It has never been moved from the spot in which it was then placed, and yet, owing to the rearrangement of the stalls, it is now in the very midst of the Coro,^ and affords an invaluable piece of evidence of the fact already stated, that of old the stalls did not occupy their present place in the nave.^ There is nothing else worthy of note in the Coro. Its floor is boarded, and a long passage about six feet wide, between rails, leads from its door through the choir to a screen in front of the higli altar. The people occupy the choir, hemmed in between these rails and the parclose screens under the side arches. The altar has a late and uninteresting Ketablo, in Pagan style, carved with ‘ Esp. Sag., xxvii. 306 ; ‘ Memoi-ial is constantly used as late as the middle in the Archives at Burgos,’ ii. foh 57. of the fourteenth century in all Spanish The era 1259 answers to a.d. 1221, inscriptions and documents. The ‘‘era” so frequently occurring in - Esp. Sag., xxvii. 313. Spanish records precedes the year of ^ Esp. Sag., xxvi, 315. our Lord by thirty-eight years, and is, Ponz states that Bishop Pascual in fact, the era of the Emperor Caesar de Fuensanta (1497-1512) moved the Augustus. See ‘ Cronicas de los Reyes stalls from the Capilla mayor (/. e. choir) de Castilla,’ vol. i. p. 31, and ‘ Espana to the middle of the church ; and Sagrada,’ vol. ii. pp. 23 et seq., for an Florez, Esp. Sag. xxvi. 315 and 413, explanation of this computation, which makes the same statement. 20 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. hirge subjects and covered with gold.^ Tlie steps to the altar are of wliite, black, and red marble, connterchanged ; and at the entrance to the choir under the lantern are two brass pulpits or ainbons, for the Epistoler and Grospeller, an admirable and primitive arrange- ment almost always preserved in Spanish churches. The columns of the choir arches have been modernized, and there is consequently but little of the old structure visible on the inside, the Retablo rising to the groining, and concealing the arches of tlie apse. Between these arches sculptures in stone are introduced, which are said to have been executed by Juan de Borgona, in 1540. They are bold and spirited compositions in liigh relief, and give great richness of effect to the aisle towards which they face. Tlie subjects are — (1) the Agony in the Garden ; (2) our Lord bearing His Cross ; (3) the Crucifixion ; (4) the Descent from the Cross and the Besurrection ; (5) the Ascension. Numbers 1 and 5 are not original, or at any rate are inferior to and different in style from the others. When we leave the choir for its aisles, we shall find that every- thing here, too, has been more or less altered. Chapels of all sizes and shapes have been contrived, either by addition to or alteration of the original ground-plan ; and, picturesque as the tout ensemble is, with dark shadows crossed here and there by bright rays of light from the side windows, with here a domed Renaissance chapel, there one of the fourteenth century, and here, again, one of the fifteenth, it has lost all that simplicity, unity, and harmony which in a perfect building ought to mark this, the most important part of a church. In truth hardly any part of the aisles or chapels of the chevet of Bishop Maurice now remains; for of the two early chapels on the north side (marked a and h on the plan), the former is evidently of later date, being possibly the work of Bishop Juan de Yillahoz, who founded a chapel here, dedicated to S. Martin, in A.D. 1268-69.^ The style of this chapel is very good middle- pointed; the abaci of the capitals are square, the tracery is geometrical, the vaulting very domical, and its north-western angle is arched across, and groined with a small tripartite vault, in order to bring the main vault into the required polygonal form. This arrangement occurs at an earlier date, as I shall ^ Ponz, ‘ Viage de Esj)aiia,’ xii. 28, native of Madrid), and Gregorio Mar- says that the sculptures of this Retablo tinez of Valladolid, painted and gilded were executed by Rodrigo de la Aya it for 11,000 ducats in three years, and his brother Martin between a.p. finishing in a d, 1593. 1577 and 1593 at a cost of 40,000 ^ Egp. Sag., xxvi. 331. ducats ; and that Juan de Urbina (a Chap. II. BUKGOS CATHEDRAL. 21 have presently to show, at Las Huelgas (close to Burgos), but ought to be noticed here, as the same feature is seen reproduced, more or less, in many Spauisli works of the lifteeuth century, and here we have an intermediate example to illustrate its gradual growth. It is, in fact, the Gothic substitute for a pen- dentive. The other chapel (b) I believe to be the one remaining evidence of the original plan of the chevet ; and, looking at it in connexion with the other portions of the work, and especially Avith the blank wall between Avhich and the cloister tlie new sacristy is built, it seems pretty clear that originally there were only three chapels in the chevet, and all of them pentagonal in plan. Between these chapels and the transepts there would then have been two bays of aisle without side chapels, and on the eastern side of each of the transepts a small square chapel, one ot* which still remains. This plan tallies to some extent with that of the cathedral at Leon (with which the detail of Burgos may Avell be compared), and is in some respects similar to that of the French cathedrals of Amiens, Clermont, and some other places. In fact, the planning of this chevet is one of the proofs that the work was of French, and not of Spanish origin. At the east end of the cathedral is a grand chapel, erected about A.D. 1487, by the Constable D. Pedro Fernandez de Velasco and his wife. This remarkable building Avas designed by an architect Avhose work Ave shall see again, and of whom it may be as Avell at once to say a foAv Avords. Juan de Colon ia' — a German by birth or origin, as his name shows — is said to have been brought to Burgos by Bishop Alfonso de Cartagena (a.d. 1435 to A.D. 1456) Avhen he returned from the Council of Basle. There is evidence that he built the chapel of the great Carthusian monastery of Miraflores, on the hill just out- side the town ; and there is, I believe, but little doubt that he Avrought here too. His AA^ork is very peculiar. It is essen- tially German in its endless intricacy and delicacy of detail, but has features Avhich I do not remember to have seen in Germany, and which may fairly be attributed either to the Spaniards Avho Avorked under him, or to an attempt on his OAvn part to accom- modate his Avork to Spanish tastes. The chapel is octagonal at the east, but square at the Avest end ; and pendentives of exactly the same kind of design as those of the early German and French churches are introduced across the western angles of the chapel, to bring the plan of the central vault to a complete octagon. They are true pendentives, and 22 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. quite unlike those three-sided vaulting bays across the angles of the apse chapels, to which I just now referred, and which answer precisely the same purpose. They are hardly at all Gothic, having semi-circular arches, and the masonry below them being tilled in with stones radiating as in a fan, from the centre of the base of the pendentive. The groining ribs (the mouldings of which interpenetrate at the springing) form by their intersection a large star of eight points in the centre, and the cells between the ribs of this star are pierced with very elaborate traceries. This is a feature often reproduced in late Spanish works, and it is one which aids largely in giving the intricate and elaborately lacelike effect aimed at by the S])anish architects at this date, to a greater extent even than by any of their contemporaries in other lands ; for though this, which is wellnigh the richest example of the Spanish art of the fifteenth century, was designed by a German, we must remember that he was following, to a great extent, Spanish traditions, and was largely aided in all the better portion of tlie detail by national artists, among whom the greatest was, perhaps, Gil de Siloe, whose work in the monuments at Mira- llores I shall presently have to describe. And it is not a little curious, and perhaps not very gratifying to the amour loro^pre of Spanish artists, that in this great church the two periods in which the most artistic vigour was shown, and the grandest architectural works undertaken, were marked, the first by the rule of a well-travelled bishop — commonly said to be an English- man — under an English princess, and who seems to have employed an Angevine architect; and the second by the rule of another travelled bishop, who, coming home from Germany, brought with him a German architect, into whose hands all the great works in the city seem at once to have been put. I must return, however, to the desqidption of the detail of the Constable’s chapel. Each bay of the octagonal part of the chapel below the vaulting is divided in this way : below is a recessed arch, under which is an enormous coat-of-arms set aslant on the wall, with coarse foliage round it. These arches have a very ugly fringe of shields and supporters, and finish with ogee canopies. Above are the windows, which are of flamboyant tracery of three - lights ; the windows being placed one over the other, the outer mouldings of the upper window going down to the sill of the lower. There are altars in recesses on the east, north, and south sides of the octagon; and the two latter stand upon their old foot-paces, formed by flights of three steps, the ends of which Chap. II. BURGOS CATHEDRAL. 23 towards the chapel are tilled with rich tracery. The monument ot‘ the Constable Velasco is in the centre of the chapel ; and a velvet pall belonging to it is still })reserved, adorned with one of those grand stamped patterns so constantly seen in medi- ccval German paintings. The stalls for the clergy are arranged strangely in an angle of the chapel, fenced round with a low screen, and looking like one of those enclosures in some of our own churches sacred to archdeacons and their officials. A quaint little vestry is contrived outside the south-east angle of the octagon, and in it are preserved some pieces of plate of the same age as the chapel. Among these are — A chalice of silver gilt, enamelled in white and red, with its bowl richly set with pearls strung on a wire: the knop is richly enamelled, and its edge set with alternate emeralds and sapphires ; whilst the sexfoiled foot is in the alternate com- partments engraved with coats-of-arms, and set with sapphires. It is a very gorgeous work, and, though all but Kenaissance in style, still very finely executed. A pax ; the Blessed Virgin Mary holding our Lord, and seated on a throne covered with pearls and other jewels. The figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary is enamelled with blue, and our Lord is in ivory. The old case for this is preserved, and has a drawer below it which contains papers referring to the gift of it. Another small pax; a flat plate enamelled, with crocheted pin- nacles at the side, but no figure. A fine thurible for incense, in the form of a ship, with Adam and Eve on the lid. A very good flagon, richly chased all over, sexfoil in section, and with a particularly good spout and handle. There are many other chapels, as will be seen by reference to the plan, added to various parts of this cathedral, though none of them are of anything like the same importance as that of the Constable, which gives, indeed, much of its character to the exterior of the whole church, so large, lofty, and elaborate is it. On the south side of the south aisle of the nave is one which in the treatment of its groining cells, which are filled with tracery, seems to show the hand of Jnan de Colonia ; whilst another chapel on the north side of the nave, partly covered with a late Gothic vault, and partly with a dome, may be either a later work of his, or, more })robably, of his son Simon de Colonia ; another to the east of this is remarkable for the cusps, which come from the moulded ribs and lie on the surface of the vaulting cells in a way I do 24 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. not remember to have seen before. In these chapels ^ we see the dying out of the old art in every stage of its progress ; and I think that both here and elsewhere in Spain the change was much more gradual than it was in most other parts of Europe, many of the early Eenaissance masters having availed them- selves largely of the picturesque detail of their predecessors’ work. The central lantern was the last great work executed in this cathedral, and its history must be given somewhat at length, as it is of much interest. In the Koyal Library at Madrid ^ there is preserved a MS., fpm which we learn that the “ crossing ” of the cathedral fell on the 4th of March, 1539 ; and that Eelipe de Borgona, ‘‘one of the three ‘maestros’ who in the time of our Emperor came to our Spain, from whom we have learned perfect architecture and sculpture, though in both they say he had the advantage over the others,” was intrusted with the execution of the new work erected in its place. This Cimborio or lantern was completed, according to this MS., in December, a.d. 1567, Maestro Yallejo being mentioned as having wrought at the Avork under Eelipe de Borgona; Cean Bermudez,^ without giving liis authorities, says, that the Bishop (celebrated for the many buildings he had erected, among others San Esteban at Salamanca), on the fall of the “crucero,” summoned Felipe de Borgona from Toledo, Avliere he was at work Avith Berruguete on the stalls, to superintend the cathedral architects Juan de Vallejo and Juan de Castaneda. Maestro Eelipe seems to have died in a.d. 1543, so that it is probable that after all most of the Avork Avas done after his death by Juan de Vallejo, Avho Avas sufficiently distinguished to be consulted with the architects of Toledo, Seville, and Leon about the building of the new cathedral at Salamanca in A.D. 1512, and had also, between the years a.d. 1514 — 1524, built the very Re- naissance-looking gateway Avhich opens from the east side of the north transept into the Calle de la Bellegria. The whole com- position of this lantern is Gothic and picturesque ; yet there is scarce a portion of it Avhich does not show a most strange mix- ture of Pagan and Gothic detail. The piers which support it are ^ The chapel of the Visitation was built time of Enrique II. — Caveda, Ensayo by Bishop Alouso de Cartagena, 1435- Historico, 379-80. 56. The chapel of Sta. Ana was built - Cod. M., No. 9. by Bishop Luis Acuna y Osorio, 1457-95. ^ Noticias de los Arquitectos y Arqui- The chapel of Sta. Catalina in the tectura de Espaha, vol. i. 206*7. Cloister is said to have been built in the ( / r >■ ik. K No. 1. NORTH-WEST VIEW. Chap. II. BUKGOS CATHEDBAL. 25 huge, ungainly cylinders, covered with carving in low relief, and everywhere there is that combination of heaviness of parts and intricacy of detail, which in all ages marks the inferior artist. I cannot help lamenting much, therefore, the fall of the old work iiiA.D. 1539. There is no evidence, so far as I know, as to what it was that fell,^ but the nearly coeval church of Las Huelgas has a fine simple lantern, and it is probable that some such erection existed in the cathedral, and that Bishop Luis de Acuna y Osorio raised it, and, by increasing its weight, caused its fall. The central lantern is so completely a feature of Englisli build- ings, or of those built in lands over which our kings also ruled, that any evidence of their early existence here would have been most valuable, seeing how close the connexion was at the time of its erection between the families of the kings of Castile and of England. The groined roofs next to the lantern, on all sides, were of necessity rebuilt at the same time, and with detail quite unlike that of the original vault. The exterior of the cathedral may be described at less length than the interior, presenting, as it does, fewer alterations of the original fabric, and much of what has been said of the one necessarily illustrating the other also. The west front is well known by the many illustrations which have been published of it. The ground on which the church stands slopes up, as I have said, rapidly from south to north, but a level Plaza has been formed in front of the doors, and part of which is enclosed with balustrades and pinnacles of a sort of bastard Gothic, which I see drawn in a view published circa 1770, and which may possibly be of the same age as the latest Gothic works in the cathedral. On the rising ground to the north-west stands the little church of San Nicolas, higli above the cathedral parvise, and hence it is that the view which I give from Mr. Eergusson’s book is taken. Nothing can be more determinately picturesque, though nothing can be less really interesting, than this florid work, which everywhere substituted elaboration for thought, and labour for art. But I need say no more on this point ; for if we now look more closely, we shall see that, underlying all these unsatisfying later excrescences, the ‘ Florez, Esp. Sag. xxvi. 393, says : middle of the church with eight turrets, ‘‘A MS. which I have says that Bishop which became a ruin in the middle of Luis Acuna y Osorio (1457-95) re- the following century.” formed the fabric of the transept in the 26 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. old thirteenth century cathedral is still here, intact to an extent which I had not at first ventured to hope for. The western doors are three in number, but have been com- pletely modernized. Of old the central door, ‘‘del Pardon,” liad effigies of the Assumption, with angels and saints ; the northern door “ the mystery of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin ; ” and the soutliern door her coronation.^ Above the side doorways the two steeples rise, whilst in the centre is a finely- traceried rose-window, which lights the nave ; and above this two lofty traceried openings, each of four lights, wdth effigies of saints standing one under each light, the wdiole forming a screen con- necting the steeples, and entirely masking the roof. The steeples, up to this level, are of the original foundation, much altered in parts, and now put to strange uses, their intermediate stages being converted into dwelling-houses, and lively groups of cocks and hens being domesticated on a sort of terrace a hundred feet from tlie floor. The upper part of the towers and the spires was added in the fifteenth century, by Bishop Alfonso de Cartagena (1435-56), who employed Juan de Colonia (the German of whom I have already spoken) to design them. German peculiarities do not gain in attractiveness by being exported to Spain, and this part of Juan de Colonia’s work is certainly not a success. Nothing can be less elegant than the termination of the spires, which, instead of finishing simply and in the usual way, are surrounded near the top by an open gallery, and then terminated wdth the clumsiest of finials. This work was commenced in a.d. 1442, and when the bishop died in A.D. 1456, one spire was finished, and the other, being well advanced, was soon completed under Bishop Luis Acuna y Osorio, the founder also of the central lantern.^ Between the two towers is a figure of the Blessed Virgin, with the words “ Fulcra es et decora.” On the upj)er part of the towers, “ Ecce Agnus Dei,” and “ Pax vobis ; ” and on the spires, “ Sancta Maria,” and “ Jesus.” These words are in large stone letters, with the spaces round them pierced. The detail of the spires is coarse, and the open stonework traceries with which they are covered are held together every- where by ironwork, most of which appeared to me to have been added since the erection. The crockets are enormous. ^ A view of the west front in a.d. tween them. — Esp. Sag. xxvi. p. 404. 1771 shows the three western doors in ^ Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esp., i. their old state ; they had statues on 105, 106. the door-jambs, and on the piers be- Chap. II. BURGOS CATHEDRAL. 27 projecting two feet from the angles of the spires, cnriously scooped out at the top to diminish their weight, and with holes drilled through them to prevent the lodgement of water. Tlie bells are, I think, the most misshapen I ever saw ; and, as if to prove that beauty of all kinds is sympathetic, they are as bad in sound as they are in form ! The facades of the two transepts are quite unaltered, and as fine as those of the best of our French or English churches. I par- ticularly delighted in the entrance to and entourage of the southern transept, presenting as it does all those happy groujungs Avhich to the nineteenth-century Eue-de-Rivoli-loving public are of course odious, but to the real lover of art simply most exquisite and quaint.^ The cloister and bishop’s palace, built out from the church on the south, leave a narrow lane between them, not absolutely in face of the great door, but twisting its way up to it ; the entrance to this is through a low archway, called the Puerta del Sarmental, above which, on the right, towers one of the enormous and really noble crocheted pinnacles which mark the angles of the cloister, and then, passing by several old monuments built into the walls of the pass^ige, the great doorway is reached by a flight of steps at its end. Above this doorway is a fine rose window of twenty rays of geometrical tracery, and above this is a screen in front of the roof, consisting of four traceried openings, each of four lights, and each monial protected, as are the lights at the west front, by figures of angels rather above life- size. The angles of the transepts are flanked by crocheted pinnacles, the crockets here, as elsewhere throughout the early ^ It was well that I used the word “ delighted ” when I wrote this page, for this passage no longer delights me as it did. I visited Burgos again last year (1863\ and found the Cathedral undergoing a sort of restoration ; masons cleaning up everything inside, and by way of a beginning outside they had widened the passage to the south door, so as to make it square with and of the same width as the doorway ; to do this a slice had been cut off the bishop’s palace, at some inconvenience to the bishop, no doubt, the result of doing it being simply that much of the beauty and picturesque- ness of the old approach to the church is utterly lost for ever. Of one thing, such an unsuccessful alteration satisfies me — little indeed as I require to be satisfied on the point, — and this is, that in dealing with old buildings it is absolutely impossible to be too con- servative in everything that oue does. Often what seems — as doubtless this thing did to the people of Burgos — the most plain improvement is just, as this is, a disasti’ous change for the worse. And when we find old work, the reason for or meaning of which we do not quite perceive, we cannot be wrong in letting well alone. It is to be hoped that Spain is not now going to undergo what England suffered from James Wyatt and others, and what she is still in many places suffering at the hands of those who follow in their steps ! 28 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. work, being simple in form and design, but as perfect in effect as it is possible for crockets to be. The sculptures of the south door are, in the tympanum, our Lord seated with the evangelistic beasts around Him, and the four evangelists, one on either side and two above, seated and writing at desks, whilst below His feet are the twelve apostles, seated and holding open books. Below, there is a bishop in front of the central pier, and statues on either side, of which I made out two on the right to be St. Peter and St. Paul, and the two answering to them on the left Moses and Aaron. The three orders of the archivolt have — (1) angels with censers, and angels with candles ; (2 and 3) kings seated, and playing musical instruments. Here, as throughout the early sculpture, the character of the work is very French, and the detail of the arcading below the statues in the jambs is very nearly the same as that of the earliest portion of the work in the west front of the Cathedral at Bourges. The north transept differs but little from the other. The doorway — De Los Apostoles — is reached from the transept floor by an internal staircase of no less than thirty-eight steps (the sixteenth-century work of Diego de Siloe), and the whole front is of course much less lofty than that of the south transept, owing to the great slope of the ground up from south to north. Above the doorway is an early triplet, and above this the roof-screen and pinnacles, the same as in the other transept. The door- way has in the tympanum our Lord, seated, with St. Mary and St. John on either side, and angels with the instruments of the Passion above and on either side. Below is St. Michael weighing . souls, with the good on his left, and the wicked on his right. The orders of the archivolt have — (1) seraphim, (2) angels, and (3) figures rising from their graves : and the jambs have figures of the twelve apostles. Varieties of Crockets. A. Ill Tower Window Jamb. B. Do. do. Arch. C. On Pinnacles of South Transept. No. 2. CLER'ESTORY OF CHOIR. Cttap. II. BURGOS CATHEDRAL. 29 The ascent to the roofs discloses the remaining early fea- tures. These are the clerestory windows, and the double flying buttresses, of which I give an illustration. The water from the main roofs is carried down in a channel on the flying but- tresses and discharged by gurgoyles. There are some sitting figures of beasts added in front of the buttresses which are not original. The parapet throughout is an open trefoiled arcade, with an angel standing guard over each buttress. The detail of the clerestory windows is very good ; they are of two lights, with a cusped circle above, and a well-moulded enclosing arch. The windows in the apse are built on the curve. The caj)itals of the shafts in and under the flying buttresses are well carved, and there is a good deal of dog-tooth enrichment. At the back of the screen-walls, in front of the roofs of the nave and transepts, is seen the old weather-moulding marking the line of the very steep-pitched roof (which was evidently intended to be erected), and the stones forming which are so contrived as to form steps leading up to the ridge, and down again to the opposite gutter. In the transept, pinnacles take the place of the angels over the buttresses, and their design is very piquant and original. Tlie moulded stringcourse at the base of these pinnacles is of a section often seen in French work, and never, I believe, used by any but French workmen. All the steep roofs have long since vanished, and in their place are flat roofs, covered with pantiles laid loosely and roughly, and looking most ruinous. It may well be a question, I think, whether the steep roofs were ever erected. The very fact that they were contemplated in the design and construction of the stonework, appears to me to afford evidence of the design not having been the work of a Spaniard : and it is of course possible that, at the first, the native workmen may have put up a roof of the flat pitch, with which they were familiar, instead of the steep roofs for which the gables were planned. But, assuming that the steep roofs were erected, they must, no doubt, have been damaged by the fall of the lantern in 1539, and as it was reconstructed with reference to roofs of the pitch we now see, the roofs must have been altered at the latest by that time. It is quite worth while to ascend to the roofs, if only to see what is, perhaps, the most charming view in the whole church ; that, namely, which is obtained from the south-east angle of the lantern, looking down into the cloister, above the traceries of which rise the quaint pinnacles and parapets of the old sacristy, and the great angle pinnacles of the cloister itself, 30 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. whilst beyond are seen the crowded roofs of the city, the all but dry bed of the Arlanzon dividing it in two parts, and beyond, on the one side, the steeple of the Convent of Las Huelgas rising among its trees, and on the other the great chapel of Mirahores, crowning a dreary, dusty, and desolate-looking hill in the distance. I have left to the last all notice of the cloisters, which are said to have been built in the time of Enrique II. (1379-90), but I can find no authority for the statement, and believe that they would be more rightly dated between a.d. 1280 and a.d. 1350.^ They are entered from the south transept by the tine doorway, of which a drawing is given by Mr. Waring in his work on Burgos. This would be thought an unusually good example of middle-pointed work even in England, and is as fair an instance as I know of the extreme skill with which the Spanish artists of the same period wrought. The planning of the jambs, with the arrangement of the straight-sided overhanging canopies over the figures which adorn them, are to be noticed as being nearly identical in character witli those of the noi'tli transept doorway at Leon, and the strange feature of an elliptical three-centred arch to the door opening under the tymjDanum is common to both. The tympanum is well sculptured with the Baptism of our Lord, and the well-accentuated orders of the arch have sitting figures under canopies, and delicately-carved foliage. The flat surfaces here are, wherever possible, carved with a diaper of castles and lions, which was very popular throughout the kingdom of Castile and Leon in the fourteenth century. The figures on the left jamb of the door are those of the Annunciation, whilst, on the right, are others of David and Isaiah. The wooden doors, though much later in date, are carved with extreme spirit and power, with St. Peter and St. Paul below, and the Entry into Jerusalem and the Descent into Hell above. The ecclesiologist should set these doors open, and then, looking through the archway into the cloister, where the light glances on an angle column clustered round with statues, and upon delicate traceries and vaulting ribs, he will enjoy as charming a picture as is often seen. The arrangement of the masonry round this door shows, as also does its detail, that it is an insertion in the older wall.^ ^ In A.D. 1257 the king gave a piece cloisters ? of land opposite his palace (now the ^ One of the buttresses of the north Episcopal Palace) to the Dean of Burgos, transept is seen in the western alley of Was not this for the erection of the the cloister. On the face of it still BURGOS CATHEDRAL ■ tS-' • /Jf W*/s0 • atSfi'T f i'*' ' %> %pr-3r}'"^ -^,445, 4 ^^ <(Ui H blU '; ;r . r%4 ^ ^ «• •■' - ■^''.L .: 4-t;, .iU'*.,- •;, .‘ ! ■ ■ : 't ■-> ■ > 4 '’' »■. ^'- i-. ■ n;f 4 ->;-f iV,!: /Ci‘| mi S' SM’Wtt. ^,^ Chap. II. TUJIIGOS CATHEDRA!.. 81 The cloisters are full of beauty and interest. They are of two stages in height, tlie lower plain, the upper very ornate, the windows being of four liglits, with a circle of ten cusps in the centre, and a quatrefoiled circle within the enclosing arch over the side lights. The groining ribs are well moulded, and the details throughout carefully designed and executed. At the internal angles of the cloister are groups of saints on corbels and under canopies placed against the groining shafts, and there is generally a figure of a saint under a recessed arch in the wall opposite each of the windows ; ^ besides which there are numerous monuments and doorways. Those on the east are the most noticeable. There is the entrance to the sacristy, with a sculpture of the Descent from the Cross in its tympanum ; the entrance to the room in which the coffer of the Cid is preserved, with our Lord seated between SS. Mary and John and Angels ; and on the south side are in one bay 8. Josej)!! of Arimathea laying our Lord in the sepulchre, in another the Crucifixion ; whilst sculptured high tombs, surrounded by iron grilles, abound. Indeed, I hardly know any cloister in which an architect might be better contented to be confined for a time ; for though tl^ere are many which are finer and in better style, I know none alto- gether more interesting and more varied, or more redolent of those illustrations of and links witli the past, which are of the very essence of all one’s interest in such works. One of the doors on the east side of the cloister opens into the old sacristy, a grand room about forty-two feet square, the groining of which is octagonal, with small three-sided vaulting bays filling in the angles between the square and the octagon. The corbels supporting the groining shafts are very quaintly carved with the story of a knight battling with lions. Here are kept the vestments of the altars and clergy, a right goodly collection in number, and three of them very fine. These are a blue velvet cope with orphreys, fairly wrought on a gold ground, and all the work bound with a twisted cord, which in one part is black and yellow; another cope, also of blue velvet, has a half-figure of our Lord in the centre of the orphrey, and angels on the remainder and on the hood, with wings of green, purple, and blue, exquisitely shaded and lined with gold ; another has 8t. John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin, our Lord, and three saints, under canopies. In all of them the velvet remaius one of tlie original dedication On the east side these recessed crosses— a cross pattee enclosed in a arches have veiy rich foliage in their circle. solFeits. 32 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chai\ II. ground was covered with a large diaper pattern in gold, done before the embroidery was applique. To the south of this sacristy is another groined chamber, in which is kept the coffer of the Cid,^ and where the groining ribs are painted in rich colour for about three feet from the centre boss. A door out of this leads into the Chapter-house, a room with a flat wooden ceiling of Moresque character. It is made in parqueterie of coloured woods arranged in patterns with gilt pendants, and the cornice is of blue and white majolica, inlaid in the walls : the combination of the whole is certainly very effective. East of these rooms were others, of which traces still remain on the outside ; but they have been entirely destroyed, and streets now form, on the east and on the south, the boundaries of the church and its dependent buildings. Advantage was taken of the rise of the ground to make a second cloister below that which I have been describing. In the centre of the enclosure stands a cross, but the arches are built up, and the cloister is now used for workshops, so that there is here none of that air of beauty which the gardened cloisters of Spain usually possess. In the north-west angle of this lower story is a sacristy, reached by a staircase from one of the choir chapels, and still in use for it. I have now in a general way gone over the whole of this very interesting church, and have said enough, I hope, to prove that popular report has never overrated its real merits, though no doubt it has regarded too much those points only of the fabric which to my eye seemed to be least worthy of praise — the late additions to it rather than the old church itself. As to the charm of the whole building from every point of view there cannot be two opinions. It has in a large degree that real picturesqueness which we so seldom see in French Gothic interiors, whilst at the same time it still retains much of that fine Early Pointed work which could hardly have been the work of any but one who knew well the best French buildings of his day ; whoever he was — and amid the plentiful mention of later artists I have looked in vain for any mention of him — he was no servile reproducer of foreign work. The treatment of the triforinm throughout is evidently an original conception ; ’ The coffer of the Cid is that which rowed money, and hence, perhaps, the he filled with sand, and then pledged coffer is preserved, the first part of the for a loan from some .Tews, who transaction being unquestionably not supposed it to be full of valuables ; very worthy of record, afterwards he honestly repaid the bor- Chap. II, BURGOS CATHEDRAL. 33 and it is to be noted that the dog-tooth enrichment is freely used, and that the bells of the capitals throughout are octagonal with concave sides. The crocheting of the pinnacles is, I believe, quite original ; and the general plan- ning and construction of the building is worthy of all praise. Nor was the sculptor less worthy of praise than the archi- tect. The carving of foliage in the early work is good and very plenti- ful ; the figured sculp- ture is still richer, and whether in the thir- teenth-century transept doors, the fourteenth- century cloisters, or the fifteenth - century Iteta- blos, is amazingly good and spirited. The thirteenth-century figures are just in the style of those Frenchmen who always conveyed so riant and piquant a character both of face and attitude to their work. The later architects all seem to have wrought in a fairly original mode ; and even where archi- tects were brought from Germany, there was some influence evidently used to prevent their work being a mere repetition of what was being done in their own land ; and so aided by the admirable skill of the Spanish artists who worked under them, the result is much more happy than might have been expected. ]\Iuch, no doubt, of the picturesque effect of such a church is owing to the way in which it has been added to from time to time : to the large number, therefore, of personal interests em- bodied in it, the variety of styles and parts each of them full of individuality, and finally to the noble memorials of the dead which abound in it. In France — thanks to revolutions and whitewash without stint — the noblest churches have a certain air of baldness which tires the eye of an Englishman used to our storied cathedrals : but in Spain tins is never the case, and we may go to Burgos, as we may anywhere else in the land, certain that we shall find in each catliedral much that will illustrate every page of the history of the country, if well studied and rightly read. There is one point in which for picturesque efiect few coiin- D ?A GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. tries can vie with Sj)ain — and this is the admission of light. In her brilliant climate it seems to matter not at all how many of the windows are blocked up or destroyed : all that results is a deeper sliadow thrown across an aisle, or a ray of light looking all the brighter by contrast ; and, though it is often a hard matter to see to draw inside a church on the brightest day, it is never too dark for comfort, and one comes in from the scorching sun outside and sits down in the darkest spot of the dark church with the utmost satisfaction. I saw an evidence here one night of the natural aptitude of the people for such effects, in the mode of lighting up the cathedral for an evening service in a large chapel at the east end. There was one lantern on the floor of the nave, another in the south transept, and the light burning before the altar : and in the large side chapel was a nuuierous congregation, some sitting on the floor, some kneeling, some standing, whilst a priest, holding a candle in his hand, read to the people from the pulpit. In this chapel the only other light was from the lighted candles on the altar. The whole church was i]i this way just enough lighted to enable you to see your way, and to avoid running against the cloaked forms that trod stealthily about ; and the effect would have been inexpressibly solemn, save for the occa- sional intrusion of a dog or a cat, who seem to be always prowling about, and not unfrequently fighting, in Spanish churches. Leaving the other churches and buildings of Burgos for the present, let us now cross the Arlanzon by one of its many bridges, and presently striking to the left we shall come upon the well-worn path by the side of the convent-stream, which in less than a mile from the city brings us to a postern of Las Huelgas. Santa J\Iaria la Real de las Huelgas was founded by Alfonso VIII., son of H. Sancho el Deseado, at the instance, it is said, of Leonor (or Alienor) his Queen, daughter of Henry II. of England, of whom I have before spoken in referring to Bishop Maurice, the founder of the cathedral. The dates given for the work are as follow : — The monastery was commenced in A.D. 1180; inhabited on the 1st June, a.d. 1187 and in A.D. 1199 formally established as a house of Cistercians. The first abbess ruled from a.d. 1187 to a.d. 1203; and the second. Dona Con- stanza, daughter of the founder, from a.d. 1203 to a.d. 1218; and from that time forward a large number of noble persons here took the veil, whilst kings were knighted, crowned, and buried * Mani'i<]ne, Aiiales Cisterciences, iii. 201. BURCjOS n^CrutljFilrHh iSitXS^-’ i? Chap. II. LAS HUELGAS. before its altars. No wonder, therefore, that tlie postern-gate of Las Huelgas — a simple thirteenth-century archway — leads, not at once into the convent, but into the village which has grown up around it, and which, whatever may have been its aspect in old times, is now as dreary, desolate, and forlorn-looking as only a Spanish or an Irish village can be, though still ruled as of yore by the lady abbess, — no doubt with terribly shorn and shrunken revenues. There is a small church in the village here, but it is of no interest : and we may well reserve ourselves for the great church risinoj from behind the boundarv walls which shut in the convent on all sides, and the people’s entrance to which is from an open courtyard on its north side through the transept porch. I give an illustration of the ground plan,^ from which it will be seen that the church consists of a nave and aisles of eight bays, transepts, and choir, with two chapels on either side of it opening into the transept, whilst a porch is erected in front of the north transept, and a cloister passage along the whole length of the north aisle. A tower is placed on the north-east of the. north transept, and a chapel has been added on its eastern side There is another cloister court, of which a not very trustworthy lithograph is given in M. Villa Amil’s work. This is within the convent, from which every one but the inmates is rigorously excluded, but, as far as I can learn, it is on the south side of the nave. The central cora[)artment of the transept is carried up above the rest as a lan- tern, and groined with an eight -sided vault. The choir has one bay of quadripartite and one of sexpartite vaulting, and an ajDse. The tran- sept chapels are all of them square in plan, but, by the introduction of an arch across the angle (the space behind which is roofed with a small vault), the vault is brought to a half-octagon at the cast end. This will be best understood by the illustration which I give of one of tliese 1 ) 2 1 Plate II. 36 GOTHIC AECHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. chapels : and here, too, it will he seen that the masonry of the vaulting cells is all arranged in vertical lines, — parallel, that is, to the centre of the vault, and that the transverse section of the vault is in all cases exceedingly domical. Nothing can he more peculiar than this description of early vaulting, and it is one which, I believe, originated in Anjou or Poitou, where num- berless examples may he found all more or less akin to this at Las Huelgas. This fact is most suggestive, for what more probable than that Alienor, Henry II. ’s daughter, should, in the abbey which she induced her liusband to found, have procured the help of some architect from her father’s Angevine domain to assist in the design of her building? Yet, on the other hand, there are some slight differences of detail between the work here and any French example with which I am acquainted, which make it possible that the architect was really a Spaniard, but if so, he must have been well acquainted, not only with the Angevine system of vaulting, but also with some of those English details which, as is well known, were in common use both in Anjou and in England in the latter part of the twelfth, and first half of the thirteenth century. A foreigner naturally gives us an exact reproduction of the work of some foreign school, just as we see at Canterbury in the work of William ot Sens, and my own impression is strong that he must have been an Angevine artist who was at work here. If I am correct in attributing this peculiar church to the Angevine influence of the Queen, I prove at the same time a most important point in the history of the development of style in Spain. The planning of the church at Las Huelgas influenced largely the architects of Burgos, the capital of Castile and Leon. The groining of the only original chapel in the transept of the cathedral is a reproduction of the octopartite vault of the lantern at Las Huelgas ; and one may fairly suspect that so, too, was the original lantern of the cathedral. Then, again, in a fourteenth-century chaj)el, north of the choir of the cathedral, we see the same device {i.e. the arched pendentive across the angle) adopted for obtaining an octagonal vault over a square chamber ; and again in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in a chapel on the south of the nave, in the old sacristy, and finally in the all but Eenaissance chapel of the Constable, we have the Spanish octagonal vault, supported on penden- tives, evidently copied by the German architect from the pen- dentives of the Eomanesque churches on the Ehine. In these Burgalese examples we have a typal vault which is exten- Chap. II. LAS HUELGAS. 37 sively reproduced throughout Spain, and which I last saw at Barcelona, in work of the sixteenth century. It is a type of vault, ill its later form, almost peculiar to Spain, and when filled in with tracery in the cell, I believe quite so. And it is undoubtedly more picturesque and generally more scien- tific in construction than our own late vaults, and infinitely more so than the thin, wasted-looking vaults of the French flamboyant style. But to proceed Avith my notice of the church of Las Huelgas. The nave is groined throughout with a quadripartite vault ; but beyond this I can say but little, as it is screened off from the church for the use of the nuns,^ and the only view of it is obtained through the screen. The main arches between the nave and aisles are very simple, of two orders, the inner square, the outer moulded. Above these is a string-course level Avith the springing of the groining, and then a clerestory of long, simple lancet windows, the Avhole forming a noble and impressive interior. Above the nuns’ stalls on the south I noticed a good fifteenth-century organ, Avith pipes arranged in a series of stepped compartments, and painted shutters of the same shape ; below the principal range of pipes those of one stop are placed projecting horizontally from the organ. This is an almost universal arrangement in Spanish organs, and is always very picturesque in its effect, and I believe in the case of trumpet-stops very useful, though someAvhat costly.^ The detail generally of all the architecture here is very good, and in j)urticnlar nothing can be more minute and delicate in execution than some of the sculpture of foliage in the eastern chapels, Avhere also, as is frequently the case in early Spanish buildings, the dog - tooth enrichment is freely introduced wherever possible. Tlie design of the interior of the choir is very good ; below are lancet Avindows, Avith semi-circular inside arches ; and above, lancets Avith double internal jamb-shafts, very picturesquely introduced high up in the walls, and close to the groining. I could only get a glimpse of the exterior of the apse, owing to the high Avails which completely enclose the convent on the east. It has simple but good buttresses, but otherwise there seems nothing worthy of note. The rest of the exterior is, however, A^ery interesting. The general vieAV Avhicli ^ The nuns’ choir in the nave is, ac- ^ The organ in All Saints, Margaret cording to Florez, “ the most capacious Street, has the pipes of one stop simi- of all that are known in cathedrals and larly placed ; but I know no old monasteries.’’ Esp. Sag., xxvi. 582. English example of this arrangement. 38 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. I give shows the extremely simple and somewhat Eoglishdook- ing west front ; the gateway and wall, with its Moorish battle- ments, dividing an inner court from the great court north of the church ; and the curious rather than beautiful steeple. An arched bell-cot rises out of the western wall of the lantern, and a tall staircase-turret out of the western wall of the north transept. The cloister, which is carried all along the north aisle of the nave of the church, is very simple, having two divisions between each buttress, the arches being carried on shafts, coupled in the usual early fashion, one behind the other. A very rich first-pointed doorway opens into the second bay from the west of this cloister, and a much simpler archway, with a circular window over it, into the fifth, and at its east end a most ingenious and picturesque group is produced by the contrivance of a covered passage from the cloister to the projecting transept- porch. The detail here is of the richest first-pointed, very delicate and beautiful, but, apparently, very little cared for now. The cloister is entirely blocked up and converted into a re- ceptacle for lumber, but I was able to see that it is groined. The rose window in the transept-porch, with doubled traceries and shafts, set one behind the other, with fine effect, the elaborate corbel-tables, and the doorway to the smaller porch — rich with chevron and dog-tooth — ought to be specially noticed : their detail being tolerably convincing as to their French origin. There are some curious monuments inside the transept- porch, which I was not able to examine properly, as when I went to Las Huelgas a second time, in order to see them, I found the church locked for the day. To see such a church properly it is necessary to rise with the lark ; for after ten or eleven in the morning it is always closed. There is a good simple gateway of the thirteenth century leading into the western court of the convent, but otherwise I could see nothing old, though I daresay the fortunate architect who first is able to examine the whole of the buildings will find much to reward his curiosity.^ For there is not only a very ^ Mr. Waring and M. Villa Amil have both published drawings of the inne” cloister. The drawing of the latter is evidently not to be trusted ; but from Mr. Waring’s view I gather that the arches are round, resting on cou- pled shafts, with large carved capitals. ]\Ir. Waring calls them Romanesque, but in his drawing they look more like very late Transitional work, probably not earlier than a.d. 1200. They appear to be arranged in arcades of six open arches between larger piers, and with such a construction the cloister could hardly have been intended for groining. The famous cloister at Elne, near Per- pignan, with those of Verona Cathedral, S. Trophime at Arles, Montmajeur, and No. I,AS HUELGAS, BURGOS. Chap. 11. LAS HUELGAS. o9 line early cloister, but also, it Madoz is to be trusted, a chapter- house, the vaulting of which is supported on four lofty columns, and which is probably, therefore, a square chamber with nine vaulting bays. A long list of royal personages buried here is given by Florez.^ In the choir are the founders, Alfonso YIII. and Alienor; in the nave of Sta. Catalina, Alfonso VII., the founder's grand- father, his father, his son Don Henrique I., and twenty more of his kin ; and in the other parts of the church a similarly noble company. The king seems to have founded a hos] 3 ital for men at the same time as, and in connexion with, the convent ; but I saw nothing of this, and I do not know whether it still exists. Here took place many solemnities : Alfonso YII., nephew of the founder, was the first who was made a knight in it (a.d. 1219, Nov. 27); and in a.d. 1254 Don Alfonso el Sabio knighted Edward I. of England before the altar ; whilst in later days it seems that in a.d. 1330, in a.d. 1341, and again in a.d. 1366, the kings were here crowned ; ^ and in 1367 Edward the Black Prince lodged here after the battle of Navarrete, and went hence to the church of Sta. Maria to swear to a treaty with the King Don Pedro before the principal altar.^ The convent seems to have been quite independent of the Bishop,^ save that each abbess after her election went to ask him to bless the house, when he always answered by protesting that his consent to do so was in no wise to be construed in any sense derogatory to his power, or as binding on his successors. I observe that the abbesses here were elected for life until A.D. 1593, but that from that time they have held office for three years only ; though in a few instances they have been re-elected for a second such term. It was a relief, after the picturesque magnificence of the later Burgalese architects, to turn to such a simple severe church as tills at Las Huelgas. But I must not detain my readers any longer within its pleasant walls ; and we will imagine ourselves to be there in a.d. 1454, in the midst of a group of the greatest of Moissac, are examples of the class from which the design of such a cloister as this must have been derived, and its character is therefore rather more like that of Italian work, or work of the South of France, than that of Northern France or England. ^ Espafia Sagrada, xxvii. 611-14, 2 Espafia Sagrada, xxvi. 350, 359. ^ An interesting account of this meet- ing is given in Cronicas de los Reyes de Castillos, i. ]i. 481-3. 4 That it was ‘ ' of no diocese ” was expressly recorded among the titles borne by the Abbess, and given by Ponz, Viage de Espafia, xii. 65. 40 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. the nobles and clergy of Castile : we should have found the Bishop Alfonso de Cartagena there, and with him Juan de Colonia, his German architect, and Maestro Gil de Siloe, the sculptor, and Martin Sanchez, the wood-carver, all of them invited and ready to take part in a great work just about to be completed. Juan II. had just died at Valladolid, and forthwith his body was taken towards the Carthusian convent of Miraflores, by Burgos, where of old stood a palace, which in a.d. 1441 he had converted into a convent, and in a.d. 1454, just before his death, had begun to rebuild. The Bishop met his body at Palenzuela — one day’s journey from Burgos — and brought it in procession to the ‘‘Beal Casa de Las Huelgas,” where he rested the night, ; and thence he went onward, the cofSn borne by ladies and gentlemen, to San Pablo in the city, where the Dominican Fathers sung the funeral office, and the next day — the feast of St. John the Baptist — to ]\Iiratlores, where the Bishop himself said the office and preached. Then the body was deposited with much pomp in the sacristy until the church should be finished.^ Let us follow^ them thither. The walk is dreary enough on this hot September day, and terribly deep in dust ; but yet, as it rises up the slope of the hills on the side of the river opposite to the cathedral and city, good views are obtained of both. It is but a couple of miles to the convent, which stands desolately by itself, and never was there a spot which, in its present state, could less properly be called Miraflores, where not even a blade of grass is to be seen. The church stands up high above all the other buildings, but its exterior is not attractive ; its outline is somewdiat like, though very inferior to that of Eton College chapel, and its detail is all rather poor. The windows, placed very high from the floor, are filled with flamboyant tracery, the buttresses are plain, and the pinnacles and parapet quite Benais- sance in their character, and are, no doubt, additions to the original fabric. The w^est gable is fringed wdth cusping — a very unhappy scheme for a coping-line against the sky! A court at the w^est end opens into the chapel by its west door, which is close to the main entrance to the convent ; but we w^ere taken round by several courts and quadrangles, one of them a cloister of vast size, surrounded by the houses of the monks. These are of fair size, each having two or three rooms below, and tw'o above. Their entrance doorways are square-headed, quaintly cut up into a point in the centre of the lintel, and by the side of 1 See the account at length in Esp. Sag., xxvii. 393 and 558. Chap. II. CHAPEL OF MIRAFLOPES. 41 eacli door is a small hatch for the reception of food. Another smaller cloister, close to the south door of the church, has fair pointed windows, with their sills filled with red tiles, and edged with green tiles. Besides these remains, the only old work I saw was a good flat ceiling, panelled between the joists, and richly painted in cinquecento fashion. A good effect was produced here by the prevalence of white and red alternately in the patterns painted on the joists. The chapel is entered from the convent by a door on the south side, in the third bay from the west. It consists of five bays and a polygonal apse, and is about 135 feet long, 32 wide, and 63 feet in height. The western bay is the people’s nave, and is divided from the next by a metal screen. The second bay forms the Coro, and has stalls at the sides, and two altars on the east, one on each side of the doorway in the screen which separates the Coro from the eastern portion of the chapel. This last is fitted with five stalls on each side against the western screen, and with twenty on either side, all of them extremely rich in their detail : there is a continuous canopy over the whole, and very intricate traceries at the back of each stall. ^ A step at the east end of the stalls divides the sacrarium from the western part of the chapel ; and nearly the whole of the space here is occupied by the sumptuous monument of the founder and his second wife, Isabel or Elizabeth,” as she is called in the inscription. In the north wall is the monument of the Infante Alfonso, their son ; and against the south wall is a sort of throne with very lofty and elaborate canopy, which is said by the cicerone to be foi* the use of the priest who says mass. Finally, tlie east wall is entirely filled with an enormous Betablo. The groining throughout has, as is usually the case in late Spanish work in Burgos, a good many surface ribs, and enormous painted bosses at their intersections. These are so much undercut, so large, and so intricate in their design, that I believe they must be of wood, and not of stone. They are of very common occur- rence, and always have an extravagant effect, being far too large and intricate for their position. The apse is groined in thirteen very narrow bays, and its groining ribs are richly foliated on the under side. Pagan cornices of plaster and whitewash have been freely bestowed everywhere, to tlie gveat damage of the walls, and to such an extent as to make the interior look cold ^ These stalls are like late Flemish work, but wrought by a Spaniard, Martin Sanchez, circa a.u. 1480, who received 125.000 maravedis for his labour. 42 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. and gloomy. The windows are filled with what looks like poor Flemish glass, though it may perhaps be native work, as the names of two painters on glass, Juan de Santillana and Juan de Yaldivieso, are known as residents in Burgos at the end of the fifteenth century,^ about the time at which it must have been executed. The monument of Juan and Isabel is as mao'nificent a work O of its kind as I have ever seen ^ — richly wrought all over. The heraldic achievements are very gorgeous, and the dresses are everywhere covered with very delicate patterns in low relief. The whole detail is of the nature of the very best German third- pointed work rather than of flamboyant, and I think, for beauty of execution, vigour and animation of design, finer than any other work of the age. The plan of the high tomb on which the effigies lie is a square with another laid diagonally on it. At the four cardinal angles are sitting figures of the four evan- gelists, rather loosely placed on the slab, with which they seem to have no connexion ; the king holds a sceptre, the queen a book, and both lie under canopies with a very elaborate per- forated stone division between the figures ; round the sides of the tomb are effigies of kings and saints, figures of the Virtues, sculptured subjects, naked figures, and foliage of mar- vellous delicacy. A railing encloses the tomb. The whole is tlie work of Maestro Gil de Shoe ; and from the Archives of the Church it appears that, in a.d. 1486, he was paid 1340 maravedis for the design of the work, that he commenced its execution in a.d. 1489, and completed it in a.d. 1493. The monument cost 442,667 maravedis, exclusive of the alabaster, which cost 158,252 maravedis.^ About the same time the same sculptor executed the monu- ment of Alfonso, son of Juan and Isabel, in the north wall of the sacrarium. This, though less ambitious than the other, is a noble work. It consists of a high tomb with a recessed arch over it, and pinnacles at the sides. The high tomb has a great shield held by angels, with men in armour on either side ; under the arch above the Infante kneels at a Prie-Dieu. The arch is three-centred, edged with a rich fringe of foliage and naked figures; and between it and the ogee gable above it is ^ See Cean Bermudez, Dice. Hist., vi. beauty, and curiousness.” — Ponz, Viage 171. de Esp., xii. 61. The remark might ” A decidedly hyperbolical inscription fairly have been made if he had referred is cpioted by Ponz, in which the Chapel only to the monuments, of Miraflores is called a Temple, “ second ^ Quoted by Cean Bermudez, Dice, to none in the world for monuments, Hist., iv. 378. Chap. 11. CHAPEL OF MIPAFLOllES. 43 a spirited figure of St. George and the Dragon. The side pinna- cles have figures of the twelve apostles, and one in the centre the Annunciation.^ The Ketablo is no less worthy of notice. Its colour as well as its sculpture is of the richest kind. Below, on either side of the tabernacle (which has been modernized), are St. John Baptist and S. Mary Magdalene, and subjects on either side of them ; on the left the Annunciation, and S. Mary Magdalene anointing our Lord’s feet, and on the right the Adoration of the Magi, and the Betrayal of our Lord ; whilst beyond, Alfonso and Isabel kneel at faldstools, with their coats-of-arms above them. Above the Tabernacle is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and above this a grand circle entirely formed of clustered angels, in the centre of which is a great crucifix surmounted by the Pelican vulning her breast. Within this circle are four subjects from the Passion, and a King and a Pope on either side holding the arms of the Cross, which is completely detached from the background. On either side are S. John and S. Mary ; and beside all these, a crowd of subjects and figures, pinnacles and canopies, which it is impossible to set down at length. The whole of this work was done by the same Gil de Siloe, assisted by Diego de la Cruz, at a cost of 1,015,613 maravedis, and was executed between A.D. 1496 and 1499. Behind the Eetablo some of the old pave- ment remains, of encaustic tiles in blue, white, and red. The works at this church seem to have made but slow progress owing to the troubled state of the kingdom after the death of Juan II. His son gave something towards the works in A.D. 1454, but nothing more until A.D. 1465. In a.d. 1474 he died, and was succeeded by Isabel the Catholic, who, in a.d. 1476, confirmed the grants to the monastery, and completed the church in a.d. 1488 ; but it was not, as we have seen, until the end of the century that the whole work was really finished. Juan de Colonia made the plan for the building in a.d. 1454, for which he received 3350 maravedis : he directed its construction for twelve years, and after his death, in a.d. 1466, Garci Fer- nandez de Matienzo continued it till he died of the plague in the year 1488, when Simon, son of Juan de Colonia, completed it.^ Having completed my notice of the three great buildings of Burgos and its neighbourhood, and which in their style and liLtory best illustrate the several periods of Christian art, I now ^ Tliei’e is an illustration of this moiui- Cean Bermudez, Dice. Hist. iv. 324, vi. meiit in Mr. Waring’s book. 285, and Arq. de Espana, i. 106 and ‘ See Espafia Sagrada, xxvii. 559. 121. 44 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUIIE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. proceed to give some notes of the Conventual and Parish Churches, which are numerous and fairly interesting. In Burgos, however, as is so often the case on all parts of the Continent, the number of desecrated churches is considerable. The suppression of monasteries involved their desecration as a matter of course ; and without religious orders it is obviously useless to have churches crowded together in the way one sees them here. I remember making a note of the relative position of three of these churches, which stand corner to corner without a single intervening house ; and though this is an extreme case, the churches were no doubt very numerous for the population. Unluckily a desecrated church is generally a sealed book to an ecclesiologist. They are usually turned to account by the military ; and soldiers view with proverbially jealous eyes any one who makes notes ! Just above the west front of the Cathedral is the little church of San Nicolas, mainly interesting for its Betablo, which, however, scarcely needs description, though it is gorgeously sculptured with the story, I think, of the patron. Its date is fixed by an inscription, which I give in a note.^ On either side are monu- ments of a type much favoured in Spain, and borrowed probably from Italy, of which the main feature is, that the figures lie on a sloping surface, and look painfully insecure. Here too I saw one of the first old western galleries that I met with in my Spanish journeys ; and as I shall constantly have to mention their exist- ence, position, and arrangement in parochial churches, it may be as well to say here, that at about the same date that choirs were moved westward into the naves of cathedrals, western galleries, generally of stone, carried on groiniog, and fitted up with stalls round three sides, with a great lectern in the centre, and organs on either side, were erected in a great number of parish churches. It cannot be doubted that in those days the mode of worship of the people was exactly what it is now ; no one cared much if at all for anything but the service at the altar, and the choir was banished to where it would be least seen, least heard, and least in the way ! At present it seems to me that one never sees any one taking more than the slightest passing notice of the really finely-performed service even in the cathedral choirs ; whilst in contrast to this, in the large churches, with an almost endless number of altars, all are still used, and all seem to have each 1 “ Nobilis Vii* Gonsalvus Polanco, conquiescunt “ Obiit ille anno 1505 at([Lie ejns conjux Eleonora Miranda liscc vero 1503.” liujus sacri altaris auctores hoc tumulo Chap. II. BURGOS : SAN NICOLAS. 45 their own flock of worshippers ; and thougli it is a constant source of pain and grief to an ever-increasing body of Englisli Chnrchraen that the use of their own altars should be so lament- ably less than it ever was in primitive days, or than it is now in any other branch of the Catholic Clinrch, it is some comfort to feel that oiir people have tried to retain due respect for some of the other daily uses of the Church, inferior though they be. In Spain, though I was in jmrish churches almost every day during my journey, I do not remember seeing the western gallery in use more than once. Sometimes it has been my fate to meet with men who suppose that the common objection to galleries in churches is, that there is no old ‘‘authority” for them. Well, here in Spain there is authority without end ; and I commend to those Anglicans who wish to revive or retain their use in England the curious fact, that the country in which we find it is one distinguished beyond all others by the very decided cha- racter of its Eomanism, and the period in which they were erected there, one in which Eome was probably more hostile to such as they than any other in the whole course of her history.^ The gallery of San Nicolas is less important than most of its class are ; and there is indeed little to detain any one within its walls. Externally there is a low tower rising out of the west end of the south aisle. This has a fine third-pointed south doorway with an ogee crocheted canopy, and a belfry stage of two lancet-lights on each face, roofed with a flat roof of pantiles. The remainder of the church has been much altered ; but a good flying-buttress remains on the south side, and one or two lancet- windows which convey the impression that the first founda- tion of the church must have been in the thirteenth century. The east wall is not square, but built so as to suit the irregular site. The whole church is ungainly and ugly on the exterior, and its planning and proportions neither picturesque nor scien- tific. It is, in short, one of those churches of which we have so many in England, from which nothing is to be learnt save on ^ I fear I must add that Roman Catho- lics still seem to be fond of western galle- ries; for one of the most recent, and I hope the most hideous of their works, the new Italian church in Hatton Garden, has, in addition to all its other faults, the glaring one of a western gallery fitted up like an orchestra, whilst the part of the floor which, according to all old usage, was given to the choir to sing praises to God, seems from the aspect of the chairs with which it is filled to be reserved for the more ‘‘respectable” part of the congrega- tion ! Extremes meet, and this Italian church would be easily convertible, as it would be most suitable, to the use of the baldest form of Dissent ! 46 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. some small matter of detail ; and the alterations of its roofs, windows, and walls have in the end left it an ungainly and uncouth outline, which is redeemed only by its picturesque situation on the slope of the hill just above the cathedral parvise, with which it groups, and from which it is well seen. Following the steep path of the east end of San Nicolas, I soon reached the fine church of San Esteban. It stands just below^ the castle, the decaying w^alls of which surround the slope of melancholy hill which rises from its doorway ; these, though now they look so incapable of mischief, yet effectually thwarted the Duke of Wellington.^ It is quite w^orth while to ascend the hill, if only for the view. San Esteban, shorn as it is — like all Spanish churches — of more than half its old external features, with pinnacles nij)ped off, parapets destroyed, windows blocked u]), and roofs reduced from their old steep pitch to the uniform rough, ragged, and ruinous-looking flat of pantiles, which is universal here, forms, nevertheless, a good foreground for the fine view of the cathedral below it and the other points of interest in the town beyond. Yet these are fewer than W'Ould be expected in such a city, so long the capital of a kingdom and residence of a line of kings. There are no steeples w^orthy of remark save those of the cathedral, the cliurches are all, like San Esteban, more or less mutilated, and there is — as always in cities which have been great and now are poor — an air of misery and squalor about only too many of the buildings on which the eye first lights in these outskirts of the city. I have not been so lucky as to find any record bearing in any way upon the erection of San Esteban, and I regret this the more, as its place among the churches of Burgos is no doubt next after the cathedral, and in all respects it is full of interest. The ground plan (Plate JI.) will explain the general scheme of the building — a nave and aisles, ended at the east with three parallel apses, a cloister, and a large hall on the south of and opening into the cloister. The north side of the cloister has been much mutilated by the erection of chapels and a sacristy, whilst the north wall of the church is blocked up by low buildings built against it. The only good view of the exterior is that from the south-west. S2)anish boys did their best to make sketching it impossible, yet their amusements were after all legitimate ^ Ponz, Viage de Esp., xii. 21, gives and archer to the King (Enrique II.), was an inscription on one of the towers of its Mayordorno during its construction the castle, which states that Pedro in the year 1295. Sanchez, Criado y Ballistero,” servant ?i{hh?hed liy Jv->hjv Murray, Albemarle 16B5. Chap. II. BURGOS : SAN ESTEBAN. 47 enough for their age, and it is very seldom in Spain that a sketcher is mobbed and annoyed in the way he commonly is in France or Italy when he ventures on a sketch in an at all public place. The erection of this church may, I believe, be dated between A.D. 1280-1350 ; and to the earlier of these two periods the grand west doorway iDrobably belongs. The tympanum contains, in its upper compartment, our Lord seated, with St. John the Evangelist, the Blessed Virgin and angels kneeling on either side — a very favourite subject with Burgalese sculptors of the period ; below is the martyrdom of Bie patron saint, divided into three subjects: (1) St. Stephen before the king; (2) Martyr- dom of St. Stephen, angels taking his soul from his body ; and (3) the devil taking the soul of his persecutor. The jambs have each three figures under canopies, among which are St. Stephen (with stones sticking to his vestments) and St. Laurence. The doorway is built out in a line with the front of the tower but- tresses, and above it a modern balustrade is placed in advance of the west window, which is a fine rose of twenty rays. This window at a little distance has all the effect of very early work ; but upon close inspection its details and mouldings all belie this impression, and prove it to be certainly not earlier than the middle of the fourteenth century. The whole of the tracery is thoroughly geometrical, and the design very good. Above it is a lancet window on each face, and then the lower part only of a belfry window of two lights, cut off by one of the usual flat- pitched tiled roofs. A staircase turret is carried up in the south-west angle and finished with a weathering at the base of the belfry stage. The buttresses are all plain, and, as I have said, shorn of the pinnacles with which they were evidently intended to be finished.^ This church seems to be always locked up, and I think it was liere that the woman who lives in the cloister and shows the church told me that there was service in the church once only in the week ; and certainly it had the air which a church misused in this way usually assumes. We were admitted by the cloister, a small and much mutilated work of circa A.D. 1300. It opens by four arches into a large hall on its south side, which is groined at a higher level than the ^ [n Braun and Hohenburgius’ Thea- Constable is not shown in the cathedral : tre des Villes, a.d. 1574, there is a view San Esteban is represented with a spire of Burgos, which must have been drawn on its tower, somewhat earlier, as the Chapel of the 48 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. cloister. The groining of the cloister is good, and the ribs well moulded ; but the Avindow tracery is all destroyed, and most of the windows are blocked up. The central court is very small, as indeed is the whole work ; but a cloister may be of any size, and in some of our many collegiate erections of the present day it would be as well to remember this, and emulate really and fairly the beautiful effects always attained by our forefathers in this Avay.^ In the western wall of the cloister are two arched recesses for monuments, one of Avhich has a coped tomb, with eight steps to the foot of the cross, Avhich is carved upon its lid. The eastern side is later than the rest, and its groining probably not earlier than A.D. 1500. Entering the church from hence Ave find a very solid, simple, and dignified building, spoilt indeed as much as possible by yelloAv AA^ash, but still in other respects very little damaged. It is groined throughout, and the groining has the peculiarity of having ridge ribs longitudinally but not transversely. This is common in Spain ; but it is impossible to see Avhy one ridge should require it and the other not, and the only explanation is that possibly the architect Avished to lead the eye on from end to end of the building. In the groining of an apse this ridge-rib in its Avestern part ahvays looks very badly, and jars Avith the curved lines of all the rest of the ribs. The columns of the nave arcades are circular, Avith eight smaller engaged shafts around them, those under the Avestern tower being rather more elaborate and larger than the others. Here Ave see a clear imitation of the very similar planning of the cathedral nave. The planning of the east end is more interesting, because, Avhilst it has no precedent in the cathedral, it is one of the evidences Ave haA^e of the con- nexion of the Spanish architecture of the middle ages Avith that of other countries, Avhich Ave ought not to overlook. I have said something on this in speaking of the plan of Las Huelgas. Here, however, I do not think Ave can look in the same direction for the original type of plan ; for, numerous as are the varieties of ground-plan which Ave see in France, there is one — the parallel- triapsidal — Avhich Ave meet so seldom that Ave may almost say it does not occur at all. In Germany, on the other hand, it is seen 1 I particularly refer here to our that of the church itself ; and also to colonial cathedrals, in which I wish those large town churches which we that the founders would from the first may hope to see built before long, and contemplate the erection of all the served by a staff of clergy working proper subordinate buildings, as well as together and encouraging each other. ./74I 'KV' '■ r. r No. 5. SAN ESTEBAN, BURGOS p, 49. INTKRIOH LOOKING WEST Chap. II. imRGOS: SAN KSTKHAN. 49 everywhere, and there, indeed, it is the national plan : in Italy it is also found constantly. In Spain, however, it was quite as much the national ground-plan as it was in Germany ; almost everywhere we see it, and in any case the fact is of value as proving that the Spaniards adopted their own national form of Gothic, and were not indebted solely to their nearest neigh- bours, the French, for their inspiration and education in archi- tecture, though undoubtedly they owed them very much. San Esteban is lighted almost entirely from windows set very high up in the walls. Those in the apses are in the position of clerestory windows, their sills being level with the springing of the groining. The consequence of this arrangement — a very natural one in a country where heat and light are the main things to be excluded from churches — was that a great unbroken space was left between the floor and the windows ; and hence it happened that the enormous lietablos, rising seldom less than twenty feet, and often thirty, forty, or even sixty feet from the floors, naturally grew to be so prominent and popular a feature. In San Esteban the Ketablos are none of them old, but doubt- less take the place of others which were so. The western gallery is so good an example of its class, that I think it is quite worthy of illustration. It is obviously an inser- tion of circa a.d. 1450, and is reached by a staircase of still later date at the west end of the south aisle. I cannot deny it the merit of picturesqueiiess, and the two amboiis which project like -pulpits at the north and south extremities of the front add much to its effect. The stalls are all arranged in the gallery in the usual fashion of a choir, with return stalls at the west end and a large desk for ofiice books in the centre. The organ is on the north side in the bay east of the gallery, and is reached through the ambon on the Gospel ^ side. This organ, its loft, and the pulpit against it are all very elaborate examples of Plateresque ^ Kenaissance work. ^ i. e. the north side, which would be the side of the Gospel ambon if it faced in the right direction. As I never saw these galleries used, I do not know how the ambons were really appro- priated. 2 The work of Berruguete and his school is so called in Spain from its plate-like delicacy of work in flat re- lief. For Renaissance work it has a certain air of rich beauty, not often attained in other lands ; and, indeed, it is only a debt of justice due to the architects of Spain from the time of Berruguete in 1500 to that of the pon- derously Pagan Herrera towards the end of the same century, to say, that what- ever faults may be found with their over great exuberance and lavish display of decoration, they nevertheless pos- sessed rare powers of execution, and a fertility of conception (generally, it 50 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. Of the fittings of the ehnrcli two only require any notice, and both of them are curious. One is an iron lectern, just not Gothic, but of very fair design,^ and of a type that we might with ad- vantage introduce into our own churches. The other is a wooden bier and herse belonging to some burial confraternity, and kept in the cloister ; the dimensions are so small (and I saw another be- longing to the confraternity of San Gil of the same size), that it was no doubt made for carrying a corpse without a coffin. One knows how in the middle ages this was the usual if not invariable plan,^ and as these herses are evidently still in use (that of San Gil having been repainted in 1850), it has possibly never been given up. The main thing, I think, that struck me in the architecture of San Esteban, was the very early look of all its proportions and details compared to what seemed to be their real date, when examined more in detail and with the aid of mouldings, traceries, and the like ; and its value consists mainly in the place it occupies among the buildings of Burgos, illustrating a period of which otherwise there would be very little indeed in the city. From San Esteban I found my way first through the decayed- looking and uninteresting streets, and then among the ruined outskirts of the north-eastern part of the city, to the church of San Gil, situated very much in the same kind of locality as San Esteban, on the outskirts of the city. This church is just men- tioned in ‘ Espana Sagracla ’ ^ twice : first as being named, with must be owned, of very ugly things), for which they may well be envied by their school now, as they were in their own day. Indeed, if the revivers of Renaissance in these days ever think of such a thjng as importing a new idea, I wish heartily thr.t they would go to Spain and stud}^ some of her 16th century buildings. ^ The similar but rather earlier iron lectern preserved in the Hotel Cluny, at Pai-is, is well known. See an illustra- tion of it from a drawing of mine in the second volume of ‘ Instrumenta Eccle- siastica ’ of the Ecclesiological Society. " The curious cemetery at Montma- jeur, near Arles, is full of graves ex- cavated in the rock, and cut out just so as to receive the body; so too are all our own old stone coffins. See also the illuminations illustrating the burial office so constantly introduced in books of ‘'Hours,” ^ Vol. xxvii. p. 675. • ' y /y- ■ ' • « . •• > av .' 5 ' '■' ,S SAX GIL, LIJXGOS IRON PDLPIT, Chap. II. BURGOS: SAN GIL. 51 ten otber churches in Burgos, in a Bull of a.d. 1163 ; and subsequently, as liaving been built by Pedro de Cainargo and Garcia de Burgos, witli the approbation of Bishop Villacraces in A.D. 1399; and Don Diego de Soria, and his wife Dona Catalina, are said to liave rebuilt tlie Camilla mayor in a.d. 1586. I give the plan of this church on Plate II., and am inclined to doubt the exact truth of tlie statements I have just quoted. I believe the cliurch to be a cruciform structure of the fourteenth century, whose chancel and chancel aisles reproduced the plan of Las Huelgas, but were probably rebuilt in a.d. 1399. The so-called Capilla mayor is probably the chapel on the north side of the north aisle, a very elaborate semi-Ben aissance erection, with an octagon vault, reproducing many of tlie peculiarities of Spanish groining, supported upon pendentives similar to those of which 1 have spoken in describing the later Avorks in the cathedral ; and it is no doubt the work of one of the descendants or pupils of Juan de Colonia. The late chapels on each side of the choir have enormous Avooden bosses at the intersection of the groining ribs, carved with tracery, and Avith a painting of a saint in the centre. This mixture of painting and sculpture is very much the fashion in Spanish Avood-carvings, and the altai* Eetablos often afford examples of it. In the floor of this church are some curious effigies of black marble, with heads and hands of white.^ Two such remain in the east Avail of one of the southern chapels, Avhere they lie north and south. The Betablos of the tAvo chapels, north and south of the choir, are very sumptuous Avorks. Against the north-Avest pier of the crossing there stands what is perhaps the most uncommon piece of furniture in the church, an iron pulpit. It is of very late date, but I think quite Avorthy of illustration. The support is of iron, resting on stone, and the staircase modern. The framework at the angles, top and bottom, is of Avood, upon Avhich the iroiiAvork is laid. The traceries are cut out of tAvo plates of iron, laid one over the other, and the iroiiAvork is in part gilded, but I do not think that this is ori- ginal. The canopy is of the same age and cliaracter, and the Avhole effect is very rich, at the same time that it is very novel.^ I saAv other iron pulpits, but none so old as this. ^ This is a very common Flemish " Iron pulpits were not unknown in custom ; but whether the Flemings bor- England in the middle ages. There was rowed it from Spain, or vice versa, I one in Durham Cathedral. See ' An- cannot sav. cient Rites of Durham,’ p. 4-<>. E 2 52 GOTillO AKOlll'J'ECTUPiE IN SPAIN. Chap. U. I visited two or three other parisli churches, but found little in them worth notice. San Lesmes is one of the largest, con- sisting of a nave with aisles, transepts, apsidal choir, and chapels added in tlie usual fashion. The window tracery is flamboyant, and the windows have richly moulded jambs, and are very Grennan in their design. The south door is very large and rich, of the same style, and fills the space between two buttresses, on the angles of which are St. Gabriel and the Blessed Virgin.^ Close to San Ijesmes are the church of San Juan, and another, the dedication of which I could not learn, whilst opposite it is the old Convent of San Juan, now converted into a hospital. The entrance is a great doorway, remarkable for the enormous heraldic achieve- ments which were always very popular with the later Castilian architects. The church of San Juan is now desecrated ; it is cruciform in plan, with a deep apsidal chancel, and seems to have had chapels on the east side of the transepts. The church is groined throughout, and its window tracery poor flamboyant work. San Lucas has a groined nave of three bays, and there is another church near it of the same character. They both a]3pear to have been built at the end of the sixteenth century. Of old Convents, the most important appears to have been that of San Pablo. It is now desecrated, and used as a cavalry store ; and though I was allowed to look, I could not obtain permis- sion to go, into it. Florez^ gives the date of the original founda- tion of the monastery in a.d. 1219, and says that it was moved to its present site in a.d. 1265, but not completed for more than 150 years after that date. The inscription on the monument of Bishop Pablo de Santa Maria, on the Gospel side of the altar in San Pablo, records him to have been the builder of the church,^ and his story is so singular as to be worth telling. He was a Jew by birth, a native of Burgos, and married to a Jewess, by whom he had four soils'^ and one daughter. In A.D. 1390, at the age of forty, he was baptized ; and having tried in vain to convert his wife, he treated lier as though she were dead. ^ A drawing of this door is given by by Alonso de Burgos, Bishop of Palencia, Mr. Waring, ‘Architectural Studies in c’r. 1480-99.— G. G. Davila, Teatro Eccl, Burgos,’ pi. 39. ii. 174. - Espafia Sagrada, vol. xxvi. p. 382- The inscription on the monument 387, and vol. xxvii. p. 540. of Gonsalvo, Bishop of Sigiienza, con- “ Qui venerandus Pontifex hanc tained the following passage : “Hie ecciesiam cum sacristia et capitulo suis venerandus Pontifex fuit filius, ex legiti- sumptibus sedificavit.” — Espaua Sagrada, mo matrimonio natus, Reverendi Ponti- xxvi, p. 387. The cloister was rebuilt ficis Dfii Pauli,” &c. Chap. II. BURGOS: SAN PABLO— LA MERCED. dissolving bis marriage legally, and ascending to the greater perfection of tlie priesthood.” In a.d. 1415 he was made Bishop of Burgos, and being at Valladolid at the time, all Burg’os went out to meet him as he came to take possession of his see. His venerable mother, Doiia Maria, and his well-loved wife Joana, waited for him in the Episcopal Palace, from whence he went afterwards to adore God in the cathedral.” Doiia Joana was buried near the bishop in San Pablo, with an inscription in Spanish, ending, she died fallecio ’) in the year 1420,” and from the absence of any religious form in the inscription, I infer that she died unconverted. The bishop died in A.D. 1435. The church of'San Pablo consists of a nave and aisles of five bays, transepts and apsidal cboir, with many added chapels. The nave groining bays are scpiare, those of the aisle oblong, a mode of planning which marks rather an Italian-Gothic than a French or German origin. The church is vaulted throughout, with very domical vaults, and lighted with lancets in the aisles, circular windows in the clerestory, and traceried windows in the choir. Part of the old western gallery still remains. The vaulting has transverse, diagonal, and ridge ribs. The apse is well buttressed, but, like all the churches in Burgos, San Pablo has lost its old roofs, and has been so much spoilt by the additions which have been made to it, that its exterior is very unprepossessing. Not so the interior, which, both in scale and proportion, is very fine. The architect of San Pablo is said to have been Juan Kodriguez, who commenced it in 1415, and completed it before 1435.' Another convent, that of La Merced, has been treated in the same way, and is now a military hospital. Its church is on the same plan as that of San Pablo, with the principal doorway in the north wall instead of the west, and this o|)ening under the usual vaulted gallery. Tliere is, too, a small apsidal recess for an altar in the north wall of the north transept. The window tracery and details here are all of very late Pointed, but the buttresses and flying buttresses are good. Flat roofs, destroyed gables, and the entire absence of any steeple or turret to break the mass, make the exterior of little value. This convent was moved to its present site in a.d. 1272, but I doubt whether any part of the exterior now visible is so old as this. I saw no other churches worthy of mention in Burgos ; but ^ Cean Bermudez, Arq. y Arquo®> cL Espana, i. 103. 54 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. II. there are others which ought to be examined in the neighbour- hood, among which one a little beyond Las Huelgas, of large size, surrounded by trees, and apparently belonging to a convent, seemed to be the most important.^ There are but few remains of old Domestic Architecture. The Palace has been modernized, but is still approached by a groined passage from the south door of the cathedral. The Palace of the Constable Velasco is a bald and ugly erection of the sixteenth century, in the very latest kind of Gothic; its walls finished with a strange parapet of crocheted pinnacles and stones cut out into a sort of rude fork ; its entrance a square- headed doorway, with a large space above it, enclosed with enormous chains carved in stone, within which are armorial bearings. The internal courtyard is surrounded by buildings of three stages in height, with open arcades to each, and traceried balconies. The arcades and windoAvs throughout have debased three-centred arches. The principal town gateway, that of Sta. Maria, is close to the cathedral ; its rear is a very simple but massive work of the thirteenth century, and rather Italian in its design. The front facing the Prado and the river was so much altered by Charles V. that it is doubtful whether any of the old work remains ; it is now a very picturesque jumble of circular towers and turrets, battlemented and crenellated, and looking rather like one of those medigeval castles which are seen either in an illumination, or in a canopy over a figure in stained glass, than like a real and useful fortified gateway. It will be seen how full of interest to the ecclesiologist Burgos is. My notes are, I have no doubt, not by any means exhaustive ; and I have equally little doubt that one Avho had more time at his disposal would discover much more than I found ; besides which, I was under the impression, when I was at Burgos, that the Monasteiy of San Pedro de Cardeiia, so intimately connected with the story of the Cid, and where he lay peacefully till the Prencli invasion, had been entirely destroyed, whereas, in truth, I believe the church founded in the tliirteenth century still remains ; and, if so, must certainly reward examination. It is but a few miles from Burgos. ^ In ‘L’Univers Pittoresque, Espague,’ a very richly sculptured and panelled vol. xxxi. pi. 54, is a view of the ruin front of the most florid kind of latest of the west end (apparently) of the Pointed, and in a ruinous state.' convent of Carmelites at Burgos ; it is Chap. II. BLJKGOS: PROMENADE. 55 The great promenade liere is along the river-side, where the houses are all new, bald, and uninteresting; but tlie back streets are picturesque, and there is a fine irregulnrly-shaped Plaza, surrounded by arcades in front of the shops, where are to be found capital blankets and mantas, useful even in the liottest weather if any night travelling is to be undertaken, and inva- riably charming in their colour. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. HI. CHAPTEE III. PALENCIA — VALLADOLID. It was after a day of hard work at Miradores, Las Huelgas, and Burgos, taking last looks and notes, that we drove to the railway station en route for Palencia. Castile does not improve on acquaintance, and, so far as I could judge in the liunded views obtained from the railway-carriage, we missed nothing by mov- ing apace. The railroad follows the broad valley of the Arlanzon, bounded on either side by hills of moderate height, occasionally capped with sharp cones and peaks, but everywhere of an inva- riable whitish-grey colour, which soon wearies the eye unspeak- ably. The few villages seen from the valley seemed generally to occupy the slopes of the hills, and to have large, shapeless, and unattractive churches. Indeed, it is not possible to go very far in Spain without feeling either that Spanish architects seldom cared for the external effect of their buildings, or that whatever they did has been ruthlessly spoilt in later days. Even in a city like Burgos this is the case, and of course it is even more so in villages and smaller towns. The Spanish railways are, on the whole, well managed. They are usually only single lines, and there is no attempt made to go very fast. Perhaps, too, any one who has travelled along Spanish roads, deep with a five months’ accumulation of dust, and at the pace popular with diligence proprietors, comes to the consideration of the merits and management of a railway in a frame of mind which is not altogether impartial. The luxury even of a second-rate railway is then felt to the utmost, and there is not much desire, even if there is need, for grumbling. It was dark when we arrived at Palencia, and, getting a boy to carry the baggage, we walked off under his directions in search of the Posada de las Erutas. The title was not promising. But Palencia, a cathedral city, and the principal town between Valladolid and Santander, has nothing in the way of an inn better than a Posada, and it was to tlie best of its class that we had been recommended. The first look was not encou- raging, but the people welcomed us cheerfully, and going across Chap. III. PALENCIA. 57 the covered entrance way, took us up to a room which was fairly clean and furnished with the remains of eight smart chairs, six of them hopelessly smashed, and the other two so weak in their legs and spines that it was necessary to use them in the most wary and cautious manner ! However, the beds were clean, and the bread and grapes — here as everywhere at this season in Spain — so delicious, that, even had the cookery been worse than it was, we might have managed very well. Later in the even- ing, when I came back from a short ramble through the town, I found the open entrance-court and passage uneven with the bodies of a troop of muleteers, each of whom seemed to have a skinful of wine in his charge and a rough kind of bed laid on the stones ; and if I may judge by the way in which they snored as I picked my way among them to my room, they had no occa- sion to envy me my occupation of the room of state. I spent a day in Palencia, and found it almost more than its architectural treasures required. I went there with some idea that I should find a very fine cathedral, still retaining all its old furniture of the fourteenth century, and soon discovered that I had been somewhat misinformed. I hoped too, at any rate, if I found no first-rate work, to find something which was peculiar to the district in its artistic character; but in this also I was doomed to be disappointed. The city is divided into two parts by a very long winding street running entirely across it from north to south. The houses on either side are supported on stone columns (some of them very lofty), so that the general effect is much that of one of the old arcaded Italian cities. The cathedral, dedicated to S. Antholin, stands in a desolate- looking open space on the edge of the hill which slopes down to the river Carrion on the west side of the city. Cean Ber- mudez says that it was commenced in a.d. 1321,^ and com- pleted in the beginning of the sixteenth century.^ An inscrip- 1 The first stone of the cathedral was laid on the 1st of June, 1321, by Car- dinal Arnoldo, legate of Juan XXII., assisted by Juan II., Bishcp of Palencia, and six other bishops, among whom was the Bishop of Bayonne ; “■ and the first prebendary who had charge of the works (‘ obrero ’) in this holy church was Juan Perez de Aceves, Canon and Prior of Usillos, who assisted in laying the first stone with the legate and the bishops.” — G. G. Davila, Teatro Eccl. ii. 159. 2 In 1504 the conclusion of the cathedral of Palencia was undertaken by Martin de Soldrzano, an inhabitant of Sta. Maria de Haces, under the con- dition that he should finish his work in six years, with stone from the quar- ries of Paredes del Monte and Fuentes deValdepero. Salorzano, however, died in 1506, and Juan de Euesga, a native of Segovia, finished it. — Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Espaha, vol. i. p. 142. 58 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. III. tion on the door from the cloister to the church has the date A.D. 1535, and the enclosure of the choir is of a.d. 1534. These dates appear to be fairly correct ; but the work having been so long in progress, it may, I tliink, be assumed that the ground- plan only is of the earliest date, and that the greater part of the architectural detail belongs more probably to the fifteenth than to the fourteenth century. This is quite consistent with the evidence afforded by the building, for the detail of the design is of very poor character throughout, and the window tracery is generally of inferior and rather late flamboyant style. The triforium is well developed, having large traceried openings ; and the church is groined throughout. In the eastern part of the chevet the window tracery has an early cliaracter, but the mouldings belie this effect; and, if I may judge by them, none of it is earlier than circa a.d. 1350-1370. The plan of the chevet is probably old, but all its details, save those of the piers between the chapels, have been modernized. The thin spandrels of the vaulting in the apse of the choir are pierced with cusped circles, a device occasionally seen in French churches. It will be seen, therefore, that there is little to praise here, save the grand scale upon which the work has been done. The nave is 36 feet 8 inches from centre to centre of the columns, whilst each aisle is no less than 31 feet 2 inches. The rela- tive proportions are bad, but owing to the arrangement of the Coro in the nave there is not much opportunity of seeing this, and the internal view of the aisles, owing to their width and to the very massive character of the nave columns, is extremely fine. The nave is of five bays in length, the two eastern bays being occupied by the Coro. There is an altar against the western screen of the Coro, in front of which are some steps leading down to a well, said to be that of St. Antholin, the tutelar saint. The whole of the stalls are old, and fine of their kind ; they are mainly the work of El Maestro Centellas, a Yalencian, who contracted to execute them about the year 1410,^ but they are not in their old place, for in a.d. 1518-1519 Pedro de Guada- lupe agreed to move them from the old choir into the new choir ^ Gil Gonzalez Davila, ^ Iglesia de Pa- with four achievements of arms. The lencia/ fol. 164, gives a letter from the bishop at the time this letter was Chapter to the Bishop D. tSancho de Ro- written was at Valencia, assisting at jas, begging for money for the work. The the wedding of Alonso, Prince of Ge- Chapter state that the stalls are to cost rona, and the daughter of King D. 76,U00 maravedis, and that they are the Enrique III. — G. G. Davila, Teatro work of ‘^Maestro Centellas,” and that Eccl. ii. 164. they propose to adorn the Bishop’s seat Chap. III. CATHEDRAL OF PALENCIA. 59 for the sum of fifteen hundred maravedis, and to execute twenty additional stalls for the sum of two thousand maravedis each.^ At the same time the lietablo was moved forward and enlarged to fit its new position by one Pedro Manso, at a cost of two hundred ducats ; whilst Juan de Valmeseda executed the statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John, and the Crucifixion for it for one hundred ducats.^ These fiicts are of great interest, proving as they do that the stalls stood from the year 1410 to 1518 in their proper place in the choir, and were then moved to their present position in the nave precisely in the same way that we have already seen the old arrangement changed at Burgos at about the same period. This peculiar Spanish arrangement of the Coro in the nave, and separated from the altar, we may now, I think, assume was not known or thought of until this comparatively late date in this part of Spain, though now it is universal throughout the country. The design of the stalls is somewhat like that of late Flemish work, but peculiar in many res))ects : tlie forward slope of the stall elbows, the rich traceries behind the lower stalls — very varied in their design — and the continuous canopies of the upper stalls, are all worthy of notice. I did not observe any distinction in the style of the work answering to tlie dates at which Maestro Centellas and Pedro de Guadalupe were employed, and I think, therefore, that the latter must have copied rather closely the work of the former. Probably, how- ever, the Prie-Dieu desk in front of the bishop’s stall is of the later date, as also the desks which have been widened in front of the upper row of stalls ; and possibly Pedro de Guadalupe executed the twenty stalls on each side of the choir forming the easternmost block. The eastern part of the church has been worse treated even Pric-T);en. ^ Ceaii Bermude/, Dice. Hist., vol, ii. p. - Ibid., vol. V. p. 121. 60 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. III. than the nave, all the old arrangements having been ruthlessly altered. The apse, shut in by screens, covered with a low groined gallery, and used as a mere chapel,^ is dark, dismal, and undignified. The bay west of the apse is open from north to south, but walled in on the west with the wall behind the high altar. West of this are two bays walled in at the sides, and then we come to the transept, which is open, save the rails marking the passage from the Coro to the choir. The whole arrangement is so confused, unintelligible, and contrary to the obvious intentions of the first designers of the fabric, that it hardly needed documentary evidence to prove that it had no kind of ancient authority. There is no lantern or Cimborio at the crossing. The metal screens^ across the choir are of no special interest, but those round the apse and opening into one or two of the chapels of the chevet are better, and well illus- trate the designs of most of the fifteenth-century iron screens in Spain. They are met with in all directions, for there was no country in the middle ages which made so free a use of iron. They have most of the faults of German ironwork of the same age, the smiths having apparently forgotten the right use of their hammers, and, like Birmingham smiths of tlie pre- sent day, having tried to do what was necessary with thin plates of iron twisted about fantastically here and there, but very much more easily wrought, and proportionably less effective, than the work of the English smiths of a couple of hundred years earlier. The whole of the floor of the eastern part of the church has been lowered, in some places as much as three feet, in order to obtain a level procession path all round the aisles. On the south side of the nave are the cloisters, which are large, with lofty arched openings, but they have been despoiled of their traceries. Their style is poor third-pointed, and in their present state they are tlioroughly uninteresting.^ To the west 1 Also in his (D. Sanclio de Rojas. A.D. 1397 to A.D. 1411) time was built the Capilla mayor, which is now the “ Parroquia ” of the church. — G. G. Ddvila, Teatro Ecch, ii. 164. 2 Cristobal Andino made the Reja of the Capilla mayor in a.d. 1520 for 1500 ducats, and in 1 530 the screen for 430 ducats, and Caspar Rodriguez made that of the Coro in 1555 for the sum of 3600 gold ducats, paid by the bequest of Bishop D. Luis Cabeza de Vaca. ^ Cean Bermudez, ‘ Arq. Esp.’ i. 60, says the date 1535 exists on the door from the church to the cloister : and G. G. Davila, Teatro Ecc., ii. p. 171, says that in the time of D. Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca (translated to Burgos in a.d. 1514) the greater part of the chapels from the crossing downwards were built, as also the cloister and Chapter-house. The same bishop gave the stairs leading to the well of S. Antholin, repaired the dormi- b';; :v/^ ^ fb >:: \ ■’' ' '■ Y': j '■■ ■■ ■ .’.. ' • " P^L€N(]ffi-'TiND'V7fLUD0LlDi{]pnunli=PfHii$Hif=Saiiflifluii-S^MH^ JPQ'/est.litW. Piiblislied "by Jolna "Miirray ATbemar-le S"^- 1865. ClIAl‘. 111. FALENOIA: SAN MIGUEL. 61 of them is the Chapter-house, a large groined room, opening, not, as is usual, from the cloister, but from an outer lobby. The sacristy, on the south side of the choir, contains a few objects of interest, the best being a fine gilt monstrance, covered with crockets and pinnacles, but not earlier than circa A.D. 1500.^ The sacristan tliought much more of a great plated temple, six or eight feet in height, raised on a stage, and travelling on wlieels worked by a couple of men concealed within the platform and its hangings, which is used for processions throughout the town on Corpus Christi day. I saw only two Gothic churches out of many which I looked into in Palencia — those of San Miguel and San Francesco. San jVliguel is both the earliest and best church in the city, and deserves most careful study. I give an illustration of its ground-plan on Plate III. I'he portion east of the ci’ossing appeared to me of the end of the twelfth century, and the rest of the church a few years later. The j^lan is one of a not uncommon type, and suggestive either of Italian or German influence in the mind of its designer. The regular planning of the whole work, the bold dimensions of the groining shafts, and the good character of the mouldings and windows, corbel-tables and buttresses, all deserve special notice. The apse is groined in four compartments, so that a rib and buttress occur in its centre,^ and the ribs here are square and plain in section, whilst those throughout the nave are well moulded. The bosses at the intersection of the groining ribs in the nave are sculptured: that on the east bay having St. Michael and the Dragon, whilst the next bay but one has an Agnus Dei. There is a peculiarity in the finish of the buttresses of the apse, which I noticed also at San Juan and San Pablo at Burgos. In all of them the face of the buttress is carried iq) to the eaves-cornice, which is returned round them, instead of being carried on to their centre, as is usual : so that at San Miguel, in place of the apse at the cornice-line having four sides only, it has four long and three shorter sides, the latter above the buttresses. All the work in the chancel appears to be of earlier date than that in the nave, and its western arch is segmental, and of poor character. tories, and gave to the sacristy a rich Diego de Salcedo in 1542, at the price set of altar vestments (terno) of bro- of 100 maravedis each palm (cada cade, four tapestries of ecclesiastical palmo). — Cean Bermudez, Dice. Hist., history, and four others of “Salve vol. iv. p. 304. Regina.” This rare arrangement is seen in the ^ The stained glass which once church of the Frari at Venice, and in adoimed the chui’ch was executed by the church of the Capuchins at Lugo. 62 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. III. The windows here are plain, round-arched lancets, but those in the clerestory of the nave are two-light windows, with a plain circle in tlie head, and richly moulded. The most striking archi- tectural feature on the outside is the western steeple, which well deserves illustration, being full of peculiarity and vigour. The Steeple of San Miguel. belfry- windows are singularly varied, for they are of three lights on the west, of two very wide lights on the south, and of two narrow lights on the east side. Tlie tracery in all consists of nncusped circles, packed together in the same fashion as in the clerestory of Burgos Cathedi-al. The west window is of two lights, with simple piercings in the tympanum, and between it and the west doorway are a number of corbels all across the west front, which seem to prove that there wns a pent-house roof across the wliole of it. This must have largely added to the picturesque- Chap. III. PALENCIA : SAN FRANCESCO. 68 ness of the building, whilst at the same time it must, in sucli a climate, liave been a most wise expedient for sheltering the doorway from the heat. The west doorway is a really fine work, but terribly mutilated. It has six series of subjects, in as many lines of archivolt moulding, the innermost order containing angels only : the second, figures with books or instruments of music : the third, angels again : the fourth, the Eesurrection (with the Last Judgment, occupying the centre of this and the next order) : the fifth and sixth, subjects from the life of our Lord, beginning with the Annunciation on the left. The out- side moulding consists of a bold bowtell, with another arranged in continuous cusping in front of it, as in some of our own transitional work. The lower stage of the tower has a groined gallery, in which are the stalls, lectern, and organ. It is much to be lamented that the finish of the steeple is not original, for we should then have had a complete example of a fine jDarish church, which must have been building from circa A.D. 1190 to circa A.D. 1250 ; but an early building unaltered on the exterior is a treat for which one generally sighs in vain in Spain. San Francesco has been much more mutilated than San Miguel, but seems to be a work of about the same age ; it is said to have been built in A.D. 1246.^ There is a large open market-place, busy with venders of vegetables, in front of the building, and a small enclosed courtyard between the two seemed to be the receptacle for all the market filth. The west front has a small sort of cloister in front of the doors, with a tiled lean-to roof above it. Over this roof rises the west front, a strange combination with a western gable, and a great bell- gable rising out of its southern slope. The west window appears to have been a fine cusped circular opening, under a pointed arch, the spandrel between the two being filled with circles similar to the traceries in the steeple of San Miguel. Entering the church, I found its broad aisleless nave completely Pagan- ized, but still retaining tlie low fifteenth-century gallery for the Coro over the two western bays. At the east l)ay of the nave are small transeptal chapels, and the chancel arch, and two smaller arches open into the chancel and two chancel aisles. The whole arrangement is thoroughly Italian,^ but the detail of the arches, v/hich are well moulded and adorned with a chevron, ^ Madoz, Dice, cle Espana. Padua, and the church of San Fermo “ It should be compared, for instance, Maggiore at Verona, with the church of the Eremitani at 64 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. ITT. is northern. The chancel is apsidal, but its groining is so late, and its east end so far hidden by a Pagan Eetablo, that it was impossible to discover whether any traces of the original work remained. I saw several other churches, but their old features are in all cases of the very latest Gothic or else Pagan, so as to be hardly worthy of record. Sta. Clara appears to be desecrated : it has windows just like those of San Pablo, Burgos, and buttresses to the apse managed in the same way as at San Miguel. It has also a large flamboyant door of poor style. Near it is anotber church, which has an apse with buttresses and pinnacles at the angles, and from the even and undisturbed look of its masonry I concluded that it never had any windows. This church has a poor tower, but generally the churches here have enormous bell-gable turrets of the most flaunting Kenaissance device, which are common throughout a great part of Spain. They have generally several bells hung in openings in the wall, and are often nearly the whole width of the front, and finished with cornices and broken pediments in the most approved fashion of the worst style of Eenaissance. Everywhere, save in the long main street, Palencia was as triste a place as I have seen. The streets were emptied, pro- bably by the heat of the day, and, save a curious crowd of boys who pursued me relentlessly all round San Miguel, I saw few signs of life. Much of the old wall round the city remains, and walking round the north-eastern part of this, 1 came to a pic- turesque angle, where is an old walled-up gateway with pointed arch, round toAvers on either side, and deep machicolations above, Avhich may well have been built before the Cid rode into Palencia for his marriage with Doiia Ximena. The town walls are lofty and massive, and crested with what is, I believe, a ]\[oorish battlement. Its peculiarity consists in the battle- ments and spaces between them being equal, and the former being capped with a stone weathered on all four sides nearly to a point. On the way to the railway station we saw two churches, both having some portions of fair fifteenth-century work ; and then passing the old wall, found ourselves on the melancholy open plain tliat surrounds the city. Under the hot sun, and after the harvest has all been gathered in, the country looks wretched and arid in the extreme. Not a tree is to be seen, nor a blade of grass ; but first a sandy plain of two or three miles, and then rocky and sandy liills, all bleached to much the Chap. III. VALLADOLID. 65 same colourless tint, rose in long lines against tlie deep-blue sky. On the other side of the city the river was hardly more attractive; it was wellnigh dry, though it is true there were some trees near its banks which to some extent redeemed the aridness of the soil out of which they grew. As I neared the station I found the whole city assembled to greet the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier, who were to stop for a few minutes to enjoy azucarillos and sweetmeats. Officers of all grades, the bishop and his clergy, and smart people in abundance were there ; and as soon as the train arrived there was lusty cheering, and great firing of rockets. After a fight with the mob for a passage to the train, we secured seats, and were soon off. There are some parts of the road which seemed more interesting than most of the country we had been passing. The river runs here and there under steepish bluffs, and occasionally considerable vineyards give — what is so much wanted — some variety of colour to the landscape. 1 suppose one ought to be cautious in describing such a country after seeing it in September ; for I can well imagine that in the spring, when the whole land is covered with great crops of corn, the impression it produces may be very different. At Valladolid we were delayed a long time whilst the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier, saluted again with rockets, and escorted by cavalry, took their departure from the station to pass the niglit at the Captaiii' General’s. As far as a stranger can see and hear the truth, the Iloyal family seem to be very popular in Spain, and none of them more so than the Duke and Duchess ; and the good people of Valladolid did their best, by illuminations, cheering, and decoration of their houses with coloured cloth, to welcome their coming, and speed their parting the next day.^ In the evening I strolled out into the town, and presently found myself in the Great Plaza, an imposing square surrounded on three sides by houses on arcades, and having on the fourth side the Town-hall. This was brilliantly illuminated by a number of enormous wax-candles in great sconces flaring in the air, whilst a good military band played waltzes, and the people — soldiers and civilians, men, women, and children — danced merrily and vigorously in groups all about. Presently crossing the Plaza from this noisy scene, I stumbled over a bundle on the 1 We put vip at the Fonda de Paris, a good deal of trouble for mo, and in the Plaza Sta. Ana — a good inn, kej)t whose hotel may safely be recom- bysome natives of Bellinzona, who took mended, F GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. III. 6f) ground, and found it to be a couple of labourers who, having been at work at the pavement, had made a bed of sand, covered themselves over with a blanket, and had gone to sleep by the side of their tools for the night, indifferent to all the noise and excitement of the place ! Valladolid is a city of which I have very pleasant general recollections, but of which nevertheless the architecture is no- wdiere of very great interest. It has the misfortune to have a cathedral built by Herrera, only one or two early works, several gorgeous examples of the richest late-pointed work, and a multitude of examples of the woiks of Berruguete, Herrera, and their followers. But the streets are picturesque and busy, and have that unmistakably foreign aspect which is always so pleasant to the traveller. I need say but little of the Cathedral. Its design is said to be the greatest work of Herrera (a.d. 1585) ; but a small portion only of it has been completed. The complete plan is given by Ponz.^ It was to have been cruciform, with four towers at the angles, four bays of nave, and four of choir, with aisles to both. The stalls of the Coro were intended to be in the choir behind the altar. There is a large cloister on the north side of the nave. The nave of four bays, witli its aisles and chapels on either side of them, is all that is completed ; and, large as it is, the parts are all so colossal that there is not the impression of size that there ought to be. The piers are some 60 feet from centre to centre north aud south, and 45 feet east and west ; they carry bold arches, above which runs a great cornice surmounted by a white (plastered and panelled) groined ceiling, which contrasts violently with the dark sombre grey of the stonework below. These vaults are of red tile ; and if the plaster were altogether taken off, the vault covered with mosaic, and the mouldings of the cornices carefully removed, the interior would really be fine and impressive. Nothing, however, could ever cure the hideous unsightliness of the exterior. Herrera’s west front was revised by Churriguera in the eighteenth century, and cannot therefore be fairly criticised ; but the side elevation remains as Herrera designed it, and is really valuable as a warning. Flying buttresses were of course an abomination ; so in their place he erected enormous solid buttresses above the aisles to resist the thrust of the nave vault. They are shape- le,ss blocks of masonry projecting about forty feet from the clerestory wall, and finished with a horrid concave line at the ‘ Vlage de Espafia,’ vol. xi. p. 38. Chap. III. VALLADOLID : S. MARIA L’ANTIGUA. 67 top. However, it is only right to give Herrera his due, and to say, that after all he only did what Wren did at St. Paul’s, but had the courage and the honesty to let his deeds be seen, instead of spending a vast sum, like Wren, in concealing them. And again it is plain that he thought much more of the internal effect of his church than of the external ; — how unlike ourselves, who but too often, if we can attract men to our new churches by a smart spire or a picturesque exterior, seem to forget that we must make the interior noble, winning, solemn, and instructive too, if we would keep them there ! A few fragments of the old cathedral remain to the north' east of the present church, but I could not obtain access to them ; and I think nothing now exists but a wall pierced with one or two fourteenth-century windows. Sta. Maria I’Antigua — the most attractive church, to my mind, in Valladolid — is close to the cathedral. It is so valuable an example, and illustrates so well some peculiarities of Spanish architecture, that I give an illustration of its ground-plan.^ It is of the common parallel-triapsal arrangement, and has a fine western steeple, and a cloister along the north wall. This kind of cloister is of not unfrequent occur- rence : I have already noticed one in the con- vent at Las Huelgas ; and there are two or three churches at Se- govia in which also it is introduced. It would seem to be an arrange- ment expressly adopted to suit a tropical cli- mate, and its effect is good. The cloister here is walled up, and consi- derably defaced on the north side ; and on the south, if one ever ex- isted, it has been entirely destroyed. That on the non always very F •> 1 Plate III. 68 GOTHIC ARCHITECT13KE IN SPAIN. Chap. III. side is of three bays in length, the western bay having four arches, and the others five. The arches are semi-circular, with labels enriched with dog-tooth ornament, and the shafts which carry them are moulded and wrought in imitation of the coupled columns of early Italian artists. Simple buttresses separate the bays, and there is a corbel-table under the eaves. A bold round-arched doorway opened at the west into this cloister. The interior of this church is fine. It is groined throughout; and most of the groining has longitudinal (but not transverse) ridge-ribs, considerably arched in each bay, to suit the domi- cal section of the vaults. The western bay has the usual late gallery for the Coro supported on a debased arch, and with open tracery in its front, and the stalls and organ still remain in it. The main columns are cylindrical in plan, and each sur- rounded by eight attached shafts. The transepts are not at all defined in the ground-plan, but are groined at the same level as the nave. The abaci of the capitals are either square or octagonal in plan. The groining has bold and well-moulded transverse arches, and diagonal ribs of an ordinary thirteenth-century section. In the apse of seven bays the vaults, for the greater part of their height, are no thicker than the moulding of their ribs, and are pierced with cusped circles in their spandrels, just above the line of the springing of the windows, in the same manner as at Palencia Cathedral. The clerestory seems to have been lighted with simple lancets, of w^hich one only remains on the south of the nave. Of the old furniture still existing I noticed a good Retablo, partly carved and partly painted, in a chapel on the south side of the choir, and another in the baptistery opening into the south transept.^ The steeple is the most remarkable feature of the exterior, and from its great height gives, in company with the similar steeple of San Martin, much effect to many views of the city, which, with these exceptions, has no- thing to break its monotony. It rises three stages above the roof, the lower stage having an arcaded window of two lights on each face, the middle one of three lights, and the upper. ^ The Retahlo of the high altar is (except the figure of the Blessed Virgin) a work of Juan de Jnni (circa a.d. 1556- 1583). He had studied under Michael Angelo, and was either an Italian or a Fleming. I am sorry to differ from Mr. Ford as to the merits of this artist ; but I must say that I never saw figures so violently twisted and distorted, so affected and unnatural, or coloured decorations so gaudy and contemptible as those in which he indulged. At the same time, his works are so charac- teristic of his period and school as to deserve examination, even if they pro- voke contempt. Chap. III. VALLADOLID: S. MARIA L’ANTIGUA. 61 ) again, one of two lights. The arches are all semi-circular, and are carried upon shafts. There are string-courses under each window, and the abaci are also carried round the steeple as string-courses of inferior scale. There are nook-shafts at the angles, with caps and bases between each of the horizontal string-courses. Tlie upper string-course and the eaves-cornices are carved with a dog-tooth ornament, and the others with a billet mould. The steeple is finished with a low square spire, covered with tiles, some green and some red, and each tile made of a pointed shape, so as to form a series of scallops. This steeple is of the same date as the cloister and lower part of the church — probably circa a.d. 1180-1200; but the east end of the church is evidently a work of later date, being much more advanced in style, and corresponding exactly in some respects with the upper part of the transepts and clerestory of Burgos Cathedral. The windows have three engaged jamb- shafts, with square capitals. The tracery has soffeit-cusping, and there is a peculiarity here which is seen also in the clerestory at Burgos. The arches of the lights and the circle above them are only chamfered on one side, and their fillets do not mitre at the junction ; it looks, consequently, as though the circle were merely put in loosely on the back of the arched heads to the lights, without being in any way connected with them. I need not say that the effect is not good : it has the appearance of being the work of men who did not quite understand what they were about; and, though 1 know of no example of the same thing in England or France, it is not uncommonly seen in the thirteenth and fourteenth century works of the Italian architects. It is, however, impossible to charge the architect of this apse with the indifference to, or ignorance of, other examples of the same age which marked the Italians, for in every other respect his work is as good as possible of its kind. The pinnacles marking the junction of the apse with the choir are very fine. They are hexagonal below, but, with admirable effect, are covered with circular stone spires, enriched by delicate crockets of the same fashion as those at Burgos, illustrated at p. 28, and the springing of the spirelet is marked by small pinnacles. The external roofs have been altered in accordance with the invariable custom, and at the east end they now partially obscure tlie old pierced parapets which fill the spaces between the pinnacles of the apse. The south transept had a rose-window, wliich is now blocked up, and the open parapet of the choir 70 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. HI. was continued round it. This side of the church is now much built against, and concealed by houses, the north side being quite open. I ought not to forget that there is a good sacristy at the north-east angle of the church, and of the same date as the choir. Sagrador y Vitores^ says that this church was founded by Don Pedro Ansurez and Doha Eylo his wife, in the latter part of the eleventh century, and rebuilt by King Don Alonso XI. I confess I cannot reconcile these dates (for which no autho- rities are given) with the existing building. The earlier portions of the work hardly seem to be so early in date as the eleventh century; and the later alterations are so identical in character with work of which we know the age in the thirteenth century, that it is almost impossible they should belong to the time of Alonso XI. (a.d. 1350-1369). The reign of Alonso IX. (a.d. 1230-44) would have been a more likely date. The church of San Martin, near Sta. Maria, has been rebuilt, with the exception only of its steeple, which is a fine example, very similar to that of Sta. Maria, though, no doubt, of ratlier later date. The arches here are pointed, in place of round, as they are in the other examjfie ; the two upper stages are arranged just as they are there, and the lower stage has a two-light window, with its tracery contrived in a simi- lar way to the apse windows of that church. San Martin is said to have been founded in a.d. 1148,^ and the earliest part of the steeple may probably be of this age, though I do not think it can have been completed earlier than about A.D. 1250. Both these steeples bear unmistakable marks of Lombard influence. The absence of buttresses, the repetition of very nearly similar stages one over the other, and tlie multitude of horizontal string-courses, are all features of constant occurrence in Italy ; and it will be sufficient to mention such an example as the steeple of Lucca Cathedral, as, among others, illustrating this similarity very remarkably. There is not, so far as I could see or learn, any other work of early date in Valladolid ; but, on the otlier hand, the city is rich in works of the latest Gothic, some of which are exceedingly sumptuous, and among the finest of their kind ; and they are so ’ Historia de Valladolid, vol. ii. p. 181. - Sagrador y Vitores, Hist, de Valladolid, vol. ii. p. 186. Chai’. 111. VALLADOLID. 71 characteristic of Spanish art — albeit they are undoubtedly derived from German sources— that it would be unpardonable to pass them by without notice. At the same time it is luxury of ornamentation, profusion of labour, marvellous manual skill and dexterity, rather than real art, which we see dis23layed in all the works of this school; and, attractive as these often are to the uneducated eye, they ai-e almost offensive to one who has learnt ever so little to look for true art first and above all in all works of architecture, and to regard mere excellence of workmanship as of altogether secondary importance. The most remarkable of these works are the churches of San Pablo, San Benito, La IMagdalena, and the colleges of San Gregorio and Sta. Cruz, which last is now converted into a museum. Their dates are all known very exactly, and the following facts relating to them may as well be recorded. San Pablo was commenced by Cardinal Don Juan Torque- mada, and completed in a.d. 1463.^ It is said by some to be the work of Juan and Simon de Colonia, but I can find no proof of this statement, though I think that the elaborate fixfade may possibly be the work of tlie artists Gil de Siloe or Diego de la Cruz, wlio wrought under Juan de Colonia and his son at the monuments and Betablo in the convent at Mirafiores. The first stone of the college of San Gregorio was laid in A.D. 1488, and it was finished in a.d. 1496.^ The architect is said to have been Macias Carpintero of Medina del Campo; but as he cut his own throat in 1490,^ some other architect or sculptor must have completed the work. The monastery of San Benito was founded by King Don Juan, who obtained a Bull from IMpe Clement Yll., on Dec. 28, 1389, for the purpose. But the existing church was erected more than a century later, by Juan de Arandia (probably a Biscayan architect), who began his work in ad. 1499. He agreed to execute the nave and one aisle for 1,4G0,000 mara- vedis, and afterwards the other aisle for 500,000. The Betablo and the stalls were the work of Berruguete, between a.d. 1526 and 1532, and are now preserved in the museum. The college of Sta. Cruz was founded in a.d. 1480, and ^ Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esp. i. dolid, ii. 263-‘268. 109. 3 Ceau Bermudez, Arq. de Esp. i. “ Sagrador y Vitores, Hist, de Valla- 128. 72 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. HI. completed in a.d. 1492, and was designed by Enrique de Egas,^ son of Anequin de Egas of Brussels. The church of La Magdalena appears, by extracts from the archives of the Marquis de Eesilla, to have been planned by Kodrigo Gil, of Salamanca. By a contract, dated June 14, 1576, he undertook the erection of the Capilla mayor and sacristy for 4,000,000 maravedis, whilst the “master of the works,” Francisco del Bio, by an agreement of October 11, 1570, agreed to build the tower and body of the church accord- ing to Rodrigo Gil’s plan, for 6400 ducats. Having given these details of their history, I must now say a few words about the building's themselves. Going from the great Plaza de la Constitucion down a narrow street to the north, we soon came out on another large irregular open place, frequented chiefly by second-hand clothesmen, whose wares would be deemed bad even in Houndsditch, and whose wont it seems to be to induce their customers to make complete changes of their apparel behind scanty screenworks of cloths. At the angle of the further side of this Plaza is the grand church and convent of San Benito. The monks are, of course, all gone, as they are everywhere in Catholic Spain, and the convent is turned into a barrack ; the church is left open, but unused, and the more valuable portions of its furniture, its stalls and Retablos, have been carried away for exhibition in another religious house, now used as a museum! Valladolid seems to have been a city of religious houses ; and when the revolution, following on civil wars, made so clean a sweep of religious orders, that not only does one see no monks, but even Sisters of Mercy are scarcely ever met,^ there was nothing, I sup- pose, to be done but to convert these buildings to the first miserable purpose that suggested itself ; and we ought perhaps to be thankful when we And a church like San Benito simply desolate and unused, and not converted to some purely secular use. The ground-plan of the church is given on Ifiate III. At ^ Enrique de Egas built tbe Hospital work of the same man. of Sta. Cruz, at Toledo, between 1504 ^ Little meets the eye, but still I and 1514. His work at Valladolid is have had several new establishments of still half Gothic ; a few years later, at regular clergy pointed out to me, and Toledo, it is completely Renaissance in the Church in Spain is already, no doubt, style. It is seldom that we can trace regaining something of what she has this ’-adical change of style in the lost in revolutions and wars. Chap. III. VALLADOLID : SAN BENITO. 73 the west end are the remains of a tower, which seems never to have been completed, and which, though of vast size, is so poor, tame, and bald in detail, that it could hardly have produced a successful effect if it had been finished. The Avhole design of the exterior of the church is extremely uninteresting ; but the interior is much more impressive, being fine, lofty, and groined, and lighted chiefly by large clerestory windows, aided by others high up in the aisle-walls. The groining is all very domical in section, and rather rich in ribs ; and the grand scale of the whole work, and the simplicity of the piers — cylinders with eight engaged shafts round them — contribute to produce something of the effect of a building of earlier date. The bases of the columns are of enormous height from the floor, and their caps are generally carved with stiff foliage. Several altars, monuments, and chapels have been inserted between the buttresses of the north wall ; and there is one old tomb on the north side of the high altar, with a sculpture of the Crucifixion. The buttresses on the exterior all rise out of a con- tinuous weathered basement, and there is no variety in their design in any part. The ritual arrangements deserve a few words of description. There are six steps up from the nave to the altar, and there is an ambon on each side of them entered from the altar side. There is a stalled western gallery, with an organ on its south side, of late medimval design, but apparently an insertion, and not erected at the same time as the Coro. Beside the gallery Coro, there is a second Coro on the floor, with screens round it on the north, south, and west sides, which are evidently not original, being mere brick walls. A metal screen extends all across the nave and aisles at the east of the Coro ; and there are gates, not only in these, but also in the screen on the west side of the Coro, which, it will be remembered, is an unusual arrangement at this late date. The large organ is on the north side of the Coro, and of the same date as the woodwork of the stalls. The good people of Valladolid, who seem to feel inordinately proud of all that Berruguete did, have carried off the stalls to the museum. They are much praised by Mr. Ford, but for what reason I endeavoured in vain to discover. Their sculpture appeared to me to be contemptible, and mainly noticeable for woolly dumplings in place of draperies, and for the way in which the figures are sculptured, standing insecurely on their feet, dwarfed in stature, altogether inexpressive in their faces. 74 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. III. out of drawing, and wholly deficient in energy or life. There were also three great Eetahlos to the principal altars at the ends of the aisles. The Kenaissance frames of tliese are mostly in situ, but the sculptures have all been taken, with the stalls, to the museum, where they cumber the little chapel in the most uncouth fashion. I never saw such contemptible work ; yet Mr. Ford calls this work^ ‘‘ the chef -di oeuvre of Berruguete, circa 1526-1532.” 1 can only say that the architecture is bad, the sculpture is bad, and the detail is bad ; that all three are bad of their kind, and that their kind is the worst possible.^ It is in truth the ugliest specimen of the imbecility and conceit which usually characterize inferior Kenaissance work that I ever saw. The whole of the figures are strained and distorted in the most violent way, and fenced in by columns which look like bed- posts, with entablatures planned in all sorts of new and original ways and angles. I have no patience with such work, and it is inconceivable how a man who has once done anything which, from almost every point of view, is so demonstrably bad, can have preserved any reputation whatever, even among his own people. It is a curious illustration, however, of the singular extent to which both Gothic and Kenaissance were being wrought at the same time in Spain ; for at the time he did this work, in which not a trace of Gothic feeling or skill re- mained, other men at Salamanca, Zaragoza, and elsewhere, were still building in late Gothic, and some buildings were still more than half Gothic which were not erected for at least fifty years later. A short walk from San Benito leads to another Plaza, on one of which is the west front of San Pablo, whilst the great convent of San Gregorio is on its south side. I could not find any means of getting into San Pablo, and am uncertain whether it is in use or desecrated. Its fagade is a repetition, on a large scale, of work like that of Juan and Simon de Colonia — who are said to have been the architects employed — in the chapel monuments at Miraflores. Armorial bearings have much more than their due prominence, mouldings are attenuated, every bit of wall is covered with carving or tracery, and such tricks are played with arches of all shapes, that, 1 Handbook of Spain, vol. ii. p. 572. y Vitores in liis History of VaRadolid, - Berruguete was not dissatisfied vol. ii. p. 257) lie expresses his own with his work. In a letter from him to extreme satisfaction in the most un- Andres de Nagera (given by Sagrador reserved way. Chap. III. VALLADOLID: S. PABLO — S. GREGORIO. 75 tlioiigli they are ingenious, tliey are hardly worth describing. The western doorway is fringed with kneeling angels for crockets, and there are large and small statues of saints against the wall on either side of it. Above is the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, with St. John the Baptist on one side, and the kneeling founder on the other, flanked by angels carrying armorial achievements. Above, in the centre, is our Lord seated, St. Peter and St. Paul on either side, and the four Evangelists seated at desks, and instructed by angels. Every vacant space seems to have a couple of angels holding coats-of-arrns, so that it is impossible not to feel that the scul2)tor and the founder must have had some idea of heaven as peopled by none with less than a proper number of quarterings on their shields, or without claim to the possession of Sangre Azul. I must not forget to say of this work that, though its scheme is dis^^leasing and Eetablo-like, its execution is wonderful, and the merit of the detail of many parts of it very great. The fa9ade of San Gregorio is a long lofty wall, pierced with small ogee-headed windows, and finished with a quaint, carved, and pinnacled parapet ; in the centre is the entrance gateway, corresponding pretty much in its detail with the front of San Pablo, but even more extremely heraldic in its decoi’ations. The doorway is a square opening under a segmental arch, with an ogee-trefoiled canopy above. Full-length statues of hairy unclad savages on either side may have a meaning which I failed to discover ; to me they looked simply uncouth and rude. The canopy over the doorway runs up and forms a great heraldic tree, with an enormous coat-of-arms and supporters in the centre. The finish at the top is one of those open-work conceits of interlacing pierced cusping, which looks like nothing better than a collection of twigs. The scul] 3 ture on this doorway is altogether inferior in its chai’acter to that of the doorway of San Pablo. The convent is now, I believe, a barrack, and the sentry refused me admission ; but I saw a picturesque court open in the centre, with the usual galleries round it, supported on columns, the wooden ceiling of the passage being painted. The church of la Magdalena does not look so late in date as tlie documentary evidence seems to prove that it is ; but it is late enough to be most uninteresting. The west front is the ne flm ultra of heraldic absurdity, being entirely occupied with an enormous coat-of-arms and its adjuncts. 76 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. III. Close to the east end of this church is a Moorish archway of brick, a picturesque and rather graceful work. It owes not a little of its effect to the shape of the bricks, which are 7 in. Avide by 1 1 in. long by IJ in. thick, and to the enormous quantity of mortar used, the joints being not less than an inch wide.^ The rugged- ness and picturesque effect of work done in this way is much greater than that of the smooth, neat walls — badly built of necessity where there is not much mortar used — of our modern buildings. The Museum is housed in the old college of Sta. Cruz, close to the University, and near to the Cathedral. It is a building of a class whose name is legion in these parts. It encloses a central court surrounded by cloisters, above which there are open arcades all round on each of the three floors, traceried balustrades occupying the spaces between their columns, and the rooms being all entered from these cloister-like open passages. With good detail such an arrangement might easily be made very attractive ; but I saAV no example in any but the very latest style of Gothic. The contents of the Museum are most unin- teresting. There are three paintings said to be by Kubens, but they seemed to me to have been much damaged ; and the rest of the pictures are unmixed rubbish. There is a large collection of figures and subjects from sculptured Eetablos, all of which are extravagant and strained in their attitudes to the most painful degree. I have already referred to some of Berrnguete’s work preserved here, and the rest is mostly of about the same low degree of merit. The Library, which appeared to have many valuable books, is a large room, well kept and well filled, with a librarian very ready to show it to strangers. The University is a cold work of Herrera — the coldest of Spanish architects. Mr. Ford mentions an old gateway in it; but I could not find it. I spent one day only in Valladolid ; but tliis is ample for seeing all its architectural features. It is one of those cities which was too rich and prosperous during an age of much AYork and little taste, and where, though Berruguete and Herrera may be studied by those who think such labour desirable, very little ^ The remarkable brick buildings of not less remarkable works at Liibeck Toulouse and its neighbourhood are and elsewhere in the north of Germany, similarly constructed ; so, too, are those Chap. 111 . VALLADOLID. 77 mediaeval architecture of any real value is to be seen. Yet as a modern city it is in parts gay and attractive, being after Madrid the most important city of the North of SjDain. Its suburbs are less cheerful, for here one lights constantly on some desecrated church or ruined building, which recalls to mind the vast difference between the Valladolid of to-day — a mere provincial town — and the Valladolid of two centuries ago, for a short time the capital of Spain. 78 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IV. CHAPTER IV. SALAMANCA — ZAMOEA — BENAVENTE. The long dreary road wliicli leads over the corn-growing plain from Medina del Campo is at last relieved some two or three miles before Salamanca is reached by the view of its imposing group of steeples and domes, which rise gradually over the low hills on the northern side. The long line of walls round the city still in part remains, but seems daily to be falling more and more to decay, and indeed generally all its grand buildings speak rather of death than of life. Few even of Spanish towns seem to have suffered more at the hands of the French during the Peninsular war than did Salamanca, and we ought not perhaps to be surprised if its old prosperity comes but slowly back again to it. The public buildings here are generally grandiose and im- posing ; but almost all of them are of the period of the Renais- sance, and there are no very remarkable examples of this bad age. Still when they were perfect there must have been a certain stateliness about them, befitting the importance of a great university. The main objects of attraction to me were the two cathedrals, the one grand and new, of the sixteenth century, by whose side and as it were under whose wing nestles the smaller but most precious old cathedral of the twelfth century, fortunately pre- served almost intact when the new one was erected, and still carefully maintained, though, I believe, very seldom used for service. The remarkable relative positions of these two cathedrals will be readily understood by the accompanying ground-plan,^ in which, as will be seen, the vast bulk of the later church quite overwhelms the modest dimensions of the earlier. I know indeed few spots, if any, in which the importance, or the contrary, of mere size in architecture can be better tested than here. Most edu- cated artists would, I dare say, agree with me in rating size as the lowest of all really artistic qualities in architecture ; and here we 1 Plate IV. Chap. IV. SALAMANCA; THE OLD CATHEDRAL. 79 find that the small and insignificant old cliurch produces as good an effect as the large and boastfnlly ambitious new one, though its dimensions are altogether inferior. This is owing to the subdi- vision of parts, and to the valuable simplicity which so markedly characterizes them. On the other hand, it would be wrong to forget that from another point of view mere size is of the primest importance, for we may well feel, when we compare, for instance, an extremely lofty church with one of very modest height, that in the former there is on the part of the founders an evident act of sacrifice, whilst in the latter their thoughts have possibly never risen above the merest utilitarianism ; and it would be a spirit entirely dead to all religious impressions that could regard such an act of sacrifice otherwise than with extreme admiration. The foundation of the first of these twm cathedrals may be fixed, I think, with a fair approach to certainty, as being some time in the twelfth century. It was at this time, soon after the city had been regained from the Moors, in a.d. 1095, that Bernard, Archbishop of Toledo, himself a Frenchman, brought many other Frenchmen into Spain, and througli his great influ- ence procured their appointment to various sees — a fact which I may say, in passing, suggests much in regard to the origin of the churches which they built. Among the French ecclesiastics so promoted was Geronimo Visquio,^ a native of Perigord, who was for a long time the great friend and close companion of the Cid Bodrigo Diaz, and confessor to him and Doha Ximena his wife. On the Cid’s death he brought his body from Valencia to the monastery of Gardena, near Burgos, and there dwelt till Count Bam on and Dona Urraca made him Bishop of Salamanca. Gil Gonzalez Davila^ says that at this time the church Avas founded, and Cean Bermudez adds some documentary evidence as to privileges conceded to its chapter for the works about this time by Count Bamon.^ In a.d. 1178 a priest — Don Miguel of San Juan, Medina del Campo — made a bequest to the Chapter of his property for the Avork of the cloister, and we may fairly assume, therefore, that before this date the church itself was completed. The neAV cathedral Avas not commenced until a.d. 151 4 and of this I need not iioav speak ; but in an inscription on it, Avhich records its consecration in a.d. 1560, the first mass is related to have been said in the old cathedral four hundred 1 It is doubtful whether this surname on his tomb. — Ford, Handbook, p. 521. is correct, and whether it is not old ^ Teatro Eccl., iii. 236-8. Spanish for “ Vixit” in the inscription Cean Bermndez, Arq. de Esp., i. 21. 80 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IV. and sixty years before, e. in a.d. 1100.^ This probably was only a tradition; but it may fairly be taken to point to the twelfth century as that in which the cathedral was built. This early church is, it will be seen,^ cruciform, with three eastern apses, a nave and aisles of live bays, and a dome or lantern over the crossing. There is a deep western porch, and I think it pro- bable that there were originally towers on either side of this. The church has been wonderfully little altered, save that its north wall has been taken down in order to allow of the erection of the new cathedral, and at the same time the arch under the northern part of the central lantern or dome was also underbuilt. In other respects the church is almost untouched, and bears every mark of having been in progress during the greater part of the twelfth century. There is no provision in the plan of the main piers for carrying the diagonal groining ribs, and it may be, therefore, that when they were first planned it was not intended to groin the nave. The groining-ribs are now carried on corbels, in front of which were statues, only two or three of which, however, now remain in their places.^ The vaulting throughout is quadripartite in the arrangement of the ribs ; but the vaults of the three western bays of the nave, of the south transept, and of the aisles are con- structed as domes, with the stones all arranged in concentric lines, but with ribs crossing their undersides ; the two eastern bays of the nave have quadripartite groining, planned in the common way. The apses have semi-domes. The main arches everywhere are pointed, those of the windows semi-circular, and the capitals throughout are elaborately carved, either with foliage or groups of coupled monsters or birds, a very favourite device of the early Spanish sculptors. The most interesting feature in this old cathedral still remains to be mentioned : this is the dome over the crossing. The remainder of the original fabric is bold, vigorous, and massive, well justifying the line in an old saying about the Spanish cathedrals, ‘^Eortis Salmantina;” but still it is merely a good example of a class of work, of which other examples on a grander scale are to be met with elsewhere. Not so, however, tlie dome ; for here we have a rare feature treated with rare success, and, so far as I know, with complete originality. The French domed churches, sucli as S. Front, Perigueux, and others 1 G. G. Davila, Teat. Eccl., iii. 344. tern are of our Lord, the B. V. M., an 2 Plate IV. angel, and a bishop. The statues at the angles of the Ian- No ?. INTEHIOR ON LANTERN, LOOSING EAST. Crap. IV. SALAMANCA: THL OLD CATHEDRAL. 81 of the same class, Notre Dame du Port, Clermont, and Notre Dame, le Puy, have, it is true, domes, but these are all com- menced immediately above the pendentives or arches which carry them. The lack of light in their interiors is consequently a great defect, and those which I have seen have always seemed to me to have sometliing dark, savage, and repulsive in their character. And it was here that the architect of Salamanca Cathedral showed his extreme skill, for, instead of the common low form of dome, he raised his upon a stage arcaded all round inside and out, pierced it with windows, and then, to resist the pressure of his vault, built against the external angles four great circular pinnacles. The effect of his work both inside and out is admirable. It is divided into sixteen compartments by bold shafts, which carry the groining ribs ; and three of these divisions over each of the cardinal sides are pierced as windows. The other four occur where the turrets on the exterior make it impossible to obtain light. These arcades form two stages in height between the pendentives and the vault. The vault is hardly to be called a real dome, having a series of ribs on its under side, nor does the external covering follow the same curve as the internal, but with admirable judgment it is raised so much as to have rather the effect of a very low spire, with a considerable entasis, than of a regular dome. The exterior angles have lines of simple and boldly contrived crockets, and the stones with which it is covered seem all to have been cut with scallops on their lower edge. The stonework of the exterior is much decayed, but otherwise the whole work stands well and firmly. My drawings explain better than any written description can, the various details of the design ; but I may well call attention to the admirable treatment of the gables over the windows on the cardinal sides of the dome. No doubt they answer the same purpose as the circular turrets at the angles in providing a coun- terpoise to the thrust of the vault, and the change from the circular lines of the angle turrets to the sliarp straight lines of these gables is among the happiest efforts of art. So again I ought to notice the contrast between the shafted windows, with their springing lines definitely and accurately marked by sculp- tured capitals, and the openings in the turrets, with their con- tinuous mouldings. The value of contrast — a treasure in the hands of the real artist — is here consciously and most artistically exhibited ; and it was no mean artist who could venture to make so unsparing a use of architectural ornamentation without G 82 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IV. prodiiciDg any sense of surfeit on those who look at his work even with the most critical eyes. I have seldom seen any central lantern more thoroughly good and effective from every point of view than this is : it seems indeed to solve, better than the lantern of any church I liave yet seen elsewhere, the question of the introduction of the dome to Gothic churches. The lofty pierced tambour, and the exquisite effect of liglit admitted at so great a lieight from the floor, are features which it is not, I believe, vain to hope we may see emulated ei^e long in some modern work. But in any such attempt it must be borne well in mind that, though the scale of tliis work is very moderate, its solidity and firmness are excessive, and that thus only is it that it maintains that dignified manliness of architectural character which so very few of our modern architects ever seem even to strive for. From all points, too, this lantern groups admirably witli the rest of the church. My sketch was taken from the west end of the nave roof, in order to show the detail of the worlv to a fair scale ; but the best view on the whole is that from the south- east, where it groups with the fine exterior of the eastern apses, with their engaged columns and rich corbel-tables, and with a turret to the east of the transept, which has been carried up and finished rather prettily in the fourteenth century with a short spire, with spire-lights on each side of its hexagonal base. The old corbel-tables under the eaves remain throughout the east end ; but the wall has been raised above them with a line of pierced quatrefoils, over which the rough timbers of the roof project. No doubt here, as we shall find in some other examples, the original intention was to have a stone roof of rather flat pitch. The space between the eaves of the chancel and the lower windows of the lantern would admit of no more than this ; and though there is a good deal of piquant effect in the line of dark pierced traceries under the eaves and the rough tiled roof above them, one cannot but regret very much the change from the original design in so important a part of the work. The eaves- cornices are carved with a very rich variety of billet moulding, and carried upon corbels, some of which are carved and some moulded. The walls generally have flat pilasters at short inter- vals, finishing under the eaves-cornices, and the principal apse has the common arrangement of three-quarter engaged shafts dividing it into three bays. The window-arches are boldly moulded and carved, but tlie lights are narrow, and those in the main apse are remarkable for the delicate intricacy of the con- No. a. SALAMANCA OLD CATHEDRAL. p. 82 . EXTERIOR OF LANTERN. Chap. IV. SALAMANCA : THP] OLD CATHEDRAL. 88 temporary iron grilles witli wliieli tliey are guarded — genuine laborious smith’s work, utterly unlike the poor modern efforts with which in these days men earn fame without using their liammers ! The effect here of the intricate curved lines, relieved by the dark shadow of the window opening, is charming. It may fairly be doubted, I think, whether these windows were ever meant to be glazed. In the transept pointed relieving arches are built over the windows, and one of them is a good example of the joggling of the joints of stonework, not uncom- monly seen in early flat arches, but the use of which is not very obvious in a high pointed arch. The smaller apses have only one window, and are lower in proportion to the principal apse than is usually the case. There are some fine monuments in the south transept, all of them adorned with elaborate bas-reliefs of scriptural subjects. One, of the thirteenth century, has a tomb supported on lions, and a death-bed represented on its side ; a little apsidal recess above is groined with a semi-dome, with ribs. Another has sculptures of the Crucifixion, the Entombment, the Maries going to the Se23ulchre, and the “ Noli me tangere ; ” and a third has another representation of a death-bed. The effigies are all slightly tilted outwards, and those in the east wall have their feet to the nortli. The most remarkable features in the deco- ration of the church are, however, the lietablo and the painting on the semi-dome above it. On the vault the Last Judgment is painted, our Lord being drawn much in the famous attitude of St. Michael in Orcagna’s fresco at Pisa, and without drapery. The Petablo is a work of the fourteenth century, of wood, and planned so as exactly to fit the curve of the ajise wall. It is divided into five panels in height and eleven in width, so that there are fifty- five subjects, each surrounded by an architectural framework of delicate character. The subjects are all richly painted on a gold ground, and seemed to me to be well drawn. The coloured decoration of the whole is very effective, and owes much to the Avhite ground of its traceries. Generally speaking, a Petablo is placed across the apse and cuts off its eastern portion, which thenceforward becomes a receptacle for all the untidiness of the church ; and when so arranged, if it reaches the height common in Spain, it almost, and in some cases altogether, destroys the internal effect of the apse. Here, however, the exact fitting of the Ketablo to the curve of the wall is free from this objection, and its effect is unusually good. The cloister on the south side is almost all modernized^. a 2 84 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IV. tliougli one or two old doorways remain. That into the south transept lias spiral shafts, with the spiral lines reversed at regular intervals. It has also some very good carving of foliage, with birds and naked figures, and on its jambs are some memorial inscriptions of A.D. 1190, 1192, and 1194. On the south side of the cloister is a richly decoi*ated little chapel, which retains in one corner a very curious mediaeval organ, with shutters. On the east side and close to the transept, what was no doubt the original Chapter- house still remains, though it is now called the Mozarabic chapel, and was formerly used for the Mozarabic ritual. At present the boy who had the keys said it was not used ; but the proper books were all there. It is a very remarkable chamber, square in plan below, and brought to an octagon above by arches thrown across the angles, and finally roofed with a sort of dome, carried upon moidded and carved ribs of very intricate contrivance. The interlacing of these ribs gives tbe work somewhat the effect of being Moorish, and there can be little doubt, I think, that it owes its peculiarities in some degree to Moorish influ- ence. It will be seen by reference to the plan, that the groining ribs are arranged in parallel pairs. The ribs go from the angles to the centre of tbe opposite side instead of from angle to angle, and the sixteen ribs form a star-shaped compartment in the centre. This coupling of ribs in parallel lines is a feature of Moorish work, and is seen in the curious mosque, the Cristo de la Luz, at Toledo, and in the somewhat Moorish vault of the Templars’ church at Segovia. But whether Moorish or not, it is a remarkable room, and deserves careful study. The diameter is but a little over twenty-six feet, and tlie light is admitted by small windows in tlje upper stage. I should be inclined to attribute this room and its vault to the architect of tlie lantern of the church, and I regret that the only part of the outside which I could see was so modernized as to render it impossible to ascertain the original design. I call this the Chapter-house, because I find that it opened originally into the cloister, with three arches, that in the centre a doorway, the others windows of two liglits — the almost invariable arrangement of all Chapter- houses at this time.^ A considerable number of masons’ marks remain on the ex- terior of the early part of this cliurch ; and if they are tbe marks 1 Don Miguel, priest of San Juan, house is probably of about this date or Medina del Campo, made a donation to a little later. — Cean Bermudez, Arq. de the church in a.d. 1178, to complete Esp., i. 23. the work of the cathedral. The Chapter- Chap. IV. SALAMANCA : THE NEW CATHEDRAL. 85 of the men who erected so complicated a piece of stonework as the vault of the Chapter-house, they well deserve to he pre- served. Throughout this church, indeed, the masonry is un- usually good, and, owing to the rich warm colour of the stone, the eastern apses, though they follow the common design of most of the Komanesque apses in this part of Spain, are more than usually good in their effect. A flight of eighteen steps leads up from the old cathedral through the north transept into one of the southern chapels of the new cathedral, and I know few changes more remarkable than that from the modest simplicity, yet grandeur, of the early church, to the overbearing magnitude and somewhat flaunting character of the late one. Salamanca seems to have tasted early of that prosperity which in the end ruined art in Spain ; and it was possible, therefore, for the Bishop, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, to propose a scheme for replacing his modest old cathedral by one of the most sumptuous and ambitious in Spain, without attempting what was absurd or sure to fail. The whole discussion as to the planning of the church is told us in a series of documents published by Cean Bermudez, which are, I think, of sufficient interest to make them quite worth a place in the Appendix to this volume. I shall discuss in another chapter the light which they throw upon the architectural practice of the day, and here it will only be necessary to refer to such parts of them as affect the architec- tural history of the building. In A.D. 1509 a Koyal order was issued to Anton Egas, master of the works at Toledo Cathedral, to go to Salamanca to make a plan for the cathedral there. Egas seems to have delayed so long that it was necessary to send another order to him, and then at last, in May, 1510, he went. The same kind of command had been laid at the same time by the king on Alfonso Eodriguez, the master of the works at Seville, and after these two had con- sidered the matter, they presented a joint plan, drawn on parch- ment, showing the heights and widths of the naves, the thickness of the walls, and so forth ; but they were unable, they said, to agree as to the proportion of length to breadth in the Capilla mayor, and so they settled to meet in ten days at Toledo, and then to appoint an umpire. Nothing more seems to have been done by them, for in A.D. 1513 the Bishop and Chapter resolved to call together a Junta of architects to make another report ; and Eodriguez being dead, they summoned Anton Egas of Toledo, Juan Gil de Hontailon, Juan de Badajoz of Leon, Alonso de 8 () GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IV. CovaiTubias of Toledo, Juan Tornero, Juan de Alava, Juan de Orozco, Eodrigo de Saravia, and J nan Campero, who all assembled in September, a.d. 1512, at Salamanca, and drew up their report. The detailed character of this report is very curious. It decides the dimensions of every part of the church, the thickness of the walls, the projection of the buttresses, and the exact position that it ought to occupy. The architects not only agreed in all their opinions, but testified to their truth by taking an oath ‘‘ by God and St. Mary,” saying, each one, So I swear, and amen.” The question was, whether the new cathedral should be on the site of the old cathedral, or to the north or to the south of it ; and among other reasons for placing it to the north, where it now is, the existence of the steeple at the w^est end of the old catliedral was mentioned. In fine, the church has been so placed as not to interfere at all with the steeple, but little with the old cathedral, and not at all with the cloister. The opinion of the Junta of Architects has been acted upon, in short, in everything save the shape of the head of the church, which they preferred should be octagonal, and which is, in fact, square in plan. Three days after the presentation of this report certain of the Chapter were appointed to select an architect, and their choice fell at once on Juan Gil de Hontanon for the architect, and Juan Campero for clerk of the works.^ AVhether Juan Gil really made the plans or not seems very uncertain ; and I confess that to me it seems more probable that the plan made in a.d. 1509 by Egas and Eodriguez was laid before the el unta, and that they drew up their resolutions upon the data it afforded, and left to Hontanon no choice as to the proportions of his church, but only the management of its construction and tlie designing of its details. If this supposition be correct, I fear I can award but little credit to Hontanon ; for in this cathedral the only point one can heartily praise is the magnificence of the general idea, and the noble scale and proportion of the whole work. But the detail throughout is of the very poorest kind, fairly Gothic in character inside, but almost Eenaissance outside, and everywhere wanting in vigour and effect. Nothing can be much worse than the treatment of the doorways and windows, and — to take one por- tion — the south transept fii^ade is spotted all over with niches. ’ I use the modern terms, which seem de caiiteria para maestro principal, y to express their offices. The original en Juan Campero, cantero, para apare- words are J. G. de Hontanon, ‘Gnaestro jador.” Chap. IV. SALAMANCA: ^J'HE NEW CATHEDRAL. 87 crockets, and pedestals in the most childish way ; whilst every spandrel has a head looking out of a circle, reminding one forcibly of the old application of a horse-collar, and, in foot, the men were foolish who repeated, usque ad nauseam, so stale and nnprofltable an idea ! In one respect, however, the design of this clmrcli is very im- portant. The Spanish architects seldom troubled themselves to suit their buildings in any respect to the climate ; and this, no doubt, because in very many cases they were merely imitating the works of another country, in which no precautions against heat were necessary. Here we have a church expressly designed, and with great judgment, for the requirements of the climate. The windows are very high up, and very small for the size of the building, so that no sunlight could ever make its way to any unpleasant extent into it. There are galleries in front of all the windows, both in the nave and aisles, but they are of thoroughly Kenaissance character. The section of the church gives a main clerestory to the nave, and a second clerestory on one side of each aisle over the arches opening into the side chapels. The upper clerestory has two windows of two lights, and a circular window above them in each bay, and the lower clerestory traceried windows generally, I think, of three lights. The traceries are very weak and ill proportioned ; but I noticed in places what seemed to be a recurrence to earlier traditions in the groupings of small windows, with several circles pierced in the wall above them. It was, however, just like the imitation of old works we so often see from incompetent hands at the present day. You see whence the idea has been taken, though it is so travestied as to be not even tolerable where the oriirinal was probably perfect ! The planning of the church is certainly infelicitous. The square east end is bald to a degree externally, and finished as it is inside with chapels corresponding with those of the aisles, wants relief and life. If the square east end is adopted in a great church, no doubt the prolonged Lady Chapels of our own churches are infiijitely to be preferred to such a plan as this, which fails to give the great east windows of which we boast, and loses all the effects of light and shade in which the apsidal chevets of the Continent are so rich. Everywhere here the buttresses are finished with pinnacles, always planned in the same way, each group being planned on a square, counterchanged over the one below : they are 8’hts enclosed within a label-mouldinc: which finishes in an ogee trefoil ; and this again within another label- moulding, either square or ogee in the head. The vagaries of these later Gothic architects in Spain are certainly far from pleasant ; yet odd as its detail is, the plain masses of unbroken wall in the lower part of this front give it a kind of dignity which is seldom seen in modern work. The practice of making all the living-rooms on the first-floor of course conduces largely to this happy result. I was unable, unfortunately, to spare time when I was at Zamora to go over to Toro to see the fine Collegiata there. M. Villa Amil has given a drawing of the domed lantern over the Crossing. In plan it is similar to the domes at Salamanca and Zamora as to the angle pinnacles, but not as to the gabled windows between them. But it appears to have lost its ancient roof; and I cannot understand, from the drawing, how the domical roof, which it was no doubt built to receive, can now possibly exist.^ It seems pretty clear that this exam])le is ^ Nevertheless, Dr. Neale describes it ^Aii Ecclesiological Tour,’ Ecclesiolo- as existing, and so, no doubt, it does. — gist, vol. xiv. p. oOl. 102 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IV. of rather later date than that at Salamanca ; and we have there- fore in Zamora, Salamanca, and Toro a very good sequence of Gothic domes, all upon much the same plan, and most worthy of careful study. A more complete acquaintance with this part of Spain might be expected to reveal some other examples of the same extremely interesting hind of work. From Zamora, clieered by the recollection of perhaps the most gorgeous sunset and the clearest moonlight that I ever saw, I made my way across country to Benavente. It is a ten hours’ drive over fields, through streams and ditches, and nowhere on a road upon which any pains have ever been bestowed ; and when I say that the country is flat and uninte- resting, the paternal benevolence of the government which leaves such a district practically roadless will be appreciated. Beyond Benavente the case is still worse, for the broad valley of the Esla, leading straight to Leon, is without a road along which a tartcma can drive, though there is scarcely a hillock to sur- mount or a stream to ci’oss in the fortv miles between a con- •/ siderable town and the capital of the province ! Soon after leaving Zamora some villages were seen to the right, and one of them seemed to me to have a church with a dome ; but my view of it was very distant, and I cannot speak with any certainty. From thence to Benavente no old building was passed. Benavente is the most tumble-down forlorn-looking town I have seen. Most of the houses are built of mud, rain- worn for want of proper thatching, of only one scory in height, and relieved in front by a doorway and usually one very small hole for a window. There is, however, a church — Sta. Maria del Azogue — which made the journey quite worth undertaking. It is cruciform, with five apses projecting from the eastern wail, that in the centre larger than the others.^ 'The apses have semi-domes, the square compartments to the west of them quadrijDartite vaulting in the three centre, and waggon-vaults in the two outer bays. The transepts and crossing are vaulted with pointed barrel-vaults at the two ends, and three bays of quadripartite vaulting in the space between these two compartments ; and the internal effect is particularly fine, owing to the long line of arches into the east- ern chapels and the rich character of most of tlie details. The nave and aisles no doubt retain to some extent their old form and arrangement, but most of the work here is of the fifteenth ‘ See plan, Plate VIII. No. 12. BENAVENTE. p. 102. EAST END OF STA. MARIA. ■» Chap. IV. BENAVENTE: S. MARIA — S. JUAN. 103 century, whilst that of tlie eastern part of the church is no doubt of circa a.d. 1170-1220. The west front is quite modernized. The t]-ansept walls are lofty, and there is a simple pointed clere- story above the roofs of the eastern chapels, and a rose window over the arch into the Capilla mayor. The smaller cliajDels have each one window, the centre chapel three windows with the usual three-quarter engaged shaft between them, finishing in the eaves-cornice. The south transept has a fine round-headed doorway, but all its detail is that of early-pointed work. It has an Agnus Dei surrounded by angels in the tympanum, the four Evangelists with their emblems in one order of the arch, bold foliage in the next, a deep scallop} ornament in the third, and delicate foliage in the label. The capitals are well carved, and the jambs of the door and one of the members of the archivolt have simple rose ornaments at intervals. The abaci of the capi- tals are square, but notwithstanding this and the other apparently early feature of the round arch 1 am still not disposed to date this work earlier than circa A.D. 1210-20.^ Of the same age and character probably are all the eaves-cornices of the earlier part of the church, and, I have little doubt, the whole lower portion of the church itself. There is a fine doorway to the north transept, and a loffy tower of very singular design rises over its northern bay. This is three stages in height above the roof, and is finished with a corbel-table and a modern spire of ogee outline. The masons’ marks on the exterior of the walls are here, as is usual in these early churches, very plentiful. The church of San Juan del Mercado seems to be in some respects even more interesting than the other. It has a south doorway of singularly rich character, the two inner orders of the arch being round and the others pointed. The shafts are unusually rich and delicate ; they are carved with acanthus-leaves diapered all over their surface, with chevrons and spiral mouldings, and above their bands at mid-height have in front of them figures of saints, three on either side. The tympanum has the Adoration of the Magi, and the order of the arch round it is sculptured witli angels. Altogether this is a very refined and noble work, and the combination of the pointed and round arches one over the other is very happy. The west front has also a fine doorway ^ There is an inscription on the south- but, unfortunately, though I noticed it, east buttress of the transept which, I I forgot to write it down, believe, refers to the date of the church ; 104 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IV. and engaged shafts at intervals in the wall, and the east end is parallel triapsidal of the same character as tliat of San Juan, There are some other churches, but those which I saw seemed to be all late and uninteresting. There are, too, the rapidly wasting ruins of an imposing castle. It is of very late sixteenth century work, and apparently has no detail of any interest ; but the approach to it through a gateway, and up a winding hilly road under the steep castle walls, is very picturesque. By its side an Alameda has been planted, and here is the one agreeable walk ill Benavente. Below is the river Esla, winding through a broad plain well wooded hereabouts with poplars and aspens ; in tlie background are lines of hills, and beyond them bold mountain outlines ; and such a view, aided by the transparent loveliness of the atmosphere, was enough to make me half- inclined to forget the squalid misery of everything that met the eye when I passed back again to my lodging. Chap. V. LEON: CATHEDRAL. 105 CHAPTER V. LEON. It is a ride of some six-and-tliirty or forty miles from Benavente to Leon. The road follows the course of the valley of the Esla all the way, and, though it is as nearly as possible level throughout, it is impassable for carriages. This is characteristic of the country ; the Spaniards are content to go on as their fathers have done before them, and until some external friend comes to make a railway for tliem, the people of Benavente and Leon will probably still remain as practically isolated from each other as they are at present. The valley is full of villages, as many as ten or twelve being in sight at one time on some parts of the road. None of their churches, however, seem to be of the slightest value. They are mostly modern and built of brick, though some have nothing better than badly built cob-walls to boast of ; and their only unusual feature seems to be the great western bell-gable, which is generally an elevation above the roof of the whole width of the western wall, in which several bells are usually hung in a series of openings. The villages, too, are all built of cob ; and as the walls are either only half-thatched or not thatched at all, they are gradually being worn away by the rains, and look as forlorn and sad as possible. One almost wonders that the people do not quit their hovels for the wine-caves with which every little hill near the villages is honeycombed, and upon which more care seems to be bestowed than upon the houses. In these parts the peasants adorn the outside of their houses with plenty of whitewash, and then relieve its bareness with rude red and black paintings of sprigs of trees, arranged round the windows and doors. The cathedral of Leon is first seen some three or four hours before the city is reached. It stands up boldly above the well- wooded valley, and is backed by a noble range of mountain- peaks to the north ; so that, though the road was somewhat monotonous and wearying, I rode on picturing to myself the great things I was soon to see. Unfortunately I visited Leon a year 106 GOTHIC AHCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. V. too late, for I came just in time to see the cathedral bereft of its southern transept, which had been pulled down to save it from falling, and was being reconstructed under the care of a Madrilenian architect — Senor Lavinia. I saw his plans and some of the work which was being put in its place, and the sight made me wish witli double earnestness that I had been there before lie had commenced his Avork ! In England or in France such a work would be full of risk, and might Avell fill all lovers of our old buildings with alarm ; but in Spain there is absolutely no school for the education of architects, the old national art is little understood and apparently very little studied, and there are no new churches and no minor restorations on which the native architects may try their prentice hands. In England for some years Ave have lived in the centre of a church-building movement as active and hearty perhaps as any ever yet knoAvn ; our advantages, therefore, as compared Avith tliose possessed by foreigners generally, are enormous ; Avhilst perhaps, on the other hand, in no country has so little been done as in Spain during tlje present century. Yet in England few of us Avould like to think of pvdling doAvn and reconstructing one side of a cathe- dral, and few Avould doubt that art and history Avould lose much in the process, even in the hands of the most able and conserva- tive architect. The two great architectural features of Leon are the cathedral and the church of San Isidoro ; and to the former, though it is by much the most modern of the tAvo, I must first of all ask my readers to turn their attention. Spaniards are rightly proud of this noble church, and the pro- verbs Avhich assert its pre-eininence seem to be numerous. One, giving the characteristics of several cathedrals, is Avorth quoting: — “ DiA^es Toletana, Sancta OA^etensis Pulclira Leonina, fortis Salamantina.” And again there is another Leonese couplet : — “ Sevilla en grandeza, Toledo en riqiieza, Compostella en fortaleza, esta en sntileza.” So again, just as our oaaui people Avrote that jubilant verse on the door-jamb of the Chapter-house at York, here on a column in front of the principal door Avas inscribed — “ Sint licet Hispaniis ditissima, pulcliraqne templa, Hoc tamen egregiis omnibus arte prius.” There used to be a controversy as to the age of this cathedral. Chat. V. LEON ; CATHEDRAL. 107 which must, however, one would tliink, long since have been settled. It was asserted tliat it was tlie very cliurch built at tlie end of the ninth century during the reign of Ordono II. ; and the only proof of this \vas the inscription upon the fine four- teenth-century monument of the King which still stands in the aisle of the chevet behind the high altar : — “ Omnibus exempliim sit, quod venerabile templum Rex dedit Ordonius, quo jacet ipse j^ias. Hunc fecit sedem, quam primo fecerat ajdem Virginis hortatu, qua3 fidget Pontificaiu. Pavit earn doiiis, per earn nitet urbs Legionis Quesumus ergo Dei gratia parcat ei. Amen.” Fortunately, however, in addition to tlie indubitable evidence of the building itself, there is sufficient documentary evidence to give with tolerable exactness the dates of the commencement and completion of the existing church, and I did not see, and believe tliere is not, a relic of the church which preceded it still remaining. One or two facts of interest in regard to the first cathedral may, however, well be mentioned here. The architect is said by Sandoval to have been an Abbat ; and in Ordono II. ’s absence he is said to have converted the old Koman baths in the palace into a church, the plan being similar to that of churches with three naves.^ It is interesting to find this plan so popular in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, already described as existing in the ninth Don Manrique, Bishop of Leon from a.d. 1181 to A. el 1205, is said to have been the first founder of the present cathedral. The contemporary chronicler Don Lucas de Tuy speaks most positively on this point, and as he wrote his history in the con- vent of San Isidoro close by, it is difficult to dispute his testi- mony.^ How much he completed nowhere appears, though. ’ See Catologo de los Obispos de Leon. Cixila II. Esp. Sag., xxxiv. 211 . - In a deed of the 20th March, a.d. 1175, mention is made of Pedro Cebrian, “Maestro de la Obra de la Catedral,” and of Pedro Gallego, “ Gobernador de las Torres.’’ It is possible, of course, that Cebrian may have been the archi- tect of the new cathedral if it was com- menced between 1181 and 1205, but I do not believe that this was the case ; and the real architect was, more pro- bably, one who is thus mentioned in the book of Obits of the cathedral ; “ Eodem die VII. idus Julii, sub era MCCCXV. obiit Henricus, magister operis,” and wdio, dying in the year 1277, may w^ell have designed the greater portion of the w’ork. At a later date, in 1513, Juan de Badajoz was architect of the cathedral, and may probably have finished one of the steeples. — Cean Ber- mudez, Arq. de Espaua, i. 37, 38. ^ “Hoc tempore,” he says, “ampli- ata est fides Catholica in Hispania, et 108 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. V. judging by the style of the church, I should say it could have been but very little. Later than this, in a.d. 1258, during the episcopate of D. Martin Fernandez, a Junta of all the bishops of the kingdom of Leon was held at ]\Iadrid, at which the state of the fabric of the cathedral was discussed, and forty days of indulgence offered to those who made offerings towards the further promotion of the works.^ Sixteen years later a council Avas held in Leon, and again the state of the fabric of the church was discussed and in- dulgence offered to those who gave alms for it.^ Finally, in a.d. 1303, the Bishop Don Gronzalez gave back to the use of the Chapter a property which had been devoted to the Avork of the church, because,” he says, the work is now done, thanks be to God.” Nothing more clear on the face of it than this list of dates can be desired ; yet, as frequently happens, Avhen Ave come to compare them Avith the building itself, it is utterly impossible to believe in the most important part of it — the foundation, namely, of any part of the present church in the time of Bishop Manrique before the year 1205. I have elseAvhere in this volume had occasion to shoAv how much the Spaniards borroAved from the French in their architecture. Certain entire buildings, such as Burgos, Toledo, and Santiago, are distinctly derived from French churches, and in all cases are someAvhat later in date than the French examples Avith Avhich they most nearly cor- respond. If Ave apply this test to Leon it Avill be impossible to admit that any part of the existing church Avas built much before A.D. 1250. The church from beginning to end is thoroughly French ; French in its detail, in its plan, and in its gene- ral design. And inasmuch as there is no long and regular licet multi Reguum Legionense bell is impeterent, tameu Eeclesiae regalibus muneribus ditatae sunt in tantum, ut antiqute destruerentur Eeclesiae, quae magnis sumptibus fuerant fabricatae, et multo nobiliores et pulchriores in toto Regno Legionensi fundarentur. Tunc reverendus Episcopus Legionensis Man- ricus ejusdem Sedis Ecclesiain fundavit opere magno, sed earn ad perfectionem non duxit.’’ 1 “ Cum igitur,” they say, ad fabri- eam Eeclesiae Sanctae Mariae Legio- nensis, quae de novo construitur, et magnis indiget sumptibus, propriae non suppetant facultates, universitatem ves- tram rogamus,” — ‘‘quatenus de bonis vobis a Deo collatis eidem fabricae pias eleemosynas de vestris facultatibus tribuatis, ut per liaec, et alia bona opera, quae inspirante Deo feceritis, ad eterna possitis gaudia pervenire.” This indul- gence is preserved in the archives of the cathedral, — Espaiia Sagrada, xxxv. p, 269. 2 “ Cum igitur Ecclesia Beatae Mariae Legion. Sedis aedificetur de novo opere quamplurimum sumptuoso, et absque fideliuin adminiculo non possit feliciter consummari, universitatem vestram monemus et exhortamur in Domino,” &c. &c. ; “ ut per subventionem vestram, quod ibidem iuceptum est, ad.effectum optatum valeat pervenire,” &c., given in the general Council of Leon, 10 Kal. Aug. A.i), 1273. — Espana Sagrada, xxxv. p. 270. No. 13, LEON C.ATHEDRA.L. p los. INTERIOR OF AISLE ROUND THE APSE. A.,. j; ■ ;« hr ■if f't '•* > i'X 4 * Chap. V. LEON : CATHEDRAL. 109 sequence of Spanish buildings leading up step by step to the developed style which it exhibits, it is quite out of the question to give it credit for an earlier existence than the corresponding French churches, in the history of which such steps are not wanting. The churches which are nearest in style to Leon are, I think, tlie cathedrals at Amiens and Rheims, and perhaps the later part of S. Denis. Of these, Amiens was in building from a.d. 1220 to A.D. 1269, and Ivheims from a.d. 1211 to a.d. 1241. But botli are slightly earlier in their character than Leon. In all three the cliaj^els of the apse are planned in the same way ; that is to say, they are polygonal and not circular in their outlines, and the sections of the columns, the plans of the bases and capitals, and the detail of the arches and groining ribs are as nearly as may be the same ; and in all these points the resemblance between them and Leon Cathedral is close and remarkable. A similar conclusion will be arrived at if we pursue the inquiry from a different point, and compare this cathedral with other Spanish works of the date at which it is assumed to have been in progress. I can only suppose that Don Lucas de Tuy, wlien he spoke of Bishop Manrique’s work at the cathedral, did so only from hearsay, or else that the work then commenced was subsequently completely removed to make way for tlie jore- sent building. Certainly in a.d. 1180-1200 all Spanish churches seem to have been built on a different plan, in a very much more solid fashion, and so that it would have been very difficult indeed to convert them into anything like the existing building. I venture to assume, therefore, that the scheme of Leon Cathe- dral was first made circa a.d. 1230-1240, and that the work had not progressed very far at the time the Junta of bishops was held in Madrid in a.d. 1258. In j)lan^ the cathedral consists of a nave and aisles of six bays, transepts, a choir of three bays, and chevet of five sides, Avith a surrounding aisle and pentagonal chapels beyond. There are two western towers, a large cloister on the north side, sacristies on the south-east, and a large chapel on the east side of the cloisters, with other buildings on their northern and western sides, arranged very much in tlie usual way ; the chevet pro- jects beyond the line of the old city wall, one of the towers of which is still left on the east side of the cloister. The city was long and narrow ; and whilst the cathedral projects to the Plate V. no GOTHIC ARCIILTKCTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. Y. east of the wall, the church of San Isidoro lias its western tower built out beyond the western face of the wall. There is not, however, here, as there is at Avila, any very distinct attempt to fortify the chevet of the cathedral, otherwise than by forming passages, passing through the buttresses all round it, and by raising the windows high above the ground on the east. There are doorways in all the three grand fronts, west, north, and south ; but these shall be described further on. The columns throughout are cylindrical, with attached shafts on the cardinal sides, the groining-sliafts towards the nave and choir being, however, triple, instead of single. In the apse the small shafts are not placed regularly round the main shaft, but their position is altered to suit the angles at which the arches are built. The same alteration of plan occurs in the chevet of Amiens, a work which was in progress about a.d. 1210, and to which, as I have said, the plan of this cathedral bears considerable re- semblance. The feature which most struck me in this cathedral was the wonderful lightness which characterizes its construction in every part. The columns of the nave are of moderate size, and the arches which they carry very thin, whilst the large and lofty clere- story, and the triforium below it, were both pierced to such an extent as to leave a pier to receive the groining smaller than I think I ever saw elsewhere in so large a church. There are double flying buttresses, one above the other, and the architect trusted, no doubt, that the weight of the groining would be carried down through them to such an extent as to make it safe to venture on as much as he did. IMoreover, he was careful to economize the weight where possible ; and with this view he filled in the whole of his vaults with a very light tufa, obtained from the moun- tains to the north of Leon.^ In short, when this cathedral was planned, its architect must either have resolved that it should exceed all others in the slender airiness of its construction, or he must have been extremely incautious if not reckless. It is not a little curious that in France, at the same time, the same attempt was being made, and with the like result. The architect of Beauvais, unable to sur[)ass the majestic combination of stable loftiness with beauty of form, which characterized the rather ^ So, at least, I was assured by the light kind of concrete. The vaulting suj)erintendent of the works at the of Salisbury Cathedral is similarly con- cathedral. Some of the material I saw structed. I do not know whether at was no doubt tufa; but some of it Beauvais the same expedient was seemed to me to be an exceedingly adopted to lessen the weight. CiTAP. V. LEON : CATHEDRAL. Ill earlier work at Amiens, tried instead to excel him alike in height, and in liglitness of construction. No one can pretend that he was an incompetent man, yet his work was so impru- dently daring, that it was impossible to avoid a catastrophe ; and we now have it rebuilt, to some extent in the same design after its fall, but with so many additional points of support as very much to spoil its symmetry and beauty. Here, then, we have an exactly parallel case : for at Leon, no sooner was the church completed than it became necessary to build up the outer lights, both of the clerestory and triforium, to save the work from the same misfortune. Nor was the precaution altogether successful, for, owing almost entirely to the over-hazardous nature of the whole construction, the south transept had recently, it is said, become so dangerously rent with cracks and settle- ments as to render it absolutely necessary to rebuild it ; and the groining throughout the church shows signs of failure every- where, and this of serious, if not of so fatal a character. At the risk of repetition, 1 cannot help saying how strongly this parallel between Beauvais and Leon tells in favour of the assumption that its origin was rather French than Spanish. For in Spain there were no other churches at the time it was built from which a Spanish architect could have made such a sudden development as this design would have been. The steps by which it would have been attained are altogether wanting, and yet in France we have every step, and, finally, results of precisely the same kind. Both at an earlier and at a later date, when Spaniards made use of their own school of architects, they developed for themselves certain classes of churches, unlike, in some respects, to those of any other country. Here, however, we have an exotic, which, like the cathedral at Burgos, is evi- dently the work of some artist avIio had at least been educated among the architects of the north of France, if he was not himself a Frenchman. The proof of this is to be found more perhaps at S. Denis than anywhere, for there the section of the mouldings of the clerestory windows, as well as their general design, tallies so closely with the sanm parts of Leon Cathedral that it is almost impossible to doubt their common origin. One other feature not yet insisted upon, affords strong evidence in the same direction. This cathedral is a mere lantern, it has scarcely a yard of plain unpierced wall anywhere, and the main thought of its architect w^as evidently how he might increase to the utmost extent the size of the window^s, and the spaces for tlie glorious glass with which he contrived to fill tlie 112 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. Y. church. No greater fault could be committed in such a climate. This lavish indulgence in windows would have been excessive even in England, and must have always been all but insupportable in Spain. It was the design of French and not Spanish artists, for in their own undoubted works these last always wisely reduced their windows to the smallest possible dimensions. The cathedral at Milan is a case of the same kind, for there a German architect, called to build a church in a foreign land, built it with as many windows as he would have put had it been in his own country, and with a similar contempt for the customs of the national architects to that which marks the work of the architect of Leon Cathedral. Eegarding this cathedral, then, as a French, ratlier than as a Spanish church, and giving up all attempt to make it illustrate a chapter of the real national artistic history, we shall best be able to do justice to it as a work of art. It is, indeed, in almost every respect worthy to be ranked among the noblest churches of Europe. Its detail is rich and beautiful throughout, its plan very excellent, the sculpture with which it is adorned quite equal in quantity and character to that of any church of the age, and the stained glass with which its windows are everywhere filled, perhaps some of the most brilliant in Europe. There are many features in its construction and design which must be referred to somewhat in detail, and to this part of my subject I must now turn. I have already mentioned that the triforium throughout the church was originally glazed. In order to obtain this the aisles were covered with gabled roofs, whose ridges were parallel with the nave ; and in order to allow of this being done a stone gutter was formed below the sills of the clerestory windows, and below this again corbels were built into the wall to carry the aisle roofs ; cross gutters also of stone were carried through the roof in each bay from the clerestory gutter to the outer wall of tlie aisles. I cannot say that the effect of this arrangement is good. The eye seems to require some grave space of wall between the main arches and the glazing of the clerestory ; and it is difficult to say on what ground the triforium is to be treated as a separate architectural division of the fabric, when it is in truth, as it is here, nothing more than a prolongation of the clerestory. The flying buttresses are rather steep in pitch, and each consists of two arches abutting against very broad buttresses rising from between the side chapels ; the lower arch supports Chap. V. LEON; CATHEDRAL. ]]3 the clerestory just at the level of the springing of the groining; the higher a few feet only below the parapet. Two pinnacles rise out of each of the buttresses, and others form a finish to them all round the clerestory, and at the angles of the chapels of the apse. The windows throughout have good traceries. They are all of pure geometrical character ; those in the chapels of the choir being of two lights, with large cusped cir- cles in the liead, and those in the clerestory of four lights, subdivided into two divisions, similar to the chapel windows, with another cusped circle above. The heads of the lights throughout the windows are uncusped, the cusping being confined to the traceries. The clerestory windows originally had six lights, but the outer lights were rather clumsy ad- ditions to the original scheme for four -light windows, and have since been walled up, to give the necessary strength to the groining piers. The general arrangement of the traceries in this part of the church will be best understood by reference to the engraving which I give of one bay of the choir. The stone-work of all the window traceries was very carefully cramped together with strong toothed iron plugs let into the centre of the stones, and the masons seem, ray of Chou-, Leon Catliedral. in many cases, to have marked the beds and not the face of the stones. Indeed, the early masons’ marks are but few in number, J14 GOTHIC AHCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. V. and most of those that I saw occurred at the base of the eastern walls, and again in the upper portion of the work. On the late, and thoroughly Sj^anish chapel of Santiago also, a good many occur on the outer face of the stones. Owing to the works which were in progress in tlie south transept, I had an unusually good opportunity of looking for these marks, not only on the face of the stones, but also on their beds, and their almost entire absence from the early work was very remarkable. On the other hand, there were mai-kings on some of the other stones which were of much more interest. I found, for in- stance, one of the large stones forming the capital of the pier at the crossing of the nave and transepts, carefully marked, first with an outline of the whole of the jamb mould, then with the lines of the capital, and finally with the whole of the archivolt. It had all the air of being the practical working drawing used for the execution of the work, some little alterations having been made in the archivolt. It is easy to conceive that the architect may thus have designed his details, and his mode bears con- siderable analogy to that which M. Verdier describes as having been adopted at Limoges, where the lines of the groining and all tlie working outlines were scratched on the floor of the triforia ; here the lines are scratched boldly on the surface of the stones. The walls throughout the church were built of rubble, faced with wrought stone inside and out, and some of the failures in the work are attributable, no doubt, to the want of strength and bond of this kind of walling. The dimensions of the various parts are about as follows : — Total internal length 300 feet. „ width of nave and aisles . . 83 feet. Height to springing of main arches 25 feet G inches. „ floor of triforium ... 46 feet. ,, centre of groining about 100 feet. These dimensions, though not to be coni])ared to those of many of the French churches, are still very noble, and would place this among the finest of our own buildings in respect of height; bat, like all Spanish, and most French churches, the length is not very grand. The various views of the exterior are fine, but everywhere the height of the clerestory appears to be rather excessive. This is seen even at the west end, where a little management might easily have prevented it. But the two steej)les standing beyond the aisles leave a narrow vertical chasm between their side Chap. V. LEON ; CATHEDRAL. 115 walls and those of the clerestory, whicli is brought out, without any break in its outline by means of buttresses, quite to the west front. The lower part of these steeples is perfectly plain ; each has a sort of double belfry stage, and they are both finished witli low spires — that on the south pierced with open traceries, and that on the north simply crocheted ; both of tliem are somewhat ungainly, of very late date, and not sufficiently lofty or important for the church to which they are attached. The grand feature of the west front is the beautiful porch which extends all across, forming three grand archways, corre- sponding with the nave and aisles, with smallei- and extremely pointed arclies between them. These arches are all supported on clustered shafts, standing away between four and five feet from the main wall, in which the doorways are set. Statues ai*e set on corbels round the detached shafts, and again in the jambs of all the doorways, and the tympana and arcliivolts of the latter are everywhere crowded with sculpture. An open parapet is carried all across the front above the porch, and above this the west end is pierced with a row of four wdndow^s corresjDonding wath the triforium, and again, above, by a very large and simple wheel-windows The finish of the west front is completely modernized, wdth a seventeenth-century gable betw^een two pinnacles. The sculpture of the western doors well deseiw^es description and illustration. It is charming w^ork, of precisely the same character as the best French work of the latter half of the thirteenth century, and there is a profusion of it. The central w^est door has in the tympanum our Lord seated, with angels, and St. John and the Blessed Virgin worshipping on either side. Below is the Last Judgment, the side of the Blessed being as pretty and interesting as anything I have seen. A youth sits at a small organ playing sweet songs to those wlio go to Paradise ; and a king, going jauntily, and as if of right, towards St. Peter, is met by a grave person, wlio evidently tells him that he must depart to the other and sadder side. The three orders of the arch are filled W'ith the resurrection of the dead, angels taldng some, and devils others, as they rise from their graves, — the w^hole mixed very indiscriminately. On the central shaft is a statue of the 131essed Virgin ami our Lord, now with wretched taste dressed up and enclosed in a glass case, to the great damage of the whole doorway. The north-Avest doorway has its tympanum divided in three horizontal lines. The low^er compartment has the Salutation, ll(j GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. V. the Nativity, an Angel, and the Shepherds ; the middle the Mao’i adorim? onr Lord in the Blessed Yiro;in’s arms, and the Flight into Egypt ; and the upper, the Massacre of the Innocents. The arch of this door is elliptic, and the space between it and the tympanum is filled with figures of angels with crowns and censers, playing an organ and other instruments, and singing from books. The meaning of the sculpture in the archivolt was not clear to me, and seemed to refer to some legend. The south-west doorway has the tympanum divided as the last, and in the lower compartment tlie death of the Blessed Virgin ; next to tliis our Lord and the Blessed Virgin seated ; and above, angels ])utting a crown on her head. The archivolt here is adorned with one order of sitting figures of saints and two of angels. The east end is more striking than the west. It retains almost all its old features intact, save that the roof is now very flat, and covered with pantiles, whereas it is probable that at first it was of a steep pitch. It stands up well above the sort of boulevard which passes under its east end, and when seen from a little further off, the steeples of tlie western end group well with it, and, to some extent, compensate for the loss of the old roofing line. The south transept had been entirely taken down when I was at Leon, and the sculpture of its three doorways was lying on tlie floor of the church. It is of the same fine character as that of the western doors ; the central door has a figure of our Lord with the emblems of the Evangelists on either side, and beyond them the Evangelists themselves writing at desks. Below this are the twelve Apostles seated, and the several orders of the archivolt are carved with figures of angels holding candles, sculptures of vine and other leaves, and crowned figures playing on musical instruments. Tlie south-west door of the transept has no sculpture of figures, but the favourite diapers of fleur-de- Ivs and castles, and lions and castles, and an order of foliatre arranged in the French fashion, a crochet. The south-east door has in its tympanum the death of the Blessed Virgin, with angels in the archivolt holding candles. The gable of this transept seems to have been very much altered by some Benaissance architect before it was taken down. The north transept has two doorways, only one of which is now open. This has a figure of our Lord seated within a vesica, supported by angels, and the archivolt lias figures of Chap. V. LEON'; CATHEDLAL. 117 saints with books. The jambs have — like all the other door- jambs — statues under canopies, and below them the common diaper of lions and castles. The closed north-west door of this transept now forms a reredos for an altar ; it has no scul23tiire of figures. The north transej)t doorway opens into a groined aisle which occupies the space between the transe^Dt and the cloister. This aisle is very dark, and opens at its eastern end into the chapel of Santiago, a fine late building of the age of Ferdinand and Isabella, running north and south, and showing its side elevation in the general view of the east end to the north of the choir. The cloister is so mutilated as to have well-nigh lost all its architectural value. The entrance to the porch in front of the north transept is, however, in its old state ; it is a fine door- way, richly and delicately carved with small subjects enclosed in quatrefoils. The original groining shafts, which still remain, show that the whole cloister was built early in the fourteenth century ; the traceries, however, have all been destroyed ; and the groining, the outer walls, and buttresses altered with vast trouble and cost, into a very poor and weak kind of lienaissance. But if tlie cloister has lost much of its architectural interest, it is still full of value from another point of view, containing as it does one of the finest series of illustrations of the New Testa- ment that I have ever seen, remaining in each bay of the cloister all the way round. These subjects begin to the east of the doorway to the north transept, and are continued round in regular order till they finish on its western side. I have not been able to learn anything as to the history of these works. If they are Spanish, they prove the existence of a school of painters of rare excellence here, for they are all more or less admirable in their drawing, in the expression of the faces, and in the honesty and simplicity with which they tell their story. The colours, too, where they are still visible, are pure and good, and the whole looked to me like the work of some good Florentine artist of about the middle of the fifteenth century. It would not be a little curious to find the King or Bishop of Leon not only sending to France for his architect, but to Tuscany for his wall-painter, and, if it be the fact, it would show how firm must have been the resolve to make this church as perfect as possible in every respect, and how little dependence was then placed on native talent. The subjects represented are the following, each painting 118 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. V* filling the whole of the upper part of the wall in each bay of the cloister : — 1. The Birth of the Blessed Virgin. 2. Her Marriage. 3. The Annunciation. 4. 5, 6. Destroyed. 7. Massacre of the Innocents, and Herod giving orders for it. 8, 9. Destroyed. 10. The Blessed Virgin Mary seated with our Lord, angels above, and three figures with nimbi sitting and adoring, others with musical instruments. 11. The Baptism of our Lord. 12. Destroyed. 13. An ass and its foal, Jerusalem in the background, and indistinct groups of figures. 14. Our Lord riding into Jerusalem. The city has circular towers all round, and churches with two western octagonal steeples. 15. The Last Supper. 16. Our Lord washing the DiscijJes’ feet ; some figures on the right carrying water-jars are drawn with extreme grace. 17. Destroyed. 18. The Betrayal. 19. Our Lord bound and stripped, and, 20. Scourged. (These two subjects are very finely treated.) 21. Brought to the Place of Judgment: desks with open books on them in front. 22. Buffeted and spit upon. 23. Judged: Pilate washing his hands. 24. Bearing the Cross. (This subject is painted round and over a monument on which is the date xxiii. October, a.d. MCCCCXL. ; so that it must be of later date than this.) 25. Nailed to the Cross : the Cross on the ground. 26. The Descent from the Cross. 27. 28. The Descent into Hell. 29. The Incredulity of St. Thomas, and the appearance of our Imrd on the way to Emmaus. 30. The Ascension. 31. The Descent of the Holy Ghost. It will be noticed that the Crucifixion is most remarkably omiited from this series. There is no place on the wall for it, and it occurred to me as possible that there may have been a Chap. V . LEON : CATHEDRAL. 119 crucifix in the centre of the cloister, round which all these paintiugs were, so to speak, grouped.^ There are several fine monuments in tliese cloisters, some of them corbelled out from the Avail, and some with recumbent effigies under arches in it. One of the latter is so fine in its way as to deserve special notice. The arch is of two orders, each sculptured with figures of angels worshipping and censing our Lord, wlio is seated in the tympanum of the arch holding a book and giving His blessing. Below, on a high tomb, is the effigy recumbent ; and behind it, below the tympanum, two angels bearing up the soul of the departed. The sculpture is admirable for its breadth and simplicity of treatment; and the monument generally is noticeable for the extent to Avliich sculpture, and sculpture only, has been depended on, the strictly architectural features being few and completely subordinate. The cloister is surrounded by buildings, some of which only are ancient. On the north side are the chapel of San Juan de Begla, another chapsl, and the Chapter-house. The latter has one of those foolish Spanish conceits, a doorwny planned obliquely to the Avail in wdiicli it is set.^ In the church itself there are several very fine monuments. The most elaborate is that of Ordoiio II., the original founder of the old cathedral, Avhich occupies the eastern bay of the apse, Avith its back to the high altar. This is sometimes spoken of as if it were a contemporary Avork. It is, however, obviously a Avork of the fourteenth century, and recalls to mind some of the finest monuments in our own churches. The effigy of the king, laid on a sloping stone, so that it looks out from the monumental arch, is singularly noble, very simple, of great size and uncommon dignity. The general design of this hue monument Avill be seen in my view of the aisle round the choir. Another monument in the north transept has a semicircular arch carved alternately Avith bosses of foliage and censing angels ; and Avithin this a succession of cusps, the spandrels of Avhich have also angels. The tympanum has a representation of the Crucifixion and beloAV this, in an oblong panel just over the recumbent figure, is a representation of the service at a funeral. ^ The three crucifixes at the entrance boratel}^ than I have elsewhere seen it to the cemetery at Niiremberg will be in a palace near San Isidore, where the remembered by all who have ever seen angle windows are designed and exe- theni ; and such a group would have cuted in a sort of perspective, which is made a fitting centre for such a cloister inexpressibly bad in effect, as this at Leon. 3 ^ crucifix. 2 This conceit is illustrated more ela- 120 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. V. The side of the high tomb has also an interesting sculpture representing a figure giving a dole of bread to a crowd of poor and maimed people, whilst others bring him large baskets full of bread on their backs. The date in the inscription on this monu- ment is Era 1280, i.e. a.d. 1242. In a corresponding position in the west wall of the south transept is another monument of a bishop, recessed behind three divisions of the arcade which surrounds the walls of the church. Tlie effigy is rather colossal, and has a lion at the head, and another under the feet. Over tlie effigy is a group of figures saying tlie burial office ; and above, in panels within arches, are, (1) St. Martin dividing his Cloak, (2) the Scourging of our Lord, and (3) the Crucifixion. The soffeits of the arcade are diapered, and there were three subjects below the figure of the bishop, but they are now nearly destroyed. The arches round the Capilla mayor were walled up, and those on either side of the monument of Ordono II., already described, still retain the paintings with which they were all once adorned. They are of the same class as those in the cloister, and one of them, a large Ecce Homo, is certainly a very fine work. Un- fortunately the figure of our Lord in the centre has been very badly repainted, but the troop of soldiers and Jews reviling Him on either side is full of life and expression. The choir occupies the two eastern bays of the nave, and its woodwork is fine, though of late fifteenth-century date. There are large figures in bas-relief, carved in the panels behind the stalls. There is a western door from the nave into the Coro ; and in part on this account, and in part from its consider- able scale, the nave has less than usual of the air of uselessness which the Spanish arrangement of the Coro produces. I have already incidentally mentioned that the windows are full of fine stained glass. It is all of the richest possible colour, and most of it of about the same date as the church. Modern critics would, no doubt, object to some of the drawing for its rudeness and want of accuracy. Yet to me this work seemed to be a most emphatic proof — if any were needed — that we who talk so much about drawing are altogether wrong in our sense of the office which stained glass has to fulfil in our buildings. We talk glibly about good drawing, and forget altogether the much greater importance of good colour. At Leon the drawing is forgotten altogether, and I defy any one to be otherwise than charmed with the glories of the efiect created solely by the colour. At present in England our glass is all but invariably Chap. V» LEON: S. ISIDORO. 121 bad — nay, contemptible — in colour; whilst the so-called good drawing is usually a miserable attempt to reproduce some senti- mentality of a German painter. Two schools might well be studied a little more than they are ; the one should be this early school of rich colourists, and the other the beautiful works of the sixteenth and seyenteenth century French glass-painters, where there is good drawing enough for any one, and generally great beauty and simplicity of colour. Finally, two practices might be suggested to our stained-glass painters, — one, that they should only use good, and therefore costly glass ; and the other, that they should limit their palettes to a few pure and simple colours, instead of confusing our eyes with every possible tint of badly- chosen and cheaply-made glass. If we want religious pictures in our churches — as we do most surely — let us go to painters for them, and, with the money now in great part thrown away on stained glass, we might then have some works of art in our churches of which we might have more chance of feeling proud, and for which our successors would perhaps thankGis more than they will for our glass.^ I have detained my readers only too long, I fear, upon this cathedral, but it is too full of interest of all kinds to allow of shorter notice, and is, in its way, the finest church of which Spain can boast ; at the same time the work is all so thoroughly French as to destroy, to some degree, the interest which we should otherwise feel in it. The other great architectural attraction of Leon is the church of San Isidoro “ el Real.” This is altogether earlier than, and has therefore an interest entirely different from, that of tlie cathedral. Gil Gonzalez Davila says that the church was founded in A.D. 1030,^ by Ferdinand I., the Great. An inscription in the floor of the church gives the name of its architect and from the mention of Alonso VI., who came to the throne in a.d. 1065, and his mother Sancha, who died in a.d. 1067, the date of his death must have been between these two periods.^ In a.d. 1063 King Ferdinand — Alfonso’s father — and Queen Sancha iiad very ^ Witness Mr. E. Burne Jones’s beau- tiful picture over the altar of S. Paul, Brighton, and Mr. D. G. Rossetti’s at Llandaff. 2 Teatro Ecclesiastico, i. p. 365. ^ Hie requiescit Petrus de Deo, qui supersedificavit Ecclesiam hanc. Iste fundavit pontem, qui dicitur de Deus tanibcn: et quia erat vir iniive absti- uentia3 et multis florebat miraculis, omnes eum laudibus prgedicabant. Se- pultus est hie ab Imperatore Adefonso et Saneia Regina.” Esp. Sag., xxxv. p. 356. G. G. Davila, Teatro Eeeles. i. p. 340. DJvila adds the words “servus Dei ” before the name of the architect. See Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esp.. i. p. 14. 122 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. Y. richly endowed the church, in tlie presence of various bishops, who had come together to celebrate the translation of the remains of San Isidoro.^ Finally Davila, in his History of the Cathedral at Avila, gives the date of the consecration of the church, from a deed in the archives there, as a.d. 1 149.^ From these statements it would seem that the church was tit for the reception of the body of San Isidoro in a.d. 1065, and had then three altars ; and yet that in a.d. 1149 it was conse- crated, though indeed Ponz speaks of an inscription in the cloister which mentions the dedication of the church in A.D. 1063.^ San Isidoro was one of the most popularly venerated saints in Spain, and many are the miracles said to have been wrought by him. One of them is not a little suggestive of plans for church- building, not a whit behind the cleverest schemes of the present day. It is said that in a time when much sickness prevailed, the body of the saint was taken out in procession to a village near Leon, Trobajo del Camino, the bearers of the body barefooted, and all singing hymns, in order to charm away the disease from the people. Suddenly the weight became so great that it was impossible to move or lift the saint, even by the aid of a strong body of men : and many complained not a little of the Canons for bringing the body out on such an errand, whilst the King, who was at Benavente, was so incensed, that he insisted, as the saint would not move, that they should build a church over him for his protection ; and at last came the Queen, grieving bitterly appealing to her beloved spouse ” San Isidoro, and saying, “Turn, 0 blessed confessor! turn again to the monastery of Leon, which my forefathers, out of their devotion, built for you and then the saint, moved by her prayer, allowed himself to be borne back upon the slioulders of four children, who brought him back to Leon amid the rejoicings of the people : and these, moved by the miracle, at once built ^ The whole of this deed of endow- ment is interesting. I quote a few lines only, which have some interest, as bear- ing, among other things, on the Gothic crowns found at Guarrazar, and men- tioned at p. 212. “ OlFerimus igitur ’’ ornamenta altariorum ; id est, frontale ex auro puro opere digno cum lapidibus smaragdis, safiris, et omnia genere pre- tiosis et olovitreis; alios similiter tres frontales argenteos singulis altaribus: Coronas tres aureas : una ex his cum sex alfas in gyro, et corona de Alaules intus in ea pendens: alia est de an- ernnates cum olivitreo, aurea. Tertia vero est diadema capitis mei,” &c. &c. — Esp. Sag., xxxvi.. Appendix, p. clxxxix. ^ ‘‘Sub era millesiraa centesima oc- tuagesima septima, pridie nonas Martii, facta est Ecclesia Sancti Isidori conse- crata per maims Raymundi Toletanse Sedis Archiepiscopi, et Joannis Legion- ensis episcopi,” &c. &c. — Teatro Eccl., vol. ii., p. 24-3. See also the similar in- scrij)tion on a stone in San Isidoro. — Esp. Sag., vol. XXXV. p. 207. 3 Ponz, Viage de Espafia, xi. p. 234. Chap. Y. LEON : S. ISIDORO. 123 a chapel on the spot which the saint had marked out for the purpose by his pertinacious refusal to move until tlie King had ordered ifc to be built, and until the Queen had shown how deep was her interest in the work. But I must not dwell longer on what is merely legendary, but return to this church of San Isidoro at Leon. It is cruciform in plan,^ with apsidal chapels on the eastern side of the transepts. The nave and aisles are of six bays in length, and there is a tower detached to the west. There is a chapel dedicated to Sta. Catalina (now called El Panteon) at the north-west end of the church, and a choir of the sixteentli century takes the [)lace Interior of S. Isidoro. ol the original apse. The Avhole of the nave is vaulted with a waggon-vault, with transverse ribs under it in each bay; and ' Plate VI. 124 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. V. this vault is continued on without break to the chancel arch, there being no lantern at the crossing. The arches into the transe23ts have a fringe of cus 2 )ing on their under sides, which has a very Moorish air, and the transe|)ts are vaulted with waggon- vaults, but at a lower level than the nave. The chapels to the east of the transe|3t are roofed with semi-domes. The nave has bold columns, with richly sculptured ca23itals, stilted semi-circular arches, and a clerestory of considerable height, with large windows of rich character. The whole interior of the church has been picked out in white and brown washes to such an extent, that at first sight its effect is positively repulsive : nevertheless, its detail is very fine. The caj)itals are all richly sculptured, generally with foliage arranged after the model of the Corinthian ca^Dital; but some of them histories with figures of men and beasts ; and I noticed one only with pairs of birds looking at each other. The western |3art of the church is abominably modernized, but the alterations in the fabric evidently commenced at a very early period, for in the south aisle one of the groining-shafts is carried U}3 exactly in front of Avhat ap23ears to be one of the original aisle windows. I confess myself quite at a loss to account for this, unless it be by the assumj)tion that the church, consecrated in a.d. 1149, was commenced on the same type as S. Sernin, Toulouse — copied, as we shall see further on, at Santiago — and that before the con- secration the original triforium had been altered into a clerestory by the alteration of the aisle-roofs and the introduction of quadri- partite vaulting in them at a lower level, thus necessitating the introduction of the groining-shaft in front of a window. The difficulty did not occur to me forcibly when I was on the spot, and I am unable to say, therefore, how far a thoroughly close examination of the work would clear it up. It might of course be said that such an altei*ation proves that the church was of two ]3eriods ; and such an 02)inion would be to some extent supported by reference to the certainly early character of the south door, Avhich might have been executed before a.d. 1063. But I am, on the whole, dis]30sed rather to regard the cha]3el of Sta. Catalina as the original church, and to assume that the remainder of the building was built between a.d. 1063 and a.d. 1149, and that the awkward arrangement to whicli I have just referred was, in fact, the result of some accident or change of j)lan. This supposition would reconcile more satisfactorily all the difficulties of the ease than any other, and would tally well with what I have been able to learn as to the history of the church. The body of San Isidoro was sent for rather suddenly, and brought from Chap. LEON: S. ISIDOEO. 125 Seville, and the King had but short time for the preparation of the building for its reception. Two years later the body of San Vicente was brought from Avila, and no doubt the popularity of the two saints soon made it necessary to enlarge the church. Then it might well happen that tlie old church was left in its integrity, and the new building added to the east, but with its north wall in a line with the north wall of the old one, so as to allow of the cloister being built along their sides, and with- out at all disturbing the early church or its relics. The relative position of the churches makes it probable, in short, that the large church w^as added to the small one, and not that the latter was a chapel added to the former. The style of the two buildings leads to the same conclusion, for in Sta. Catalina we have a small, low, vaulted church, tw'o bays only in length and three in wnhlth. The two detached columns which carry the vaults are cylindrical, with capitals of somewhat the same kind as those in the church, but simpler and ruder. Kecessed arches in the side w^alls contain various tombs of the Koyal Family, who for ages, from the time of Fernando I. and Dona Sancha his queen, have been buried here ; and the very circumstance that this little chapel was selected for the burial of so many royal persons, seems to make it extremely probable that it was the very chapel in wdiich the body of San Isidoro liad first been laid. The door of communication from the chapel to the church has an arch of the same kind as the transept arches, semi-circular and fringed with several cusps ; and the chapel is now lighted by two open arclies on the north side, which communicate with the cloister. The groining is all quadripartite, without ribs, but with plain bold transverse arches between the bays. The exterior of the church lias some features wliich have all tlie air of being very early and original in their character. Such is the grand south doorway of the nave. Its arch is semi- circular, and above it the spandrels are filled with sculpture. Above this is a line of panels containing the signs of the Zodiac ; below' are figures w’ith musical instruments ; and below these again, on the w^est, is a figure of San Isidoro, and on the right a figure of a woman, I think, book in hand, both of them sup- ported on corbels formed of the heads of oxen. The tympanum itself is divided into tw'o parts, tlie lower half being surmounted by a flat pediment, and the upper filling up the space from this to the intrados of the arch. The upper half has an Agnus Dei in a circle in the centre, and the low^ei’ half has Abraham’s sacrifice, wdtli figures on horseback on either side. The 126 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. Y. head of the opening of the doorway is finished with a square trefoil, under which rams’ heads are carved. The Avhole detail of this sculpture is very unlike that of most of the early work I have seen in Spain ; the figures are round and flabby, and badly arranged, and very free from any of the usual conventionality. All this made me feel much inclined to think that the execution of this work was at an early date, and soon after the first con- secration of the church. The elevation of the south transept is rather fine. It has a doorway, now blocked, with a figure against the wall on either side, standing between the label and a second label built into the wall from buttress to buttress. Above this is a rich corbel-table, and then an arcade of three divisions, of which the centre is pierced as a window ; in the gable is another statue standing against the wall. The doorway has its opening finished with a square trefoil, and the tym|3anum is plain. The design of the apsidal chapel east of the apse is so precisely like the eastern apsidal chapels of many of tlie Spanish Eomanesque churches,^ that its date must, to some extent, be decided by theirs : and it may well be doubted wli ether it can be much earlier than circa a.d. 1150, though the lower part of the south transept appeared to me to be as early as the south door, or at any rate not later than A.D. 1100. The walls are all carried up high above the clerestory windows, and finished with corbel-tables, carved with a billet-mould on edge, and carried on corbels moulded, not carved. Simple the buttresses divide the bays of the clerestory. The choir, as has been said, was a late addition in place of the original Romanesque apse. It was built in a.d. 1513, or a little after, by Juan de Badajoz, master of the works at the cathedral.^ It is of debased Gothic design and coarse detail, but large and lofty. The groining at the east end is planned as if for an apse, and portions of diagonal buttresses, to resist the thrust of the groining ribs, are built against the east wall, in the way often to be noticed in the later Spanish buildings. The east window was of two lights only, and is now blocked up by the Retablo. In this church there is a perpetual exposition of the Host, and the choir is therefore screened off with more than usual care, none but the clergy being allowed to enter it. iVt Imgo, where there is also a similar ex|3osition, the choir is left open, but two priests are always sitting or kneeling before faldstools in front of the altar. ^ E.[j. Segovia, Avila, Salamanca, ^ So, at least, says Cean Bermudez, Renavente, Lerida. But without giving liis authority. No. 14. SAN ISIDORO, LEON p. 126. SOUTH TRANSEPT. r. j -^'4 i' Chap. V. LEON: S. ISIDOKO. 127 I could not gain admission to tlie cloister on the north side of the church ; it is large and all modernized, and surrounded by the buildings of the monastery, which is now suppressed. A chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity was founded here in a.d. 1191, and a list of the relics preserved at its altar is given on a, stone preserved in the convent. The chapel of Sta. Catalina, already described, is specially interesting on account of the remarkable paintings with which the whole of the groining is covered. These all appeared to me to have been certainly executed at the end of the twelfth century, circa a.d. 1180-1200, and they are remarkably rich in their foliage decoration, as well as in painting of figures and subjects. Beginning with the eastern central compartment, over the altar, and going round to the right, the subjects in the six bays of the vault are as follows : — (1.) Ill this our Lord is seated in a vesica, at the angles of which are four angels, with the heads of the four Evangelists, with their books and names painted beside them. Our Lord’s feet are to the east, and He holds an open book and gives His blessing. (2.) The angel speaking to the shepherds, with the inscription, Angelus a pastoresT (3.) The Massacre of the Innocents. (4.) The Last Supper, painted without the slightest regard to the angles formed by the groining, and as if the vault were a flat surface. (5.) a. Herod washing his hands. h. St. Peter denying our Lord. c. Our Lord bearing his Cross. d. The Crucifixion (this is almost destroyed). (6.) Our Lord seated with His feet to the west ; the seven churches around Him, seven candles, and an angel giving the book to St. John. The soffeits of the cross arches between the vaults are painted, some with foliage, others with figures. Of the latter, one has the twelve Apostles, another the Holy Spirit in the centre, with angels worshipping on either side, and a third a Hand blessing (inscribed “ Dextra Dei ”) in centre, and saints on either side. The whole detail of the painted foliage is of thoroughly good conventional character, and just in the transitional style from Romanesque to Pointed. There is a fine steeple detached from the church to the west. It stands on the v^ery edge of the old town wall, several of the round towers of which still exist to the north of it, and below 128 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. Y . the great walls of the convent built within them. This steeple is very plain below, but its belfry stage has two fine shafted windows in each face, and nook shafts at its four corners. It is capped with a low square spire with small spire-lights : but as I found the working lines of all this drawn out elaborately on the whitewashed walls of one of the cloisters, and as all the work appears to be new, I cannot say whether or no it is an exact restoration, though I dare say it is. In the sacristy there are some paintings, of which one or two are of great beauty. One is a charming picture of the Blessed Virgin with our Lord, with angels on either side, and others holdino^ a crown above : the faces are sweet and delicate. One of the attendant angels offers an apple to our Lord ; the other plays a guitar : the background is a landscape. The frame, too, is original. It has a gold edge, then a flat of blue covered with delicate gold diaper, and there are two sluitters with this inscrip- tion on them : — ‘‘ Foelix e mcra virgo Maria et omni laude dig- nissima quia in te ortiis est sol justicie ChrUs Beus nosterT There is also a very little triptych, with a Descent from the Cross, and an inscription on the shutters. Two figures are drawing out the nails, and hold the body of our Lord ; two other figures on ladders support His head and feet, and St. Mary and St. Mary Magdalene weep at the foot of the cross. The inscriptions on the shutters are from Zachariah xii., Plagent eum, &c., and Second Corinthians, “ Fro omnibus mortuus est Christusr There are other paintings which the Sacristan exhibits with more pride, but these two are precious works, of extremely good character, and painted probably about the end of the sixteenth century. Leon is a much smaller city than might be expected for one so famous in Spanish history ; its streets wind about in the most tortuous fashion ; there are but few buildings of any preten- sion, and I saw no other old churches. There is indeed a great convent of San Marcos, built from the designs of Juan de Badajoz, in the sixteenth century, and afterwards added to by Berru- guete, but I forgot to go to see it, and his work at San Isidoro makes me regard the omission as a very venial one. Bound the city, on all sides, are long groves of poplars which look green and pleasant ; tliere is a river — or at least in summer, as I saw it, the broad bed of one — and over the low hills which girt the city is a background of beautiful mountains. Both for its situation, therefore, and for the artistic treasures it enshrines, Leon well deserves a pilgrimage at the hands of all lovers of art. L€ON =_(jriimiiVPlHii-iif-([|jiiniiaif^8Hn-Y}^iitiii‘ii ■ ?iaio \t. Ax.i^Hk '*4/ 5 •T'"- I •T" MasfBis Harks on Choir Walls. ^ Q— 1 ^ D/ >00 B Masons Marks on S. Transept. PiiblisTae d Py J olm. l/Forr ay, ADo emeGcle S^- 18 6 d . Chap. VI. ABTORGA : CATHEDIUT.. 129 CHAPTER VI. ASTORGA, LUGO, LA CORUNA. The road from Leon to Astorga is bad, and traverses a very uninteresting country. A good part of the old walls of Astorga still remains, with the usual array of lofty round towers at short intervals : they were in process of partial demolition when I saw tliem, and I noticed that tliey were in part con- structed with what appeared to be fragments of Roman build- ings. There is a rather picturesque Plaza de la Constitucion here, one end of it being occupied by a quaint town-hall of the seventeenth century, through an archway in the centre of wliich one of the streets opens into the Plaza. A number of bells are hung in picturesque slated turrets on the roof, and some of them are struck by figures. The only old church I saw was the cathedral. A stone here is inscribed with the following words in Spanish : In 1471, on the 16th of August, the first stone of the new work of this lioly church was laid and there is no doubt that the churcli is all of about this date, with some additions, — chiefly, however, of Retablos and other furniture, — in the two following centuries. The character of the wliole design is necessarily in the very latest kind of Gothic ; and much of the detail, especially on the exterior, is quite Renaissance in its character. The east end is finished with three parallel apses, and the nave is some seven or eight bays in length, with towers projecting beyond the aisles at the west end, and chapels opening info the aisles between the buttresses. The light is admitted by windows in the aisles over the chapel arches, and by a large clerestory. These windows are fortunately filled with a good deal of fine early Renaissance glass, which, though not all that might be wished in drawing and general treatment, is still remarkable for its very fine colour. Arches of the same height as the groining of the aisles open into the towers, the interior view across which produces the effect of a sort of western transept, corresponding with a similar transept between the nave and the apsidal choir. The detail is throughout very similar to that of the better known cathedi-als K 130 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VI. at Segovia and Salamanca, the section of the columns being like a bundle of reeds, with ingeniously planned interpenetrating base mouldings, multiplied to such an extent that they finish at a height of no less that ten feet from the floor. Another evidence of the late character of the work is given by the arch moukh ings, which die against and interpenetrate those of the columns, there being no capitals. Beyond a certain stateliness of height and colour which this small cathedral has in common with most otlier Spanish works of the same age, there is but little to detain or interest an architect. But stateliness and good effects of light and shade are so very rare in modern works, that we can ill afford to regard a building Avhich shows them as being devoid of merit or interest. From Astorga the road soon begins to rise, and the scenery thenceforward for the remainder of the journey to la Coruna becomes always interesting, and sometimes extremely beautiful. The country can hardly be said to be mountainous, yet the hills are on a scale far beyond what we are accustomed to ; and the grand sweep of the hill sides, covered occasionally with wood, and in- tersected by deep valleys, makes the whole journey most pleasant. One of the prettiest spots on the road, before reaching Yilla- franca, is the little village of Torre, where a quaint bridge S23ans the brawling trout-stream ; and where the thick cluster of squalid cottages atones to the traveller, in some degree, by its pictur- esqueness, for the misery in which the people live. They seem to be terribly ill off, and their chimneyless hovels — pierced only with a door and one very small window or hole in the wall, into which all the light, and out of both of which all the smoke have to find their way — are of the worst description. The village churches aj^j^ear to be, almost without excejDtion, very mean ; and all have the broad western bell-turret, so pojDular in this part of Spain. In ten hours from Astorga, jiassing Ponferrada on the way, from the hill above which the view is very fine, Yillafranca del Vierzo is reached; and this is the only 2 )hxce of any im- portance on the road. Its situation is charming, on a fine trout- stream, along whose beautiful banks the road runs for a con- siderable distance ; and it is the j)ro|)er centre for excursions to the convents of the Yierzo, of which Mr. Ford gives an account which made me anxious to examine them, though un- fortunately the time at my disposal |3ut it comjxletely out of the question. These old towns, of the second or third rank, have a certain amount of picturesque cliaracter, though far Chap. VL VILLAFKANCA — LUGO : CATHEDKAL. 131 less than might be exjiected of external evidence of their anti- quity. Here, indeed, the picturesqueness is mainly the result of the long tortuous streets, and the narrow bridges over the beautiful river, which make the passage of a diligence so much of an adventure, as to leave the passengers grateful when they have gained with safety the other side of the town. The Alameda here is pleasantly planted ; and the town boasts of an inn which is just good enough to make it quite possible for an ecclesiologist to use it as headquarters in a visit to the con- vents of tlie Vierzo, whilst any one who is so fortunate as to be both fisherman and ecclesiologist could scarcely be better placed. Villafranca has one large, uninteresting, and very late Gothic church, into which I could not get admission ; the other churches seemed to be all Renaissance in style. I arrived at Lugo after a journey of more than thirty hours from Leon. Like Astorga it is surrounded with a many-towered wall, wliich still seems to be perfect throughout its whole ex- tent. The road passes along under it, half round the town, until at last it turns in through an archway, and reaches the large Plaza of San Domingo, in which is the diligence Fonda. This was so unusually dirty even to the eyes and nose of a tolerably well-seasoned traveller, that I was obliged to look for a lodging, which, after a short search, I discovered ; and if it was not much better, it was still a slight improvement on the inn. In these towns lodgings are generally to be found ; and as they are free from the abominable scent of the mules, which pervades every part of all the inns, they are often to be preferred to them. Mine was in a naiTow street leading out of the great arcaded Plaza, which, on the day of my arrival, was full of market-people, sell- ing and buying every kind of commodity ; and on the western side of this Plaza stands the cathedral. This is a church of very considerable architectural value and interest. It was commenced early in the twelfth century, under the direction of a certain Maestro Raymundo, of Monforte de Lemos. His contract with the bishop and canons was dated a.d. 1129 ; and by this it was agreed that he should be paid an annual salary of two hundred sueldos of the money then current; and if there was any change in its value, then he was to be paid six marks of silver, thirty-six yards of linen, seventeen “ cords ” of wood, shoes and gaiters as he had need of them ; and each month two sueldos for meat, a measure of salt, and a pound of candles, blaster Raymundo accepted these conditions, and bound himself 132 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VI. to assist at the work all the days of his life ; and if he died before its completion, his son was to finish it.^ The church built by Eaymundo is said to have been finished in A.D. 1177/ and still in part no doubt remains.^ It consists of a nave and aisles of ten bays in length, transepts, and a short apsidal choir, with aisle and chapels round it. The large central eastern chapel is an addition made in a.d. 1764 ; and the west front is a very poor work of about the same period. There is an open porch in front of the north transept, and a steeple on its eastern side. The design and construction of the nave and aisles is very peculiar, and must be compared with that of the more important cathedral at Santiago. This had been finished, so far as the fabric was concerned, in the previous year, and evidently suggested the mode of construction adopted at Lugo. Here the arches, with few exceptions, are pointed ; but other- wise the design of tlie two churches is just the same. The nave has a pointed barrel-vault ; the triforium, however, has quadri- partite vaulting throughout, in place of the half barrel -vaults used at Santiago ; and the buttresses externally are connected by a series of arches below the eaves. The triforium consists in each bay of two pointed arches under a round enclosing arch, carried upon coupled shafts, which have rudely sculptured capitals. The five eastern bays of the nave appear at first sight to have no arches opening into the aisles ; but upon closer examination the outline of some low arches will be found behind the stall work of the Coro. These arches are all blocked up ; but if they were originally open they are so low that they could not have made the effect very different from what it now is. It looks, in fact, at first sight, as if the present arrangement of the Coro were that for which the church was originally built, and as if the nave proper was always that part only of the church to the Avest of the present Coro which opens to the aisles with simple pointed arches of the whole height of the aisle. But on further examination we find that the vaulting of the aisles in the four eastern bays is a round waggon-vault, and this, of course, limited the height to Avhich it was possible to raise the arches between the aisle and the nave ; and it is therefore probable that their lieight is not to be attributed so much to the Avish to define a Coro in the nave, as to the fault of the architect, Avho did not at ^ Pallares Gayoso, Hist, cle Lugo, from the black book in the arcliives. 2 Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esparia, i. 25. ^ Plate VII. No. lo. LUGO CATHEDRAL. p- i33. INTEBIOH OF TRANSEPT LOOKING NORTH-WEST. i I LU{JO=_Cii _£0 Ittetres ¥ , , , . V , , , , 9 2Q 20 ,3£_ j^^ Varas. IV.West,!!®'- PiiblisliedlDy Jolm Murriay, Albemarle S^-1865. f Chap. VI. LUGO; CATHEDRAL. 133 first perceive tlie advantage of using a quadripartite vault instead of a waggon-vault. Tlie three bays west of these have the former kind of vaulting without ribs, and with windows both larger and higher from the floor than the simple round-arched openings which light the four eastern bays. The eighth and ninth bays are evidently rather later than the rest; and the western bays, again, are quite subsequent additions. The crossing has a quadripartite vault, and the transepts waggon-vaults like those of the nave. It is pretty clear that the work was commenced upon the scheme which we still see in the bays next the crossing, and carried on gradually with alterations as the work went on, and probably as it went on the architect discovered the mistake he was making in confining himself to waggon-vaulting in the aisles. It is somewhat remarkable that, with the example of Santiago so near, such a sclieme should ever have been devised, unless, indeed, the work was commenced earlier than the date assigned, of which I see no evidence. The choir shows the same gradual variation in style ; and I have considerable difficulty in assigning a precise date to it. It is clear, liowever, that the whole of it is of much later date than the original foundation of the cathedral ; and it is probable, I think, tliat it was reconstructed in the latter half of the thir- teenth century. The windows in the chapels of the dievet are of two lights, with a small qnatrefoil pierced in the tympanum above the lights. The mouldings of the groining are extremely bold and simple. The aisle- vaulting, too, is very simple and of early-pointed character, whilst the clustered columns round the apse look somewhat later. There is, however, no mark of alter- ations or additions ; and 1 think, therefore, that the wliole of this work must be of the same date, and that the difference visible between the various parts of it may be put down to the long lingering of those forms of art which had been once imported into this distant province, and to the consequent absence of development. The sculpture of the capitals in the chevet is no- where, I think, earlier than about the end of the thirteenth century, though that in the chapels round it, being very simple, looks rather earlier. Unfortunately all the upper part of the choir was rebuilt about the same time that the eastern chapel was added. It has strange thin ogee flying buttresses, large windows, and a painted ceiling. Here, as at San Isidore, Leon, the Host is always exposed, and, 134 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. YI. as I have mentioned before, two priests are always in attendance at faldstools on each side of the Capilla mayor in front of the altar. The interior, of course, lias been much damaged by the de- struction of the old clerestory of the choir. It is, nevertheless, still very impressive, and much of its line effect is owing to the contrast between the bright light of the nave and the obscure gloom of the long aisles on either side of the Coro. The length of the nave, too, is unusually great in proportion to the size of the church; and though much of the sculpture is rude in execution, it is still not without effect on the general character of the building. On the north side of the nave a chapel has been added, which preserves the external arrangement of the windows and but- tresses in the earliest part of the building, as they are now en- closed within and protected by it. The simple and rather rude buttresses are carried up and finished under the eaves’ corbel- tables with arches between them, so as to make a continuous arcade the whole length of the building on either side. The north doorway is of the same age as the early part of the cliurch, and has a figure of our Lord within a vesica in the tym- panum, and the Last Supper carved on a pendant below it. The head of the door-opening is very peculiar, having a round arch on either side of this central pendant. The door has some rather good ironwoi k. The porch in front of it is a work of the fifteenth century, or perhaps later, and is open on three sides. The only good external view of the church is obtained from the north side. Here the tower rises picturesquely above the transept, but the belfry and upper stage are moderid and very poor. The bells are not only hung in the windows, but one of them is suspended in an open iron framewoi’k from the finish the centre of the roof. The cloister and other buildings seem to be all completely modern, and are of very poor style. There are two old churches here — those of the Capuchins and of Sail Domingo — both of them in or close to the Plaza of San Domingo. The church of the Caj^uchins is evidently interesting, though I could not gain access to its interior, which appears to be desecrated. Ifhas transepts, a low central lantern, a principal apse of six sides, and two smaller apses opening into the transepts. These apses are remarkable for having an angle in the centre, whilst their windows have a bar of tracery across them, transome * A.D. 1577. — Madoz, Dice. CuAP. VI. LUGO : S. DOMINGO. 135 fashion, at mid-height. It is certainly a very curious coincidence, that in both these particulars it resembles closely the fine church of the Frari at Venice ; and though I am not prepared to say that the imitation is anything more than the merest accident, it is certainly noteworthy. The eaves are all finished with moulded corbel- tables ; and there is a rather fine rose-window in the transept gable. The circles in the head of the apse windows are filled in with very delicate traceries, cut out of thin slabs of stone, a device evidently borrowed from Moresque examples ; and it is somewhat strange to meet them here so far from any j\Ioorish buildings or influence. The church of San Domingo is somewhat similar in plan. It has a modernized nave of five bays, a central dome, which loolfs as though it might be old, but which is now all plastered and whitewashed, a principal apse of seven sides, transepts covered with waggon-vaults, and small apses to the east of them. The capitals have carvings of beasts and foliage ; but none of these, or of the mouldings, look earlier than the fourteenth century ; yet the capitals are all square in plan, and the arches into the chapels have a bold dog-tooth enrichment. There is a fine south doorway to the nave, in wdiich chevrons, delicate fringes of cusping, and dog-tooth, are all introduced. In such a work the date of the latest portion must be the date of the whole ; and so I do not think it can be earlier than the rest of the church, though at first sight it undoubtedly has the air of being more than a century older. Gil Gonzalez Davila^ says that Bishop Fernando gave per- mission for the foundation of the convent of San Domingo in A.D. 1318, and that circa A.D. 1350-58 the Dominican Fray Pedro Lopez de Aguiar founded it ; and this date appears to me to accord very well with the peculiar character of the work. There is little more to be seen in Lugo. The old walls, though they retain all their towers, have been to some extent altered for the worse to fit them for defence in the last war ; they have been also rendered available as a broad public walk, — very pleasant, inasmuch as it commands good views of the open country beyond the city. The people here and at Santiago all go to the fountains armed with a long tin tube, which they apply to the mouths of the beasts which discharge the water, and so convey the stream straight to their pitchers placed on the edge of the large basins. The crowd of water-carriers round a Spanish fountain is always ^ Teatro EccL, iii. 182, 183. 136 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VI. noisy, talkative, and gay ; and many is the fight and furious the clamour for the privilege of putting the tube to the fountain in regular order. I travelled between la Coruna and Lugo by night, so that 1 am unable to say anything as to the country or scenery on the road, save that for some distance before reaching Lugo it is cold, bare, and unattractive. Betanzos, the only town of importance on the road, has two or three good cliurches, which I missed seeing by daylight. They are of early date, with apsidal east ends, and somewhat similar, apparently, to the churches at la Coruna, though on a larger scale. La Coruna is charmingly situated, facing a grand landlocked bay, but on the inner side of a narrow ridge, a short walk across which leads to the open sea, which is here very mag- nificent. The views of the coast, and the openings to the grand bays or rios of Ferrol, Betanzos, and la Coruna, are of unusual beauty, and it is rarely indeed that one sees a more attractive country. But there is not very much to detain an architect. The town is divided into the old and the new ; and in the former are two old churches, wliich, though small, are interesting ; whilst in the latter there is absolutely nothing to see but shops and cafes. The Collegiata of Sta. Maria del Campo was made a parish church by King Alonso X. in a.d. 1256, and in a.d. 1441 was made collegiate : it has a nave and aisles of five bays, and a short chancel, with an apse covered with a semi-dome vault.^ The nave and aisles are all covered with pointed waggon-vaults springing from the same level ; and as the aisles are narrow, their vaults resist the thrust of the main vault, without exerting a violent thrust on the aisle walls The capitals are rudely carved with foliage, and the arches are perfectly plain. The bay of vaulting over the chancel is a pointed waggon-vault, with ribs on its under side, arranged as though in imitation of a sexpartite vault. ^ 1 Plate VIII. PAGON : en ; viii. : idus - The following inscription remains julii : era : mccc : xl. on one of the columns on the north side From which it appears that this column, of the nave : — with the halves of the two arches spring- SAXTA : MARIA : RECE AB : ESTE ; PIAR : DE : EON DO : A TE : CIMA : CON : LA METADE : DOS : AR cos : CA : quelque : o : ing from it, was built in a.d. 1302. On another column on the same side is an inscription recording the erection of the Chapel of the Visitation in a.d. 1374. I ' y- Chap. VI. LA CORUNA; S. MARIA. 137 The western doorway has a circular arch, with rudely carved foliage in the outer orders ; and ten angels, with our Lord giving His blessing in the centre, in the inner order. The tympanum has the Adoration of the Magi. The abaci and capitals are carved, but everywhere the carving is overlaid with whitewash so thickly as to be not very intelligible. The south door has storied capitals, and angels under the corbels, which support the tympanum over the door-opening ; this has a figure with a pil- grim’s staff, probably Santiago, and there are other figures and foliage in the arch. The abacus is carried round the buttresses, and a bold arch is thrown across between them above the door. An original window near this door is a mere slit in the wall, and not intended for glazing. The north door is somewhat similar to the other, with a sculpture of St. Katharine in the tympanum. The apse has a very small east window, engaged columns dividing it into three bays, and a simple corbel-table. Sta. Maria, la Corufia. The west front is quaint and picturesque. It has a bold porch — now almost built up by modern erections — and two small square towers or turrets at the angles. Of these the south-western has a low, square stone spire, springing from within a traceried parapet, and with some very quaint crockets at the angles. A tall cross. 138 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. VI. with an original sculpture of the Crucifixion, stands in the little Plaza in front of the church. The Coro here is in a large western gallery, but both this and the stalls are Eenaissance in style. The other church is tliat of Santiago. This has a broad nave, forty-four feet wide, into the east wall of which three small ajDses open.^ The nave is divided into four bays by bold cross arches, which carry the wooden roof ; and of the three eastern arches, the central rises high above the others, and has a circular window above it. The west front has a very fine doorway, set in a projecting portion of the wall, finished with a corbel-table and cornice at the top. This has a figure of Santiago in the tym- panum, and statues in the jambs. The north doorway has heads of oxen supporting the lintel, and rude carving of foliage in the arch. One of the original windows remains in the north wall. This is roundheaded and very narrow, but has good jamb-shafts and arch-mouldings. The detail of the eastern apse is of bold and simple Eomanesque character, with engaged shafts sup- porting the eaves-cornice. There is not, so far as I know, any evidence as to the exact date of these churches ; but I think that the character of all their details proves that they were founded about the middle of the twelfth century. They are evidently later than the cathe- dral at Santiago, and tally more with the work which I have been describing in the nave of Lugo Cathedral. And though the dimensions of both are insignificant, they appear to me to be extremely valuable examples, as showing two evident attempts at development on the part of their architect, who, to judge of the strong similarity in some of their details, was probably the same man. Three barrel-vaults on the same level as at Sta. Maria are seldom seen ; and the bold cross arches spanning Santiago are a good examj3le of an attempt in the twelfth century to achieve what few have yet attempted to accomplish in the revival of the present day — the covering of a broad nave in a simj^le, economical, and yet effective manner. In the church of Santiago there is preserved a fragment of an embroidered blue velvet cope. The sprigs with which it is diapered are so exactly similar in character to those of some of our own old examples — the Ely cope in particular — as to suggest the idea that the work is really English. ' ricite VI II. No. 16. CEDECH OF SANTIAGO. * ■ ^;v '. ' ■ ..;, ^ 'i^V 3 SAi® &aU^'-'’ ..^lTi',:; <»' Ai^V* fci! .faji tdl -fji Li;-'7-d :'l’r' ">r \- ;-.'-',j.':<:f v,:' ^'.!, v^-i^ o'V'' 'b I.'^^.i^ .-j rdnx-v^ krlt h'M< ^ '^-' v .f . t?^*j -1 4^: .(V.: ■ . 3 ' •< 4 '' 7 »:b c'd &: ’ 'i . v.'ii ■ VU». ‘ V 4 fc V? - 4 < 'i' # >■ r. : ClIAl*. VI. LA CORUNA TO SANTIAGO. 139 From La Coruna to Santiago the road is, for the first half of the way, extremely pleasant, and passes through a luxuriant country ; gradually, however, as the end of the great pil- grimage is reached, it becomes dreary and the country bare ; still the outlines of the hills are fine, and some of the distant views rather attractive. But Santiago is too important a city, and its cathedral is too grand and interesting, to he described at the end of a chapter. 140 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VII. CHAPTEE VII. SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELLA. The journey from Lugo to Santiago is pleasant so far as the country is concerned, and there is one advantage in the ex- tremely slow and grave pace of the diligences in this part of the world, tliat it always allows of the scenery being well studied. Moreover, in these long rides there is a pleasure and relief in being able to take a good walk without much risk of being left behind, which can hardly be appreciated by the modern English- man who travels only in his own country. The general character of the landscape is somewhat like that of the Yorkshire moors, diversified here and there by beautiful valleys, the sides of which are generally clothed with chestnut, but sometimes with walnut, oak, and stone-pines. The heaths were in full flower, and looked brilliant in the extreme, and here and there were patches of gorse. The road is fine, and has only recently been made. The country is very thinly populated, so that we passed not more than two or three villages on the way, and in none of them did I see signs of old churches of any interest. It is difficult to picture anything more wretched than the state of the Gallegan peasantry as we saw them on this road. They were very dirty, and clothed in the merest rags : the boys frequently with nothing on but a shirt, and that all in tatters ; and the women with but little more in quantity, and nothing better in quality. The poorest Irish would have some difficulty in shoAving that their misery is greater than that of these poor Gallegans. My journey to Santiago was quite an experiment. I had been able to learn nothing Avhatever about the cathedral before going there, and I was uncertain whether I should not find the mere wreck of an old church, overlaid everywhere with additions by architects of the Berruguetesque or Churrugueresque schools, instead of the old church which I knew had once stood there. In all my Spanish journeys there had been somewhat of this pleasant element of uncertainty as to what I was to find ; but here my ignorance was complete, and as the journey was a long one to make on speculation, it was not a little fortunate that my Chap. VII. SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELLA. 141 faith was rewarded by the discovery of a church of extreme mairnificeiice and interest. The weary day wore on as we toiled on and on upon our pilgrimage, and it was nearly dark before we reached the entrance of the city, and after much delay found ourselves following a porter up the steep streets and alleys which lead up from the diligence Fonda to the principal inn, which happens fortunately to be very near the one interesting spot in the city — the cathedral. The next morning showed us not only the exterior of the city, but enabled us also to form a good idea of its surroundings. It stands on the slope of a steep liill, witli great bare and bleak hills on all sides, rising generally to a great lieight. From some of them the views are no doubt very fine, and the town with its towers and walls may well look more imposing than it does on a nearer view. For, to say the truth, if the cathedral be left out of considera- tion, Santiago is a disappointing place. There is none of the evidence of the presence of pilgrims which might be expected, and I suspect a genuine pilgrim is a very rare article indeed. I never saw more than one, and he proclaimed his intentions only by the multitude of his scallop-shells fastened on wherever his rags Avould allow; but I fear much he was a professional pilgrim ; he was begging lustily at Zaragoza, and seemed to have been many years there on the same errand, Avithout getting very far on his road. And there is not much evidence in the toAvn itself of its history and pretensions to antiquity ; for, as is so often the case in Spain, so great was the Avealth possessed by the Church in the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth century, that all the churches and religious houses Avere rebuilt about that time, and now, in jdace of medimval churches and convents, there are none but enormous Eenaissance erections on all sides ; and as they are bad examples of their class, little pleasure is to be derived from looking at them, either outside or inside. Perhaps some exception ought to be made from this general de- preciation of the buildings at Santiago in favour of the entourage of the cathedral ; for here there is a sumptuous church opening on all sides to Plazas of grand size, and surrounded by buildings all having more or less architectural pretension. Steep flights of steps lead from one Plaza to another, a fountain plays amoug quarrelsome Avater-carriers in one, and in another not only does an old Avoman retail scallop-shells to those aaIio Avant them, but a tribe of market people ply their trade, cover the flags Avith their bright fruit, make the ear tired Avith their eternal Avrangle, 142 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VII. and the eye delighted with their gay choice of colours for sashes, headgear, and what not. The whole record of the foundation of this cathedral is a great deal too long to enter upon here ; but fortunately enough re- mains of its architectural history to make the story of the present building both intelligible and interesting, and to this I must now ask the attention of my readers. There seems to have been a church founded here in or about the year 868,^ which is said to have been completed in thirty- one years,^ and consecrated in a.d. 899. Of this church nothing now remains ; but the contemporary deed of gift to the church by the King Alfonso III., and the account of the altars and relics existing in it at the time, are of considerable interest.^ I need hardly say how much store was laid by the clergy of Santiago on their possession of the body of the Apostle. Mr. Ford^ gives only too amusing, if it is, as I fear, only too true, a version of the story of the Saint’s remains. Suffice it here to say, that there no longer seem to be great pilgrimages to his shrine, and that even in Spain the old belief in the miracle-working power of his bones seems now practically to have died out.'^ ^ Espaiia Sagrada, xix. p. 91. 2 Historia del Apostol Sanctiago, by Mauro Castella Ferrer, p. 46o. 3 The latter document in particular has much architectural interest, and is worth transcribing in part, on account of its reference to these early buildings, and their materials and furniture. It commences as follows; — ‘ In nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, edificatum est Templum Sancti Salvatoris, et Sancti Jacobi Apostoli in locum Arcis Marmoricis territorio Gal- lecise per institutionem gloriosissimi Principis Adefonsi HI. cum conjuge Scemena sub Pontifice loci ejusdem Sisnando Episcopo. ’ (877-903.) “ Sup- plex egregii eximii Principis Ordonii proles ego Adefonsus Principi cum prsedicto antistite statuimus tedificare domum Domini et restaurare Templum ad tumulum sepulchri Apostoli, quod antiquitus construxerat divse mernorim Dominus Adefonsus Magnus ex petra et Into opere parvo. Nos quidem inspi- ratione divina adlati cum subditis ac familia nostra adduximus in sanctum locum ex Hispania inter agmina Mau- rorum, quse eligimus de Civitate Ea- becie petras marmoreas quas avi nostri ratibus per Pontum transvexerunt, et ex eis pulchras domos Eedificaverunt, quse ab inimicis destructse manebant. Unde quoque ostium principale Occi- dentalis partis ex ipsis marmoribus est appositum : supercilia vero liminaris Sedis invenimus sicut antiqua sessio fuerat miro opere sculpta. Ostium de sinistro juxta Oraculum Baptistte et Martyris Joannis quern simili modo fundavimus, et de puris lapidibus con- struxirnus columnas sex cum basibus todidem posuimus, ubi abbobuta tribu- nalis est coustructa, vel alias columnas sculptas supra quas portius immiuet de oppido Portucalense ratibus depor- tatas adduximus quadras, et calcem unde sunt jedificatse columnse decern et VIII. cum aliis columnelis marmoreis simili modo navigio.” — Espana Sagrada, xix. p. 344, Appendix. Handbook of Spain, pp. 600-605. 3 The authors of the ‘ Manual del Viagero en la Catedral de Santiago ’ are, however, not quite of this opinion. They say of it, “The monument which we examine belongs not to Santiago, to Galicia, to Spain, but is the patrimony of the Christian religion, of the Catholic world ; since in all fervent souls some- Chap. VJI. SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELLA. 143 Nothing could, however, Imve been stronger than the old faith in their patron, and the extreme wealth brouglit to the church by the pilgrimages made of old to his shrine from all parts of Europe would no doubt have involved the entire destruction of all remains of the early church, in order to its reconstruction on a far grander scale, had it not been destroyed, so far as possible, in the century after its erection, by the Moors under Almanzor. From the end of the tenth century I find no mention of the cathedral until the episcopate of Diego Gelmirez, in whose time Santiago was made an archbishopric. He was consecrated in the year 1100, and died in a.d. 1130, and the history of his archi- episcopate is given in great detail in the curious contemporary chronicle, the ‘ Historia Compostellana.’ ^ Here it is recorded that, in A.D. 1128, “forty-six years after the commencement of the new church of St. James,” the bishop, finding that the subordi- nate buildings were so poor that strangers absolutely “ wandered about looking for where the cloisters and offices might be,” called his chapter together, and urged upon them the necessity of remedying so grave a defect, finishing his speech by the offer of a hundred marks of pure silver, thirty at once, and the rest at the end of a year.^ This would put the commencement of the new cathedral in the year 1082, during the episcopate of Diego Pelaez, though, as will be seen, the same History elsewhere says that the church was commenced in a.d. 1178, a date which occurs also on the south transept door-jamb; and the works must have been carried on during the time of his successors, Pedro II. and Dalmatius (a monk of Cluny), to its com- pletion under Gelmirez.^ It was in the time of this bishop. thing remains of the ancient and fervent faith of onr forefathers.” This guide- book, by the way, is one of the worst I ever met with. ' The twentieth volume of ‘ Espafia Sagrada ’ is entirely occupied with the reprint of this chronicle. 2 Histor. Compost, lib. iii. cap. 1 . ^ “^Postquam supradictus Episcopns,” ‘^ad Ecclesiam Patroni sui B. Jacobi Apostoli rediens, circa earn indefessam solicitudinem exhibuit.” “ Reversus itafiue asupradicta expeditione, vetnstis- simam Ecclesiolam obrui prsecepit, qu® intra immensam novse ecclesite capaci- tatem imminente ruina lapsum mina- batur. Ha3C in longitudinem ad altare B. Jacobi protendebatur ab illo pilari qui juxta principalem ecclesise parietem, et secus unum de quatuor principalibus pilaribus existit, in sinistra parte snpe- riorem partem cliori ingredientibus pone relinquitur, et juxta fores pontificalis Palatii Ecclesiam introeuntibus, recta fronte opponitur, et in alia parte, id est in dextera, a pilari opposite supradicto pilari usque ad idem altare: latitudo vero illius eadem qua3 modo et chori est. Destructa ilia Ecclesia in era I. C. L.” (a.d. 1112.) “quae quasi obumbracidum totius Ecclesiae esse videbatur, Chorum satis competentem ibidem composuit, qui usque in hodier- num diem Dei gratia et B. Jacobi per industriam ejusdem Episcopi optimi Cleri excellentia egregie decorator. Ipse 144 GOTHTC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VII. in the year 1117, it is recorded in the Chronicle, tliat during a violent tumult in the city, in which both the bishop and queen hardly escaped alive, the catliedral was set on fire by the mob ; but its construction is so nearly fireproof, that doubtless it was the furniture only that was really burnt ; for, eleven years later, in A.D. 1128, the bishop, in his speech to the chapter, already mentioned, speaks of the church as being extremely beautiful, and, indeed, renowned for its beauty.^ In a.d. 1 1 24 two canons of Santiago were collecting money for the works at the cathedral, in Sicily and Apulia,^ and the cloister, which was commenced in A.D. 1128, seems to have been still unfinished in a.d. 1134.^ From this date until a.d. 1168 I find no record of any alteration ; but in this year Ferdinand II. issued a warrant‘d for the payment of the master of the works — one Matthew — and twenty years later, the same master of the works put the following inscription on the under side of the lintel of the western door : — “ Armo : ab : Incarnatione : Dili : M». C" LXXXVIIP" ; Era D CCXXK VI. Die K-L. Aprilis : supra liniharia ; Principalium : portaliiim.” “ Ecclesiae : Beati : Jacobi : sunt collocata : Per : Magistrum : Matheura ; qui : a: fundameiitis : ipsorum : portalium : gessit ; luagisterium.” ® In addition to these evidences, there are two others in the diurch itself ; one, to which I shall refer again, a date which I take to be a.d. 1078, on the jamb of the south transept doorway ; and the other, an inscription whicli, with some modifications, is repeated several times round the margins of circles let into the aisle walls, in the centre of which are the dedication crosses. The date on one of these over the west side of the transept, as well as I could read it, appeared to me to be a.d. 1154 but as the inscriptions vary somewhat round the different crosses, it is possible that the dates may vary also with the time of completion of the various parts of the building ; and I regret quoque Episcopiis, iitpote sapiens arclii- tectus, in ejusdem chori dextro capite fecit supereminens pnlpitum, in quo Cantores, atque Subdiacones officii sni ordinem peragunt. In sinistro vero aliud, nbi lectiones et Evangelia le- guntur. Est autem B. Jacobi specialis et prieclara nova ecclesia incoepta Era I. C. XVI.— V. idus Jul.” (A.D. 1078.) Ilistor. Compost., lib. i. cap. 78. ^ The Archbishop’s words were as follows: — Fratres, nostra ecclesia non nostris sed Dei gratia et nostri Patroni Beatissimi Apostoli Jacobi meritis inaximi et celeberrimi est nominis, et ultra portus et citra portns pro ditis- sima et nobilissima reputatnr.” Quie- libet Sedes ultra portus pulchriora et valentiora oedificia habet quarn nostra,” &c. &c. — Hist. Compost., lib. iii. cap. 1. 2 Ilistor. Compost., lib. ii. cap. 64. ^ Ibid., lib. iii. cap. 36. See Appendix. ® Before this time, in 1161, Master Matthew had built the bridge of Cesnres in Gallicia. — Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Espaiia, i. 33. “ Era : millena : nova : vicies : duo- dena.’’ Chap. VII. SANTIAGO DE COML’OSTELLA. 145 therefore that I did not make accurate copies of all of them. The dedication crosses are all floriated at the ends, and have in the spandrels between the arms of the cross — above, the sun and moon, and below, the letters A and XI. Three of these remain on each side of the nave, two in each transept, and two in the choir aisle, twelve in all. I saw none on the exterior ; but so little of the old external walls can now be seen that this is not to be wondered at. It is now time to describe the building itself, the age of its various parts having been pretty accurately defined by the documentary evidence which I have quoted. This cathedral is of singular interest, not only on account of its unusual completeness, and the general unity of style which marks it, but still more because it is both in plan and design a very curiously exact repetition of the church of S. Sernin at Toulouse.^ But S. Sernin is earlier in date by several years, having been commenced by S. Eaymond in a.d. 1060, and consecrated by Pope Urban II. in a.d. 1096 ; and the cathedral at Santiago can only be regarded, therefore, as to a great extent a copy of S. Sernin, the materials being, however, different, since granite was used in its construction in place of the brick and stone Avith which its prototype was constructed. The dimensions of the two churches do not differ very much ; Santiago has one bay less in its nave, but one bay more in each transept ; it has only one aisle, whilst S. Sernin has two on each side of the nave ; and its two towers are placed north and south of the Avest front, instead of to the Avest of it, as they are at S. Sernin. The arrangement of the chevet and of the chapels on the east of the transepts Avas the same in both churches. Here they still exist in the chevet, but in the transepts traces of them are only to be found after careful examination. Three of them, indeed are quite destroyed, though slight traces still exist of the arches Avhich opened into them from the aisles, but the fourth has been preserved by a piece of vandalism for which one must be grateful. It has been converted into a passage-Avay to a small church Avhich once stood detached to the north-east of the cathedral, and the access to Avhich Avas by a western doorway. The erection of a modern chapel blocked up the access to this doorway, and an opening Avas then made through the northern 1 By a strange coincidence, S. Sernin James; though, of course, this would be boasts of having, among the bones of strongly denied at Compostella. several of the apostles, those of S. L 146 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. CHAr. VII. chapel of the north transept, which has thus been saved from the fate which has befallen the others. The position and size of these chapels are indicated in the ground-plan. The proportions of the several parts of the plans of the two churches are also nearly identical ; and owing in part to the arrangement of the groining piers of the transepts, in which the aisles are returned round the north and south ends, the transept fronts in both churches have the very unusual arrangement of two doorways side by side — a central single doorway being impos- sible. The triforium galleries surround the v/hole church, being carried across the west end and the ends of the transepts, so that a procession might easily ascend from the west end, by the tower staircases — which are unusually broad and spacious — and make the entire circuit of the church. Finally, the sections of both these great churches are as nearly as possible the same ; their naves being covered with barrel-vaults, their aisles with (piadri partite vaults, and the triforia over the aisles with quadrant vaults, abutting against and sustaining as with a continuous flying buttress the great waggon-vaults of their naves.’ The exterior of the cathedral at Santiao’o — to a more detailed O description of which I must now devote myself — is almost com- pletely obscured and overlaid by modern additions. The two old western steeples shown on the plan are old only about as liigh as the side walls of the church, and have been raised to a very considerable height, and finished externally with a lavish display of pilasters, balustrades, vases, and what not, till they 1 The church from which the cathe- dral at Santiago was copied is one of a considerable number m France, all of which have the same general character- istics, I have already given some de- scription of them ill a paper read before the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1861, and published in their Transac- tions. The following list of some of the more remarkable examples will show both their date and locale: — Conques, completed in a.d. 1060 ; S, Etienne, Nevers, commenced in a.d. 1063, conse- crated A.D. 1097 ; S. Eutrojie, Saintes, consecrated in a.d. 1096 ; S. Genes, a.d. 1016-1120; S. Hilary, Poitiers, a.d. 1049; Moutierueuf, Poitiers, a.d. 1069- 1096; S. Radigonde, Poitiers, a.d. 1099; 8. Ainable, Riom, a.d. 1077-1120; 8. Sernin, Toulouse, a.d. 1060-1U96; (Jluny, a.d. 1089-! 1.31 ; Dorat ^Haute Vienne) and Benevente (Creuse), a.d. 1 1 50-1200 ; S. Saturnin ; Volvic ; Issoire ; S. Nectaire; N. E>. du Port, Clermont Ferrand, circa A.D. 1080-1160; Brioude, A.D. 1200. There is a church of similar construction at Gransun, on the lake of Neufchatel, These churches agree generally in their plans, but especially in those of their chevets (which almost invariably have chapels in the alternate bays only). Their sections are also alike, the triforia galleries being always vaulted with a continuous half-barrel or quadrant vault, and they have no clere- stories. No doubt they were always in - tended to receive stone roofs, without any use of timber ; and tins mode of covering has been carefully restored recently at N. D. du Port, Clermont Ferrand, y Y~ /■ . ■ *i ■> I ( i No. 17 SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL. p. U7 INIEKIOH OF l.OWER CHCECH, Chap. VH. SANTIAGO DE COMTOSTELLA. 147 finish in a sort of pepper-box fashion with small cupolas. Between them is a lofty niche over the west front, which contains a statue of the tutelar.^ Fortunately the whole of the fa9acle between the steeples was built on in front of, and without destroying. Master Matthew’s great work, the western porch. The ground falls considerably to the west, and a rather pic- turesque quadruple flight of steps, arranged in a complicated fashion, leads up from the Plaza to the doors. There are two great and two lesser flights of steps, so that a procession going up might be divided into four lines ; a doorway in the centre of the western wall below these steps leads into a chapel constructed below the western porch. This is now called the Chapel of St. Joseph, but seems to have been known of old as Santiago la Vajo. The arrangement of its plan is very peculiar.^ There are two large central piers east and west of a sort of transept ; to the west of this are two old arches, and then the modern passage leading to the doorway at the foot of the steps. To the east of the transept is an apse consisting of an aisle formed round the great central pier, with small recesses for altars round it. The aisle is covered with a round-arched waggon-vault ; it has five recesses for altars ; the easternmost seems to have a square east end, the next to it on either side have apses, and the others are very shallow recesses hardly large enougli for altars. There can be no doubt whatever, I think, that this is the work on which Master Matthew was first employed ; it is exactly under the porch and doorway, on which, as we know by the inscrip- tion on the lintel of the door, he wrought ; and as he was first at work here in a.d. 1168, and finished the doors in A.D. 1188, we may safely put down this chapel as having been begun and finished circa a.d. 1168-1175. In this the bases are some of them square, some circular in plan ; the sculp- ture of the capitals is elaborate and similar in character to most of the later work in the cathedral. The favourite device of pairs of animals regarding each other is frequently repeated ; and there are moulded and spiral shafts in the jambs of the western arches. My view of the interior of this interesting little chapel will best explain its general character and pecu- liarities, and it will be felt, I think, that it is certainly not earlier than the date I have assigned, and therefore, like the great western door, of later date than the church in connection ^ This facade ^Yas designed by D. Ventura Eodrignez, in 1764. The ground-plan of this chapel is shown on Plate IX., above the plan of th cathedral. 148 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VII. with which it was built. Beliind the eastern altar there is an arcade of three arches forming a kind of reredos, but I am not at all sure whether they are in their old places, and I am inclined to think it more likely that there is an eastern apse behind them. There is nothing to prove whether there were any western doors to this chapel, and as all the light must originally have come through the western arches, it would seem to be most probable that there were none. The chapel is now kept locked, and is but seldom used for service.’ To return to the west front. This is the centre only of a vast architectural facade ; to the right of the chui-ch being the chaj^ter- house and other rooms on the west side of the cloister, and to the left another long line of dependent buildings. The Plaza is bounded by public buildings on its other three sides and beyond, to tlie west, the ground falling very rapidly affords a fine view across the valley to the picturesque mountain-like ranges which bound the landscape. This is the Plaza Mayor or del Hospital.” Going northward from the west entrance, and turning pre- sently to the east, a low groined gateway is reached, which leads into another Plaza fronting the north transept. This gateway is a work of the twelfth century, but of the simplest kind. The Plaza de San l^Iartin, to the north of the cathedral, is pictu- ]*esquely irregular ; its north side is occupied by a vast convent of St. Martin, and the ground slopes down steeply from it to the catliedral. Here is the gayest and busiest market-place of the town, and the best spot for studying the noisy cries and the bright dresses of the Gallegan peasantry. They are to be seen on a Sunday, especially, in all their finery, — bright, picturesque, and happy looking, for those who can afford to dress smartly are ha2)py, and those Avho cannot don’t seem to come — selling and buying every possible kind of ware, save, perhaps, the large stock of scallop-shells, which, though they are kept for sale with due regard to the genius loci, seemed to me never to attract any one to become a purchaser, and to adopt the badge of St. James ! The whole of the northern front of the transept and church is modernized. But to the east of it lies the little church used as the Parroquia, and which will be better described when I go to ^ The sacristan will not trouble him- below the chapter-house, self to show this chapel, and it was by ^ seminario on the west, the a mere accident that I discovered its hospital on the north, and the College existence. The keys are kept by the of San Jeronimo on the south side, carpenter of the chapter, whose shop is Chap. VTT. SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELLA. 140 the interior, as externally it has no old feature save a simple little Avindow in its north Avail. xA narrow passage from the Plaza de San Martin leads to the upper side of a third Plaza opposite the east end ; and here, though the cathedral has been enclosed Avithin scpiare modern Avails, there is fortunately just enough left of the exterior of the eastern chapel and part of the apse enclosed in a small court to explain its Avhole original design. The entrance to this court is garnished Exterioi- of Clievet. Avith a number of statues, evidently, I think, taken from a door- AA^ay, and perhaps from the destroyed north doorway.^ From this fragment of the clievet, it seems that the eastern chapel Avas surrounded Avith a deeply recessed arcading, Avithin AAdiich Avere broad, round-arched AvindoAvs Avith moulded archivolts carried on shafts with sculptured capitals. The smaller chapels haA^e This is the Puerta Sauta, and is only opened by the archbishop in years of jubilee. 150 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. YII. three-quarter shafts running up to the cornices placed between the windows, and the corbel-tables at the eaves are simple and bold. The bay between the chapels has a window occupying the whole space in width, and above it is a small circular window, a feature which occurs in almost exactly the same position in S. Sernin, Toulouse.^ A string-course is carried round the aisle wall above the roofs of the chapels, and the wall is continued up to the same level as the walls of the aisles of the church, and has alter- nately windows and arcading in its outer elevation. This is perhaps the only serious difference between the design of this church and that of S. Sernin. There the triforia are not carried round tlie clievet, and consequently the aisle walls are not so lofty, and the clerestory of the apse is shown in the usual way. Continuing the circuit of the cathedral, we now reach the Plaza de los Plateros, in front of the south transept. This is bounded on the Avest side by the outer walls of the cloisters, and a broad flight of steps all across the Plaza leads up to the transept. This has been to some extent damaged by the erec- tion of a lofty clock-toAver projecting at its south-east angle, in which are the clock and the bells. The rest of the old fac^ade is fortunately preserved. It has two doorways in the centre divi- sion, and tAvo grand and deeply recessed Avindows above them. The ends of the aisles seem to have been similarly treated above. The finish of the transept Avail is modern, but there still remain tAvo canopies in it, under one of Avdiich is a figure of the Blessed Virgin, no doubt part of a sculpture of the Annunciation. The detail of the Avork in this front is of great interest, inas- much as it is clearly by another and an earlier Avorkman tlian that of the Avestern part of the church. There are three shafts in each jamb of the doors, whereof the outer are of marble, the rest of stone. These marble shafts are carved Avith extreme delicacy Avith a series of figures in niches, the niches having round arches, which rest upon carved and tAvisted columns separating the figures. The AAmdv is so characteristic as to deserve illus- tration. It is executed almost everyAvhere Avith that admirable delicacy so conspicuous in early Bomanesque sculpture. The other shafts are twisted and carved in very bold fashion. TTie jamb of this door retains an inscription deeply cut in large letters, Avhicli appears to give the same date — Era 1116, ^ It is just open to doubt wlietlier the spite of some awkwardness in the mode small circular window over the other is of its introduction, wTich woidd other- original, but I think the similarity to wise have inclined me to doubt it. S. Sernin is in favour of its being so, in SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL SHAFTS IN SOUTH DOORWAY. ' . 1 '* J n Chap. YII. SANTIAGO ])E COMPOSTELLA. 151 5 Ides of July — that I have already quoted from the ' Mistoria Compostellana.’ But as the reading of tliis inscription is open to doubt, I think it well to engrave it. This Era would make the date of these doors agree with the commencement of the works. Figures on either side support the ends of the lintels of the doors, but the tympana and the wall above for some feet are covered with pieces of sculp- ture, evidently taken down and refixed where they are now seen. They are arranged, in short, like the casts at the Crystal Palace, as if the wall were part of a museum. One of the stones in the tympanum of the eastern door has the Crowning with Thorns and the Scourging ; and on other stones above are portions of a Descent into Hades, in which asses with wings are shown kneeling to our Lord. Asses and other beasts are carved elsewhere, and alto- getlier the whole work has a rude barbaric splendour characteristic of its age. inscripHon on Soutli The windows above deserve special notice. Their shafts and archivolts are very richly twisted and carved, and the cusping of the inner arch is of a rare kind. It consists of five complete foils, so that the points of the lowest cusp rest on the capital, and, to a certain extent, the effect of a horseshoe arch is produced. This might be hastily assumed to be a feature borrowed from the Moors ; but the curious fact is that this very rare form of cusping is seen in many, if not most, of the churches of the Auvergnat type, to which reference has already been made, and it must be regarded here, therefore, as another proof of the foreign origin of most of the work at Santiago, rather than of any Moorish influence. I have omitted to say that in addi- tion to the other steeples there is a modern dome over the crossing. The lower part of the lantern is old, and the four piers which support it are somewhat larger than the rest. The exterior of the cloister is rather Renaissance than Gotliic in its character, and has some picturesque small towers at the angles. Altogether the impression which is first given here is of a church which has been completely altered by Renaissance architects of rather a more picturesque turn of mind than is usual ; and the generally similar character of the work in the Plazas on the several sides of the church gives certainly a rather stately, though to me it was a very disappointing, tout ensemble. 152 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. YII. With such feelings about the exterior, the complete change in the character of the work as one goes through the door is more than usually striking, for you are at once transferred from what is all modern, to what is almost all very old, uniform, and but little disturbed. The interior of the transepts is very impressive ; theii* length is not far from equal to that of the nave, and the view is less interrupted than in it, as the rails between the Coro and the Capilla mayor are very light, and the stalls are all to the west of the crossing. The whole detail of the design is extremely simple. The piers are alternated throughout the church of the two sections given on my ground -plan. The capitals are all carved, generally with foliage, but sometimes with pairs of birds and beasts. Engaged columns run up from the floor to the vault, and carry transverse ribs or arches below the great waggon-vault. The triforium opens to the nave with a round arch, subdivided with two arches, carried on a detached shaft. I have already described the construction, and I need only add here that the buttresses, which appear on the ground-plan, are all connected by arches thrown from one to the other, so that the eaves of the roof project in front of their outside flice. There is consequently an enormous thickness of wall to resist the weight and thrust of the continuous vault of the triforium, these arches between the buttresses liaving been contrived in order to render the whole wall as rigid and uniform in its resistance to the thrust as possible. The height of the interior, from the floor to the centre of the barrel-vault of the nave, is a little over seventy feet. This dimension is, of course, insignificant if com- pared with the height of many later churches ; but it must be borne in mind tliat here there is no clerestory, and that, owing to its absence, there is much less light in the upper part of the church tlian is usual, and one consequence of this partial gloom is a great apparent increase in the size of every part of the building. The original windows remain throughout the greater part of the clmrch. In the aisles they liave jamb-shafts inside, and in both aisles and triforia tliere are jamb-shafts outside. Occasionally at the angles of the aisles, and elsewhere where it was impossible to pierce the walls for windows, sunk arcading, corre- sponding with them in outline and detail, is substituted for them. The chevet has been a good deal altered ; most of the chapels remain, but the columns and ai'ches round the choir have all been destroyed, or, at any rate, so covered over with modern work as to be no longer visible. A thirteenth-century chapel has been added on the north of the apse, and a small chapel of the fifteenth SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL. p- INTliKIOR OF SOUTH TRANSKPT, I,OOKING NORTH-l?;ASl \ '' ' ■ ■■ ■ ' Chap. YU. SANTIAGO DE COMPOS^I’ELLA. 153 century and a large one of the Kenaissance period on its soiitli- west side. The other alterations are clearly indicated on the engraving of the ground-plan. I have already said that the existing Kenaissance steeples at the west end are built upon the lower portions of the original Romanesque towers. The only peculiarity about these is the planning of their staircases. The steps are carried all round the steeple in the thickness of the wall, and the central space is made use of for a succession of small chambers one over the other. These staircases are unusually wide and good, and their mode of construction is obviously very strong. The only other part of the church of the same age as the original fabric is the detached chapel to the north-east of it. This seems to have had originally no connexion whatever with tlie cathedral, the passage which now leads to its western door- way from the north transept being quite modern, and made for the reason already mentioned. Its western door is a good late Romanesque wmrk, with sliafts in the jambs, and carved capitals. The church itself consists of a nave and aisles of two bays in length, and a chancel with an aisle on either side. The columns are cylindrical, with carved capitals. The aisles have quadrant vaults, and the nave a semi-circular ceiling, but I could not ascertain certainly whether this was of plaster or stone. If the latter, then this little churcli affords a very interesting example of the adaptation of precisely the same mode of construction that w^e see in the great cathedral by its side, viz. the waggon-vault in tlie nave supported on either side by the quadrant vaults of the aisles. It is now necessary to say something about what is to an architect the chief glory of this noble cliureh — its grand western entrance, fitly called the Portico de la Gloria. On the whole, with no small experience to warrant my speaking, and yet with a due sense of the rashness of too general an approval, I cannot avoid pronouncing this effort of Master Matthews’s at Santiago to be one of the greatest glories of Christian ailT Its scale is not very grand, but in every other respect it is quite admirable, and thei-e is a freshness and origin- ality about the whole of the detail which cannot be praised too much. If we consider the facts with which we are acquainted, w^e may understand how it is that it has these great merits. Let us assume that Master Matthew wars, as he no doubt was, extremely skilled wdien the king sent him to Santiago with his ^ See the illustration of this doorway in the frontispiece. 154 GOTHIC AHCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VIP special warrant and recommendation. From that time until the happy day came, after twenty years of anxious labour, Avhen he Avas able to Avrite his inscription on the lintel of the door, it is probable that this same man Avrought on slowly but systematically on this great work. During all this time lie had but a very moderate opportunity of studying similar Avorks in his own neighbourhood, or of receiving incitement by the competition of others of his craft ; and I think the whole Avork bears about it evidence that this was its history. There is up to a certain point a conformity to common custom and pre- cedent, and yet at the same time a constant fresh- ness and originality about it which seems to me to shoAV that its sculptor was not in the habit of seeing other similar Avorks during its progress. The figures are almost all placed in attitudes evidently selected with a view to giving them life and piquancy. But these atti- tudes are singularly uncon- ventional ; and though they are by no means always suc- cessful to an eye educated in the nineteenth century, they have all of them graces and merits Avhich are almost en- tirely unseen in the produc- tions of nineteenth century sculptors ; Avhilst, again, in strono; contrast to Avhat is noAV almost the invariable rule, there is no doubt that here Ave have the absolute handiAvork of the sculptor, and not a design onlv, the execution of AAhich has been rele- Central Shaft of Western Doorway. Chap. VTI. SANTIAGO DE COMPOS^TJJ.A. 155 aated to a band of unknown and unrewarded assistants! The detail of some of the smaller portions, as e.g. of the sculptured shafts, is exquisitely refined and delicate, Leantifnlly executed, and with a singular appreciation, in some respects, of the good points of classic sculpture. The doorways are three in number, of which that in the centre opens into the nave, and those on either side into the aisles. In front of these doors is a western porch, of three groined divisions in width, the outer face of which has been built up and concealed by the modern Avestern facade. The groining ribs of this porcli are very richly decorated with sculpture of foliage in their mouldings. The general design of the doors will be best under- stood by reference to the engraving Avhich I give of them. The bases are all very bold, and rest generally on monsters. That under the central shaft has a figure of a man with his arms round the necks of two open-mouthed winged monsters ; ^ whilst on the other side is a figure of a person kneeling towards the east, in prayer, and about life-size. The central shaft is of marble, and carved all over with the tree of Jesse. The detail of this shaft is so delicate and characteristic of the whole work, that I give an engraving of a portion of it ; nothing can be prettier or more graceful than the design, and the execution is admirable. The corresponding shaft in either jamb is also sculptured, but in these there is no story, the shafts being twisted with carvino- of folia2:e and figures in the alternate members. The capital of the central shaft has the figures of the Holy Trinity, Avith angels on either side censing ; and above is a grand sitting figure of St. James, Avith a scroll in his right hand, and a palmer’s staff in the other. His nimbus is studded Avith large crystals ; but as none of the other figures throughout the door have nimbi, I suspect it has been added in his case. The main capital of the central shaft, above the saint’s head, has on three sides the Temi^tation of our Lord, and on its fourtli side angels coming and ministering to Him. The tympanum of this central door has a central seated figure of our Lord, holding up His open hands. Around Him are the four Evangelists, three of them Avith their emblematic beasts ^ I could not di,scern the meaning of the other hand throw sand down the a rite the people perform here. They throats of the monsters. Some people kneel down and put the thumb and evidently did this much to their own three fingers of one hand into some satisfaction, whilst an acolyte called my cavities just fitted for them in the sculp- attention to the practice as being curious ture of the central shaft, and then with and unintelligible. 156 GOTHIC AHCHITECTQEE IN SPAIN. Chap. VII. standing up on their hind legs, with their paws in the Evan- gelists’ laps. Beyond them are angels holding the various instruments of the passion, and above these angels a multitude of small figures worshipping — the hundred and forty-four thou- sand, many of them naked, i.e. free from sin. The archivolt is perhaps tlie most striking feature in the whole work, having sitting figures of the four-and-twenty elders arranged around its circumference, in a manner at once quite original and sin- gularly effective. The skill and fancy shown in the treatment of this crowd of figures is beyond praise, and there is a certain degree of barbaric splendour about the profuse richness of the work which is wonderfully attractive. Traces everywhere remain of the old delicate colouring with which the sculpture was covered, and this just suffices to give a beautiful tone to the whole work. The side jambs have standing figures on a level with that of St. James. On the north jamb are Jeremiah, Daniel, Isaiah, and Moses, and on the opposite side St. Paul, and, I sipipose, other New Testament saints, though I could not tell which. The side doorways, though there is no sculpture in their tympana, have figures corresponding with the others in their jambs. Under the groining against the north wall is an angel blowing a trumpet, and there are other angels against the springing of the groining ribs holdinof children in their hands. The whole scheme is, in fact, a Last Judgment, treated in a very unconventional manner ; the point which most invites hostile criticism being the kind of equality which the sculptor has given to the figures of our Lord and St. James, both being seated, and both in the central position ; and though the figure of the apostle is below that of his Lord, it is still the more con- spicuous of the two. The design of the interior of the west end is peculiar. The doorway occupies the same space in height as the nave arches ; above it the triforium is carried across over the porch, opening into the nave with two divisions of the same arcade as in the side galleries. Above this is a large circular window, with sixteen small cusps and a small pierced quatrefoil on either side. These openings now all communicate with the western triforium gallery ; and I found it impossible to make out, to my own satisfaction, what the original scheme of the west end could have been. It does not appear clear whether there ever were any doors hung in the doorways, but I think there never were ; and, perhaps, as we are told that the first church built over the body of the saint was of two stages in height, and open at the Cqap. VII. SANTIAGO DR COMPOSTELLA. 157 ends‘ (somewliat like the curious clmrcli still remaining at Narauco, near Oviedo), we may be safe in assuming that this western j^orch was in the same way open to the air. Above it the vault of the nave may have been prolonged between the towers, and under this the circular window would have been seen from the outside as it is still from the inside. AVhether there was any direct access to this western porch from the ground, may admit of question ; but it seems difficult to see how it would have been contrived without blocking up the chapel beloAV the porch, which I have already described. The only remaining work of any importance is the cloister, with its adjacent buildings, — the sacristies, chapter-room, library, Ac. The present erections show no relics whatever of the work which, as we have seen, the Archbishop Diego Gelmirez undertook in the twelfth century. It is uncertain, indeed, whether his constructions were on this side of the church, for there are still remains of walls which seem to be coeval with the church round a courtyard on the north side of the nave. The cloisters iioav in existence are the work of Fonseca, after- wards Archbishop of Toledo, and were commenced in a.d. 1533. As might be expected by the date, there is very little Gothic character in their design ; they have the common late many- ribbed Spanish groining; and if they have ever had traceries in the arches, these are now all destroyed. The festival of St. James is celebrated with special solemnity whenever it happens to fall upon a Sunday. Then the people, I was told, ascend a staircase behind the altar, pass in front of some of his relics, and descend by another staircase ^ on the other side. The body of the saint is said to be contained in a stone tomb below the high altar, which lies north and south, with a modern sarcophagus over it, and there is a rather good old statue of him on horseback against the west wall of the south transept. The ritual arrangements here are the same as they usually are in Spain. The Coro occupies four bays of the nave, and there is a passage railed off between the Keja of the Coro and that of the Capilla mayor, and there are not many altars now in use, but the number of clergy is very great, and the church is constantly crowded with worshippers. 1 Espaiia Sag., vol. xix. Warwickshire, which has two newel 2 This practice illustrates the inten- staircases to its small upper chamber, tioii of the singular pilgrimage chapel evidently intended to facilitate the at the west end of Lapworth church, passage of a crowd of people. 158 GOTHIC AIICHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. Chap. VII. On a Sunday morning during my stay the Archbishop said Mass, and there was a procession with tapers all round the church. As the slow chant rose from among the dense crowd of worshippers, and the flickering lights of the tapers struck here and there on the walls of the dark old church, one of those pictures was produced which one must, I suppose, go to Spain to see really in perfection. The number of communicants seemed to be extremely small, but the number of those at con- fession unusually large. The penitents have a way of kneel- ing with their cloaks held up over them against the con- fessional, so that their heads are quite concealed. Spanish women are fond of squatting on the floor, fanning themselves, before an altar ; but liere they often kneel, with their arms stretched out as in wild entreaty, for a long time together, and with rather striking effect. I think I am within bounds in saying that fifty or sixty priests are to be seen in this church at one time, some at the altars, some hearing confessions, and others with a large staff of singing men and boys in the choir. I liave but little more to say about Santiago. The churches seemed every wliere to be modern, and, though some of them are very large, extremely uninteresting. The streets are narrow, picturesque, and winding, but with far fewer traces of any anti- quity in tlie houses than might have been expected. The only Gothic domestic building that I saw is the great hospital, close to the cathedral, which has four fine courts, and the principal entrance through a chapel or oratory, with an altar in it. The detail of this work is, however, extremely late and poor ; it was founded in A.D. 150T by Ferdinand and Isabella, Henrique de Eo’as beins: the architect. The interest which, as an architect, one must feel in a building which is — as I have shown the cathedral here to be — a close copy of another church in another country, is very great. And the only regret I feel is that I am unable to give any evidence as to the nationality of the men who wrought the exquisite work in the western porch. My feeling is certainly strong that they must have been Frenchmen, and from the district of Toulouse. This I infer from the execution of their work. Moreover, I do not know where in Spain we are to find the evidence of the existence of a school in which such artists could have been trained, whilst at Toulouse no one can wander through the Museum in tlie desecrated convent of the Augustines without recognizing the liead-quarters of a school of artists from among T^LLH ■■—Gnounti Pfnn cF tfjf G^l'Cfbral' IVUisons 1VUU-K3 on luiCDinl VVaila Bc/^^.cjrci!FJL&/anOI‘^>v^ hfiiu Raxi ' A ^ -M L, X. ' 5 !^ z J i 1114= IT N ' 1 ' A -P< S^ 'rii'U'TP'^i’-^X'l ht/'iKJ" --^>f<(T Pullialied ty John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1865. I ■ ;] ,!l . • ■ Chap. Vlf. SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELLA. 159 whom the sculptor of Santiago might well have come thoroughly educated for his great work. From Galicia I travelled back by the same road along which I had already journeyed as far as Leon ; and b om thence by Medina del Eio Seco — a poor, forlorn, and uninteresting town — to Valladolid. The plain between Leon and Valladolid is most uninteresting ; and the whole journey from the coast of Galicia to the last-named city is one of the most wearisome I ever under- took. The occasional beauty of the scenery, — and on this road it is oftentimes very beautiful, — does not prevent one’s feeling rather acutely a diligence journey of sixty-six hours with few and short pauses for meals ; and the only solace — if solace it is — one has, is that the adcdcmtero or postilion, who has to ride the whole distance, is in infinitely worse case than oneself! Fortunately the least interesting part of the road is now super- seded by the opening of the railway from Palencia to Leon. 160 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VITI. CHAPTER VIII. MEDINA DEL CAMPO — AVILA. In going by tbe railroad from Valladolid to Madrid the decayed old town of Medina del Campo is passed, and few travellers can have failed to be struck by the size and magnificence of the great castle, under whose Avails they are hnrried along — tlie Castle “ de la Mota,” founded in 1410, and built under the direction of Fernando de Carreiio, as master of the Avorks.^ The castle founded at this time evidently took the place of one of much earlier date ; for at some distance from its walls there still remain great fragments of old concrete walls lying about, mis-shapen, decayed, and unintelligible ; Avhilst the greater part of the existing castle is a uniform and simple work entirely executed in brick, incorporating and retaining, hoAV- ever, in one or two parts, portions of the Avails of the earlier building. The outline is a very irregular square, with round toAvers at all its angles rising out of the sloping base of the Avails, and overlooking the moat Avhich surrounds the Avhole. Within these outer Avails rise the lofty walls of the castle, flanked by occasional square towers, and Avith an unusually lofty keep at one angle. The entrance is protected with much care, the gateAvays ahvays opening at right angles to each other, so as to give the best possible chance of easy defence. Entering by the gateAvay in the centre of the principal front, across the now destroyed bridge, the path turned round the Avails of the keep, and then through a small gate by its side into the great inner courtyard, the shape of Avhich is very irregular, and the buildings opening into Avhich are almost all destroyed. There seems to be no direct mode of getting into the keep save by climbing up the face of the Avail some twenty feet from the ground ; and to this I Avas unequal, though it Avas evident, from the Avell-Avorn holes in the brick- Avork, that some of the natives are not so. Possibly there may have been an entrance from below, for the Avhole of the Avails surrounding the castle, and ^ Ceaii Bermudez, Arq. de Espaha, i. p. 105. THE CASTLE. -i Chap. Vllf. MEDINA DEL CAMPO : S. ANTHOLIN. iCl looking out upon the moat, are honeycombed with long vaulted galleries at various levels, along which I tramped for a long time, looking in vain for an outlet towards the keep. The architectural detail here is all of the simplest possible kind ; the arches are pointed, but square in section, and only remarkable for the great deptli of their archivolts, which gives them an air of strength very fitting to such a building. The bidcks are generally a foot long, eight inches wide, and an inch and three- eighths thick, and the mortar-joints are generally an inch and three-quarters wide. Little as such a work affords for mere technical description, I have seldom seen one of its kind alto- gether more magnihcent. The great height of the walls, the simplicity of the whole detail, and the bold vigour of the outline sufficiently account for this. Medina del Campo is the dullest and saddest of toAvns now, though three hundred years ago it seems to have been one of the most important places in the district. Nor is there much to detain the ecclesiologist or architect. The principal church — S. Antholin — seems to have been founded in the sixteenth century. An inscription round the chancel gives the date of its erection as a.d. 1503,^ and the church was probably built at the same time. The plan consists of nave and aisles of three bays in length, and a chancel of one bay. The nave and aisles cover an area of about ninety feet each way, the dimensions being, as they usually are here, very considerable. The columns are really clusters of groining-ribs banded together with a very small cap at the springing, and then branching out into complicated vaulting-bays, most of which are varied in pattern. The Coro is near the west end of the nave, and about equal in length to one of its bays, nearly two bays between its Eeja and the Capilla mayor being left for the people ; its fittings ai*e all of Eenais- sance character, and there is a very picturesque organ above it, on the south, bristling with projecting trumpet-pipes, and altogether very well designed. The columns are lofty, and the church is lighted by small round-headed windows of one or two lights placed as high as possible from the floor ; there is one light in each southern bay, and two in each on the north side ; evidently therefore the whole work is carefully devised for a hot country ; and it is an undoubted success in spite of the extremely late character of all its detail. Twenty years only ^ “ Don Juan of Medina, Bisliop of Segovia, Abbat of IMedina, President ol tlie Cortes, Chancellor of Valladolid, ordered this chapel to be made in the year 1503. Laus Deo.” M 162 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VIII. after the foundation of the chancel, and just about the time that Segovia Cathedral was being commenced, a chapel was added on the north side of the altar, covered with a dome, and thoroughly Pagan in almost all its details. There are three pulpits in this church — one on each side of the chancel, and one in the nave ; and low rails keep the pas- sageway from the Coro to the Capilla mayor. There is a good painting of the Deposition in the sacristy of S. Antholin ; and a still more interesting work is the Retablo of a small altar against the eastern column of the nave. This has the Mass of St. Gregory carved and painted, with other paintings of much merit. That of the Pieta recalls Francia, and the figure of the Blessed Virgin in an Annunciation is full of tender grace and sweetness. It is strange how completely the Inquisition altered the whole character of Spanish art, and deprived it at once and for ever apparently of all power of regarding religion from its bright and tender side ! An uninteresting country is passed between Medina and Avila. This old city is indeed very finely situated ; and if it be approached from Madrid, seems to be a real capital of the mountains, with ranges of hills on all sides. It lies, in fact, on the northern side of the Sierra, and just at the margin of the great corn-growing plains which extend thence without inter- ruption to Leon and Palencia. Of the many fortified towns I have seen in Spain it is, I think, the most complete. The w'alls are still almost perfect all round the city ; they are per- fectly plain, but of great height, and are garnished with bold cir- cular towers not far apart ; and for the gateways two of these towers are placed near together, carried up higher than the rest, and connected by a bold arch thrown from one to the other. There are in all no less than eighty-six towers in the circuit of the walls, and ten gateways ; and so great is their height ' that nothing whatever is seen of the town behind them, and they follow all the undulations of the hill on which they stand with a stern, repulsive, savage look which seems almost to belong to a city of the dead rather than to a fairly lively little city ot the present day. The space within the walls was very confined, and no doubt it was found impossible for any new religious foundations to be established within their boundaries. Several of the great (fi lurches, and among these some of the most important — as ' The walls near San Vicente are 42 feet high by 14 feet thick, and the towers of the gateway upwards of 60 feet in height. Chap, VIII 163 AVir.A : CATHEDHAL. 8an Vicente, San Pedro, and San Tomas — Avere therefore bnilt outside the walls ; and the Cathedral itself, cramped by its close neighbourhood to them, was built out boldly with its apse pro- jecting beyond the face of the walls, and making an additional circular tower larger and bolder than any of the others. Puerta de Sail Vicente. The Avails of Avila Avere commenced in a . b . 1090, eight hundred men having been employed on them daily in that year ; ^ among them Avere many directors avIio came from Leon and Biscay, and all of them Avrought under Casandro, a master of geometry and a Eoman, and Florin de Pituenga, a French master ; so at least Ave learn from the contemporary history attributed to I). Pelayo, Bishop of Oviedo. The Avails Avere finished in 1099. In 1091 the Cathedral of San Salvador Avas commenced by an architect named Alvar Garcia, a native of Estella, in Navarre C the Avork aa as completed in sixteen years, as many as nineteen hundred men, according to the authority already quoted, having been employed on the Avorks. D. P. Bisco^ throAvs considerable doubt on the veracity of J). Pelayo ; and his figures certainly seem to be on too grand a scale to be at all probable. I doubt very much Avhether any part of the existing Cathedral is of the age of the church Avliose erection is recorded by Bon Pelayo, except perhaps the external A\'alls of the apse. ^ Ariz, Historia de Avila, part ii. “ Ceaii llermudez, Arq. de Espana, p. Id. Ponz, Viage de Espana, xii, vol. i. p, 18, 308-‘J, 3 Espana Sagrada, xxxviii. p, 134, 161 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VIII. Its general character is thoroughly tliat of the end of the twelfth or early part of the thirteenth century, with consider- able alterations and additions at later periods ; and we may safely assume that the die vet, commenced in a.d. 1091, was con- tinued westward very slowly and gradually during the following hundred years or more. The ground-plan will sliow the very singular disposition of the plan ; in which the chevet, with its double aisle and semi-circular chapels in the thickness of the walls, is, I think, among the most striking works of the kind in Spain.^ The external wall of the apse is a semi-circle divided into bays by buttresses of slight projection alternating with engaged shafts. The chapels do not therefore show at all in the external view; and indeed all that does appear here is a projecting tower of vast size pierced with a few very small windows — mere slits in the wall — and flanked on either side by the wall and towers of the town. It is finished at the top by a corbel-table and lofty battlemented parapet ; and behind this again, leaving a passage five feet and a half in width, is a second and higher battlemented wall, from within which one looks down upon the aisle-roof of the chevet, and into tlie triforium and clerestory windows of the central apse. From below very little of the apse and flying buttresses which support it are seen ; and one is more struck perhaps by the strange unlikeness to any other east-end one has ever seen, than by any real beauty in the work itself ; though at the same time it is pleasant to see that not even so difficult a problem as that of a windowless fortified chevet presented any serious difficulty to these old architects. Assuming as I do that the external wall of the apse is as old as the end of tlie eleventh century, I think it nevertheless quite impossible that the chapels within it, in their present state, sliould be of the same early date. In general plan it is true that they are similar to those round the chevet of the abbey at Veruela,^ the eastern chapels in the transepts being apsidal in both cases, and similarly planned in connection with those of the apse. The cliurch of Yernela was cinnpleted by about the middle of the twelftli century, and is beyond all question earlier in style than the interior of Avila. The great beauty of the latter arises from the narrow, recessed aisie round the apse, the groining of which is carried on lofty and slender shafts, whilst the columns round the apse itself consist of a bold single column with three detached shafts on the side next the aisle. The See grouud-plaii, Plate X. " See ground-plan, Plate XXIII. No. ‘21 AVILA CATHEDRAL p. 161 INTERIOR OF AISLE ROUND THE APSE r / CriAP. viir. AVILA : CATHEDRAL. 165 groining tlirongliout is extremely good, and, in the chapels, is carried on clustered shafts. A careful examination of tlie groin- ing of the choir shows clearly how much the design of the church was altered during its progress, tliough it is certainly not an illustration of the advantage of such a course. The lines of the groining on tlie plan explain tliat it is planned with hardly any reference to the structure below: some of tlie groining shafts not being over the piers, and everything having been sacrificed by the architect of the triforium and clerestory in order to make all their bays equal in width both in the apse and in the side walls. East of the Crossing there is a narrow quadri- East End, Avila Cathedral. partite bay of vaulting, then a sexpartite bay, and then those of the apse, and each of the three bays of the choir is thus made about equal to those of the apse, though the arches below are quite unequal. Externally all of them are sup- ported by regularly arranged flying-buttresses, some of which 166 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VIII. must, I think, be supported on tlie cross-arches of the aisle in front of the chapels. The triforium is round-arched, of two horseshoe-headed lights divided by a shafted monial ; and the clerestory is of round-headed broadish windows, with jamb-sliafts and richly-chevroned arches. The flying-but- tresses are all double, the lower arch abutting against the triforium, and the upper against the wall above the clerestory windows ; and all appear to me to have been added after the original erection of the clerestory. The parapet here, as well as in the aisles, is battlemented, the battlements being finished with pyramidal copings of the common Moorish type. I should liave observed that the passage round the town walls is con- nected with that round the aisle walls, and that the two levels of battlements in the latter are connected by occasional flights of stone steps. The tmnsepts liave the same triforium in their eastern walls as the choir ; and here, too, the same kind of construction was ventured on, the groining shafts not being over the clustered column which divides the arches of the aisles round the chevet. When this was done the intention was evidently to erect one bay of sexpartite vaulting next the Crossing, and then a quadripartite bay beyond it. At present both bays are similar — quadripartite — and the clerestory is filled with large traceried windows. The remainder of the church was so much altered in the four- teenth century, that its whole character is now of that period. The north transept faqade has in its lower stage two windoAvs of two lights, the traceries of which are precisely similar to those of our own early geometrical style, and there is a very fine rose window above them. This rose is of sixteen divisions, each con- taining two plain pierced circular openings, but the dividing lines betAveen them being marked, give the Avhole tracery that effect of radiation from the centre Avhich is so important a feature in the designs of many Avheel-AvindoAvs. All the AvindoAvs in this facade are richly moulded, and there are Avell- developed buttresses at its angles, but, unhappily, the gable has been entirely destroyed, and the present termination of the Avail is a straight line of brickwork beloAV the eaves of the hipped roof, ddie question of the original pitch of the roof — always so interesting — is therefore left uncertain and undecided. The clerestory throughout is filled Avith enormous six-light traceried AvindoAvs, Avith transomes, and the double flying buttresses between them are very large, and are fiiiished at the top Avith a line of traceries beloAv their copings, and Avitli crocketed pin- Chap. VIII. AVILA: CATHEDIiAL. 167 nacles in front. There are two towers at the ends of the aisles, which do not open into them, but only into the nave. The south-Avest tower lias never been completed, but the north- Avest steejile is a very tine work of the same age as the clerestory of the nave. It has bold buttresses, and a belfry stage lighted by tAvo AviiidoAvs on each side, AAuth tall crocheted pediments above them, and beloAv the battlemented parapet a line of rich sunk tracery. The angles — internal as Avell as external — are carved Avith a ball enrichment, Avhich at a distance produces the same effect as our English ball-floAver ornament ; and, like it, giA^es an air of richness to the Avhole Avork. The buttresses hnisli above the parapet Avith croch- eted pinnacles, and the parapet Avith a pointed coping, Avhich someAA^hat recalls the outline of the Moorish battlement. The Avhole effect of the steeple, transept, and nave is certainly very noble, and they are marked by an entire absence of any of those foreign peculiarities which usually strike an English eye. The Avhole might, in fact, be English Avork of the fourteenth century. The noi th door of the nave is of grand dimensions, having six statues in niches in each jamb, and others against the buttresses on either side. The tympanum is sculptured Avith our Lord in an aureole in the centre, the Betrayal and tlie Last Supper below, angels censing on either side, and the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin above. The orders of the archivolt are hlled Avith figures, some representing the resurrection of the dead, and others figures of kings and saints A\orshipping the central figure of our Lord. The door-opening has the peculiarity of having an elliptical or three-centred arch. This feature I noticed also in doors evidently of about the same age at Burgos and at Leon, and it is just one of those evidences Avhich go surely to prove that the several Avorks are all designed by the same archi- tect. The resemblance of the mouldings in the jamb of this doorAvay to those in tlie Avestern end of Leon Catliedral is very close, and all these doors have an order of very similar foliage betAveen the several sculptured or storied orders of the arcluA'olt. I do not think the AVork here is quite as good as that at Leon, though the filling in of the tympanum with a Avell-marked vesica in the centre, and four rows of subjects divided by Avell-defined horizontal lines, is uncommonly good. A sort of shalloAV porch has been formed by some later groining, Avhich occupies the space betAveen the buttresses on either side of the doorway, and this is finished in front Avith a ricli open traceried parapet and pinnacles. 168 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. VIII. It was during the prelacy of Don Sanclio III., Bishop of Avila from a.d. 1292 to 1353, that most of the later works of the cathedral were executed, and his arms are sculptured upon the vault of the Crossing. The character of all the work would agree perfectly with this date, which is given by Cil Gonzalez Davila ^ in his account of the church. A staircase in the south-west tower leads up into the roof of the aisles, which now partly blocks up the too large clerestory ; and passing througli this, and then over the roofs of the sacris- ties, we reach the exterior of the chevet and the fortified eastern wall. Over the sacristies is some original stone roofing, of an extremely good, and, so far as I know, almost unique kind, with whicli it seems very probable that the whole of the roofs were originally covered. But it is now, as well as all the otliers, pro- tected by an additional timber roof covered with tiles, and is not visible from tlie exterior. This roofing is all laid to a very flat pitch with stones, wliich are alternately hollowed on the surface for gutters, and placed about eight ancl a half inches apart, and other square stones, which rest on the edges of the first, so as to cover their joints. The stones are of course all of the same ‘ Teatro Eccl. ii. 258. Davila, among of liis own town so little really original the celebrities of Avila, includes him- matter as to the history or the date of self, “the least of all, Pul vis et umbra.” its buildings. One is surpiised to find in his accomit Chap. VIII. AVILA: CATHEDRAL. 169 leno'tli — two feet seven inches — and set over each otlier so as to form a drip. The cornice at the eaves of this roof is very well managed, and looks as if it were of the thirteenth century. Its construction reminded me much of tlie stone guttering so frequently seen in the early Irish buildings, and which, being so much less perishable than lead, has often preserved them, where the common English construction would long ere this have involved the whole building in ruin. The cloister on the south side of the nave is much decayed and mutilated. It was built probably in the early part of the fourteenth century, and has good traceried windows, generally of four lights, but blocked up, and with all their cusping destroyed. On its east side is a fine fifteenth century chapel, with an altar at the south end, and a passage through its other end, screened oft by an iron Keja, leading to the priests’ rooms, and so round to the sacristies. The windows of this chapel are covered with a rude ball ornament, constantly seen in works of the fifteenth century. I must not forget to notice the furniture of the interior of the cathedral, some of which is very fine. The Retablo of the high altar is very grand, having five sides, which follow the outline of the apse, and it is of three stages in height. The lowest stage has the four evangelists and the four doctors painted on its side panels, and SS. Peter and Paul in the centre ; the next has the Transfiguration in the centre, and the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation in the Temple at the sides ; and the upper stage the Crucifixion in the centre, and the Agony, the Scourging, the Eesurrection, and the Descent into Hell at the sides. These paintings were executed in a.d. 1508 by Santos Cruz, Pedro Berruguete, and Juan de Borgoiia; and some of them are not only valuable in the history of art, but of great merit. TJie St. Matthew attended by an angel, who holds his ink for him, is designed with great grace ; and the Adoration of the Magi, and some of the other subjects, are admirably designed and painted. The drawing is rather sharp and angular, and has more the character of German than of Italian art. The woodwork in which the paintings are framed is richly carved and gilt, but in a jumble of styles; the canopies over the pictures being Gothic, and the columns which support them thoroughly Eenaissance in style.^ ^ Juau de Borgoiia contracted on ceiving 15,000 maravedis for each, and March 23, 1508, to paint five pictures binding himself to finish them by All which were lacking in this Retablo, re- Saints' Day of the same year. 170 GOTHIC AKCHlTECTUliE IN SPAIN. Chap. VIIT. The fittings of the Coro are all Eenaissance, and there is a screen of the same age across the nave on its western side. To the east is the usual metal Eeja, and low rails enclosing the passage from the Coro to the Capilla mayor, A flight of seven steps in front of the altar, the magnificent colour of its Eetablo, and the contrast of the extremely light choir and the almost windowless aisles and chapels round it, make the pictorial effects here extremely fine ; and they are heightened by a good deal of stained glass, which, though of late date, has some fine rich colour. It was executed at the end of the fifteenth century. Fine as this cathedral is, I think, on the whole, I derived almost as much pleasure from the church of San Vicente, built just outside the walls, a little to the north of the cathedral. This is a very remarkable work in many respects. The church — dedicated to the three martyrs, Vicente, Sabina, and Cristeta, wlio are said to have suffered on the rock still visible in the crypt below the eastern apse — is cruciform in jdan,^ with three eastern apses, a central lantern, a nave and aisles of six bays in length, two western steeples with a lofty porch between them, and a great open cloister along the whole south side of the nave. The south door is in the bay next but one to the transept, and there are staircase turrets in the angles between the aisles and the transej^ts. The design and detail of the eastern apses recall to mind the Segovian type of apse. Tlieir detail as well as their general design are, in fact, as nearly as possible identical, and no doubt they are the work of the same school of late Eomanesque architects. They are very lofty, the ground being so much below the floor of the church that the windows of a crypt under the choir are pierced in the wall above the plinth. They have, too, the usual engaged shafts between the windows, dividing each apse into three vertical compartments, each pierced with a round-headed window. Tliese shafts are finished with finely carved capitals under the eaves’ corbel-tables ; and tlie string- courses which occur below the windows, on a level with their capitals, and again just over their arches, are generally deli- cately carved, but sometimes moulded. The central apse is higher than those on either side, and consequently none of the horizontal lines are continuous round the three apses ; and as the eastern walls of the transepts have no openings, and no stringcourses or enrichments of any kind between the ground 2 Plate XI. SAN VICENTE, AVILA. X- ■IK) % Chap. VIII. AVILA : SAN VICENTE. 171 and the eaves, tliere is a certain air of disjointedness in the whole design which is not pleasing. The transept facades are very simple : both are pierced with windows of one light high np in the wall, and the northern transept is vigorously treated with a grand system of buttressing, used as medimval artists alone apparently knew how ! The buttresses are mere pilasters at the top, and the eaves-cornices are carried round them and up the flat-pitched gable-line in the way so commonly seen in Italian Gothic. But at mid-height these pilasters are weathered out boldly, and run down to the natural rock on which the churcli is built, and which here crops up above the surface of the ground : a central buttress is added between the others, and between the buttresses the whole wall is battered out with a long succession of weatherings to the same thickness at the base as the greatest projection of the buttresses. Probably the lower part of this front has been added long after its first erection for the sake of strength ; and undoubtedly the somewhat similar system of buttressing which is carried along the north wall of the nave is long subsequent in date to the early church, to which it has been applied. The south transept, owing to the rapid rise of the ground to the south, is much less lofty than the other, and has between its buttresses three high tombs. The whole south side of the nave is screened, so to speak, by a very singular lofty and open cloister, ^vhich extends from the west wall of the transept to a point in advance of the west front. It is very wide, and is entirely open to the south, having occa- sional piers, with two clustered shafts between each. There is something at first sight about the look of these clustered shafts which might lead one to suppose them to be not later tlian the thirteenth centuiy ; and as the lofty arches are semi-circular, this idea would be strengthened were it not that a careful com- parison of the detail with other known early detail proves pretty clearly that they cannot be earlier than about the middle of the fourteenth century. The material — granite — favours this view, for here, just as in our own country, the early architects seem to have avoided the use of granite as much as possible, even where, as at Avila, it lies about everywhere ready for use. There is something so novel and singular about this open loggia or cloister, that I could not help liking it much, though it un- doubtedly destroys the proportions, and conceals some of the detail, of the old church in front of which it has been added. The bays of the aisle are divided by j)ilaster-buttresses, and 172 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUEE IN STAIN. Chap. VIII. lighted with round-headed windows which have external jamb- shafts. The west end is, perhaps, the noblest portion of this very remarkable cliurch. There are two towers placed at the ends of the aisles. These are buttressed at the angles, and arcaded with sunk panels of very considerable height on the outer sides ; they are groined with quadripartite vaults, and do not open into the church, but only into the bay between them, which, though it is a continuation of the full height of the nave, is treated simply as a grand oj^en porch, with a lofty pointed arch in its outer (or western) wall, and a double doorway in its eastern wall opening into the church. This j^orch is roofed with a vault of eight cells, level with that of the nave, and extremely lofty and impressive, therefore, from the exterior, and over the doorway a window opens into the nave. The western, as well as the side arches, have bold engaged shafts, and tlie groining is also carried on angle shafts. The whole effect is fine, and the light and shade admirable and well contrasted : but the charm of the whole work seemed to me to lie very much in the contrast between the noble simplicity and solid massiveness of the archi- tecture generally, and the marvellous beauty and delicacy of the enrichments of the western doorway, which is certainly one of the very finest transitional works I have ever seen. It is, as will be seen by the engraving, double, with round arches over each division, and the whole enclosed under a larger round arch. Statues of saints are placed in either jamb, and against the central ])ier in front of the shafts which carry the archivolt, and the latter and the capitals are carved with the most prodigal luxuriance of design and execution, and with a deli- cacy of detail and a beauty of which an idea cannot be conveyed by words. Sculptured subjects are introduced in the tympana of the smaller arches, and a richly carved stringcourse is carried across under a parapet which is placed over the doorw^ay. The figures and carving are all wrought in a very fine and delicate stone. The tympana are sculptured on the left with the story of Dives and Lazarus, and on the right with a death-bed scene, where angels carry up the soul to Paradise. Tlie detail of the foliage seemed to me to have a very Italianizing character, being mostly founded on the acanthus-leaf. The capitals are very delicate, but copied closely from Classic work, and the figures are dignified in their pose, but their draperies are rather thin and full of lines. Some of the shafts are twisted, and beasts of various kinds are freely introduced with the foliage in the sculpture. No 23. SAN VICENTE, AVILA. p. 172. INTERIOR OF WESTERN PORCH. ■'ll Chap. VIIL AVILA: SAN VICENTP]. 173 To me the sight of such work as this is always somewhat dis- heartening. For here in the twelfth century we find men exe- cuting work which, both in design and execution, is so immea- surably in advance of anything that we ever see done now, that it seems almost vain to hope for a revival of the old spirit in our own days : vain it miglit be in any age to hope for better work, but more than vain in this day, if the flimsy conceit and impudent self-assertion which characterize so much modern (so-called) Gothic is still to be tolerated ! for evil as has been the influence of the paralysis of art Avliich affected England in the last century, it often seems to me that the influence of thoughtless compliance with what is popular, without the least study, the least art, or the least love for their work on the part of some of the architects wlio pretend to design Gothic buildings at the present day, may, without our knowing it, land us in a worse result even than tliat which onr immediate ancestors arrived at. Here, however, at Avila, in this porch of San Vicente, let us reverence rightly the art and skill of him who built, not only so delicately and beautifully, but also so solidly and so well ; let ns try to follow Ids example, knowing for cer- tain that in this combination lies the true merit of all the best architecture — Pagan or Christian — that the world has ever seen. The three stages of the western towers are, I think, respec- tively of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The second or intermediate stage is arcaded, and has its angles planned with a shaft set in a broad splay precisely in the mode we see so commonly adopted in the Segovian towers.^ The upper stage is finished with gables on each face, the gable being fringed with a line of granite trefoils in not very good taste. Gil Gonzales Davila ^ says that the tower of this church was built by alms in a.d. 1440. He refers, no doubt, to the upper stage, the design of which agrees with this statement. I was not able to learn how it had originally been roofed ; but my impression is that it probably had two stone gabled roofs inter- secting each other. In addition to the western door there is another fine entrance on the south side of rather earlier date than tlie other, and now always in use as the ordinary entrance to the church. Descend- ing here by some steps from the cloister, we find ourselves in the impressive interior, and are at once struck by some fea- ‘ See tlie illustration of San Esteban, Segovia. - Teatro Eccl. ii. 230. 174 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN' SPAIN. Chap. AHH. tures which are of rare occurrence in this part of Spain. The columns are of very bold, perhaps heavy, design, and rest on circular bases. Their front portion is carried up on a bold and massive groining pier in front of the main wall ; the arcades are severely simple, the arches semi-circular, and the capitals richly carved. A carved stringcourse is carried round the church above the arches, and there is the very uncommon arrangement (in this country) of a well-developed triforium ; each bay here having a round-arched opening, subdivided into two smaller openings, divided by a massive column with sculp- tured capital. Another stringcourse divides the triforium and clerestory, which has also round-arched windows of one light. The vaulting, both in the nave and aisles, is quadripartite, the only remarkable feature in it being the massive size of the ribs. The three eastern apses are vaulted with waggon-vaults over their western compartments, and semi-domes over the apses, and the transepts are roofed with waggon-vaults. All the latter have cross arches or ribs below them carried on engaged shafts, and the side walls of the chancel and chancel-aisles are arcaded beloAV the vaulting. The central lantern is carried on piers, which have evidently been in great part rebuilt at some time subsequent to the foundation of the church. They carry pointed arches of granite, clumsily moulded, and have rudely-carved capitals. Two piers on the south of the nave next the Crossing, and one on the north, were either partly or altogether rebuilt at the same time, and it looks very much as though the first lantern had partly fallen, and then, two centuries after the original foundation of the church, the existing one had been erected, for over the pointed arches there still seem to be remains of the older round arches. The lantern is rather loftier than is usual ; it is vaulted with an eight-ribbed dome, carried on arched pendentives, and is lighted by small windows of two lights in its upper stage. Davila ^ says that this church was rebuilt in the time of Ferdinand El 8anto” (1252-1284), who endowed it with certain rents for the purpose. But other authorities say, with more show of proba- bility, that the work undertaken in this year was the repair of the church. The rebuilding at this date, which is utterly inconsistent with the whole character of the church, agrees, nevertheless, very well indeed with that of the lantern. Subse- ^ Teatro Eccl. ii. 229. Chap. VIIL AVILA: SAN ANCENTE. 175 qneiitly, in AD. 1440, according to Davila,^ the tower of the church was built, and tliis statement probably refers to the upper stages of the western steeples. 4die crypt under the choir, called Nra. Sra. de Soterraha, is important only for its position : it is entered by a long flight of steps from the east end of the north aisle, and extends under the three eastern apses. It is mainly modernized, and the great attraction seems to be the liole in which, as I understood, people who wish to take a solemn oath put their hands whilst they swear. There are no original ritual arrangements remaining here ; but an iron Eeja is carried across the nave and aisles one bay to the west of the crossing, and here probably was the old place for the Coro, as the position of the shrine of San Vicente under one side of the lantern would have made it impossible for the Coro to be placed nearer the east. Some features still remain to be noticed, and the most im- portant is the tomb or shrine of the tutelars — San Vicente and his brethren. This is picturesquely placed on one side of the space under the lantern, with entire disregard to that desire for balance everywhere which so painfully affects almost all of us now-a-days. It is a thirteenth-century erection standing on detached shafts, within which appears to be a tomb which is always kept covered with a silken pall. Over this is a lofty canopy carried on four bold shafts at the angles, and consisting of a deep square tester, above winch is a lofty pyramidal cap- ping with its sides slightly concave and crockets at the angles. It is rather difficult to convey an idea of this very remarkable work without large and careful illustrations. The inner tomb or shrine is the really important work, the outer canopy or tester being evidently a much later addition.^ The shrine has all the character of an early pointed Italian Gothic work. Its canopy is carried on clusters of four shafts twisted together, at each of the angles ; between them, on each side, are three coupled columns, and at the east and west ends are single shafts. These carry trefoiled or many-cusped arches, the spandrels of which are sculptured ; and above this is a sort of shrine with a sloping stone scalloped all over on either side, and a steep diapered roof rising out of the centre. A series of subjects is carved in panels all along the sides of the shrine, which seem to have reference ^ Teutro Ecel. ii. 230. H. Gallejo, ‘ Memoria sobre la Basilica 2 ‘‘In 1465 the sepulchre of the mar- de San Vicente,’ p. 13. This date can tyrs was made by donations from the only refer to the canopy. Catholic kings, prelates,” &c. D. Andres 17G GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. CiiAr. VIII. to three saints and martyrs — probably to San Yicente and his companions. Figures of the Twelve Apostles are introduced, two and two, at the angles, and other figures sitting and reading between the subjects. A late iron screen between the columns of the outer baldachin makes it rather difficult either to see or to sketch this interesting work carefully. Its detail is all very peculiar, and in the twisted and sculptured shafts, the strange form of some of the cusping, and the iron ties with which it is undisguisedly held together, I thought I saw evident traces of the influence of Italian art. I take the shrine to be a work of the thirteenth century, though the baldachin is no doubt of later date. Near this shrine in the south aisle is some very fine rich and delicate wrought-ironwork in a grille round a side altar. It is possibly part of the old choir-screen, and at any rate does not belong to the place in which it is now preserved. The beauty of this work consists in the delicacy of the thin strips of iron, which are bent into a succession of circular lines ending in roses, and on an excessively small and delicate scale. Some similar work is still to be seen in one of the windows of the apse. The arches on either side of the great western porch are filled in with open trellis-work wood-screens, which show how good occasionally may be the adaptation by Gothic hands of Moorish work. Here the lines of wood cross each other at intervals, leaving, of course, a regular series or diaper of open squares. The edges of all these are simply cut out in a pattern, or notched, in a variety of forms, and the effect is extremely good. The same kind of work is common in Moorish buildings, but I had not seen it before so boldly used by Christians. San Vicente stands outside the walls of Avila, close to one of the principal gates, and near the north-east angle of the city. The church of San Pedro is similarly placed at the south-east angle, and at the end of a large open Plaza called the Mercado Grande. It is not a little remarkable that so soon after the enclosure of the city within enormous walls two of the most important of its churches should have been built deliberately just outside them, and exposed to whatever risks their want of defence entailed. In plan and general design San Pedro is very similar indeed to San Vicente. It has a nave and aisles of five bays, transepts of unusual projection, a central lantern, and three apsidal projections to the east. The doors, too, are in the centre of the west front, and in the next bay but one to the transe])t on both sides. The detail is almost all of ■3 « I i'c§ a I HVIIffl: .San Vi»tif> anti MgPlNfi Pgif C[aM?0: .S':-Hnfliorin: ' Plate XI. Chap. VIIT. AVILA: SAN PEDRO. 177 a simple and extremely massive kind of Eomanesqne, round arches being used everywhere and nncarved capitals with square abaci. The nave piers are of the commonly repeated section, but very large in proportion to the weight they have to carry. There is no triforium, and the clerestory windows are of moderate size, whilst those in the aisles are very small, and placed as high as possible from the floor The groining generally is quadripartite, and some of the ribs boldly moulded in a manner which suggests the possibility of this severe Iiomanesque-looking work being in truth not earlier than circa 1250. The transepts and the western portion of the apses are covered with waggon-vaults, and the apses themselves with semi-domes. The lanteni over the Crossing is probably not earlier than a.d. 1350, the mark of the junction with the old work just over the arches into the transepts being still very plainly visible. The vaulting here is very peculiar. Groined pendentives at the angles are introduced to bring the vault to an octagon in plan, but the eight compartments are variously treated ; those on the cardinal sides having ordinary vaulting cells over the windows, whilst those on the intermediate or diagonal sides are crossed with four segments of a dome with the masonry arranged in horizontal courses. The west front has three circular windows, that in the centre having wheel tracery ; the north doorway has a richly-sculp- tured archivolt, which is later in character than the general scheme of the church, having an order of good dog-tooth enrich- ment, and the abacus is carved with rosettes. There are stair- cases in the usual position in the angle between the transepts and the aisles, and the apses are divided into bays by engaged shafts, with sculptured capitals. There is, in fact, not very much to be said about this otherwise noble and remarkable church, because it repeats to so great an extent most of the features of its neighbour San Vicente. Yet its scale, character, and anti- quity are all such as would make us class it, if it were in England, among our most remarkable examples of late Eomanesque. There are several other churches in Avila, ^ but the only one besides those already mentioned of which I made any notes ‘ The following inscriptions on churches stone in San Bartolomeo, “ In honorem in Avila are given by G. G. Davila. On S. Bartholomei Apost, dedicavit hanc a stone in San Nicolas, “ In honorem B. ecclesiam Petrus Episcopus, &c. See., Nicolai dedicavit hanc ecclesiam Jacobus vii. idus Decembris, MCCXLVIII.” Abulensis Episcopus, See. See., vi, Kal. The same bishop consecrated San Do- Novernbris, era MCC. XXXVI.” On a mingo in 1240. 178 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. Chap. VIII. is that of the Convent of San Tomas, built between a.d. 1482 and 1493.^ In a charter of rerdinand the Catholic, dated May 29, 1490, reference is made to this monastery, together with those of Sta. Cruz, Segovia; San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo; Sta. Engracia, Zaragoza ; and other churches in Granada, &c., all of them founded by that King and Queen Isabella. They founded this convent on the petition of Confessor P. W. Tomas de Torquemada. The convent has been closed for some years, but has just been purchased by the Bishop of Avila, who is now repairing it throughout, with the intention, I believe, of using it as a theo- logical seminary. The detail of the conventual buildings, which surround two cloisters, one of which is of great size, is, as might be expected, of the latest kind of Gothic, and extremely poor and uninteresting, whilst the design of the cliurch, as so often seems to be the case with these very late Spanish churches, is full of interest. It has a nave of five bays with side chapels between the buttresses, short transepts, and a very sliort square chancel to the east of the Crossing ; but the remarkable feature is, that not only is there a large gallery filling the two western bays of the nave and fitted up with seventy stalls witli richly- carved canopies, the old choir-book desk in the centre, and two ambons projecting from the eastern parapet, but that there is also another gallery at the east end, in which the high altar, with its fine carved and painted Retablo, is placed. This eastern gallery has also gospel and epistle ambons projecting from its front. Strange as the whole arrangement of this interior is, it strikes me as almost more strange that it should not have been one of constant occurrence in a country where at one period the Coro was so constantly elevated in a western gallery. For there is a sort of natural propriety, as it seems to me, in the eleva- tion of an altar, wliere folk care at all for the mysteries cele- brated at it, to at least as high a level as any part of the church used for service ; and undoubtedly the effect of the altar-service to tliose in the raised Coro is much, if not altogether, marred where the altar is in its usual place on the floor. Here the effect is certainly very fine, whether the altar is looked at from tlie Coro or from the floor of the nave below it ; and from the former in particular, the strangeness of looking across the deep- sunk well of the nave to tlie noble altar raised high above it at the east is in every way most attractive. The detail of all the ^ Ceau Bermudez, Arq. de Espana, vol. i. p, 113. This convent is said to have been founded by the Catholic monarchs entirely with the confiscated goods of Jews, Chap. VI TI. AVILA: CONVENT OF SAN TOMAS. 179 architecture here is very uninteresting, though tlie many-ribbed vaulting is certainly good, and the effect of the dark cavernous nave under the western gallery is very fine in light and shade. Earely as I trouble my reader witli any reference to Eenais- sance works, I must here in justice say that the great tomb of Don Juan, the son of Ferdinand and Isabella, which occupies the fioor below the altar, is one of the most tender, fine, and graceful works I have ever seen, and worthy of any school of architecture. The recumbent effigy, in particular, is as dignified, graceful, and religious as it well could be, and in no respect unworthy of a good Gothic artist. It was executed by Micer Domenico Alexandro Florentesi, who refers to it in a contract which he entered into with Cardinal Ximenes in 1518 ; but it is said to have been completed as early as a.d. 1498.^ At present it is necessary to get an order to see it from the Bishop, who has the key of tlie church ; doubtless before long this will not be necessary, but it is well to give tlie caution, as the convent is some little distance beyond the town-walls, and the Bishop’s palace is in the very centre of the city. It will be felt, I think, that Avila is a city which ought on no account to be left unseen in an architectural tour in Spain. Fortunately it is now as easy of access as it was once difficult, for the railway from Valladolid to Madrid, in order to cross the Sierra de Guadarrama, makes a great detour by Avila, and thence on to the Escorial is carried on throimh the mountain rano;es with considerable exhibition of engineering skill, and with great advantage to the traveller, as the views throughout the whole distance are almost always extremely beautiful. I did not stop on my road to see the Escorial : as far as the building is concerned, it is enough I think to know that Herrera designed it, to be satisfied that it will be cold, insipid, and formal in character. And the glimpses I had of it as I passed amply justified this expectation. It is, too, as utterly unsuited to its position on the mountain-side as it Avell could be. On the other hand, I no doubt lost much in neglecting to make the excursions to the various points of view which it is the fashion for visitors to go to, though it seemed to me that the country in the neiglibourhood of La Granja, which one passes on the road from the Escorial to Segovia, was more interesting than this, the mountains being as liigli and much more finely wooded. ^ Cean Bermudez, Dice., &c., de los Bellas Artes en Espafia, vol. ii. p. 125. N 2 180 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. IX. CHAPTER IX. SEGOVIA. Few journeys can be made by tlie ecclesiologist in Spain which will be altogether more agreeable or more fruitful of results than one to this time-honoured city ; for not only does it contain witliin its walls more than the usual number of objects of archi- tectural and ecclesiological interest, but the road by which it is usually approached, across the Sierra de Guadarrama, presents so much fine scenery as to be in itself sufficient to repay the traveller for his work. It was from Madrid that I made my way to Segovia, taking the railway as far as the little station at Yillalba, near the Escorial, and travelling thence by a fairly- appointed diligence. The very fine and picturesque granite ranges of the Guadarrama are generally bare and desolate on their southern side, though here and there are small tracts of oak'-copse, or fern, or pine-trees ; but, after a slow ascent of some three or four hours, when the summit of the pass is reached, the character of the scenery changes entirely, and the road winds down through picturesque valleys and dips in the hills, which are here tliickly covered everywhere with pine-trees of magnifi- cent growth. It is necessary to travel for a time in the dismal plains of Old Castile, to enjoy to the full the sudden ch.ange to the mountain beauties of the Guadarrama; and it is impossible not to sympathize with the kings of Spain, who at La Granja, on the lower slopes of tlie northern side of the range, have built themselves a palace within easy reach of Madrid, and — owing to its height above the sea — in a climate utterly different from, and much more endurable than, that of the capital. Of the palace they have built I must speak with less respect than I do of their choice of its site, for it is now untidy in its belongings and apparently little cared for. A church forms the centre of it, and the whole group of buildings has slated roofs, diversified by an abundance of tourelles. The walls are all plastered and covered with decaying paintings of architectural decorations — columns, cornices, and the like — which give a thoroughly pau- perized look to the whole place. But probably the interior of Chap. IX. SEGOVIA. 181 the palace and its famous gardens would correct the impression which I received from a hurried inspection of the exterior only. It is an uninteresting drive of about an hour from La Granja to Segovia. The tower of the cathedral is seen long before reaching the city ; but it is not till one is very near to it that the first complete view is gained, and this, owing to the way in which the Alcazar and cathedral stand up upon a rocky li eight above the suburbs, and the streams which girt it on either side, is very picturesque. Even finer is it as one drives on through the suburb and first finds oneself in presence of the grand old Itoman aqueduct, which, still perfect and still in use, spans with its magnificent ranges of arch upon arch the valley which separates the city rock from the hills beyond. Its base is girt closely round by houses, and the diligence road passes under one of its arches, so that the enormous scale upon which it is built is thoroughly appreciated, and it is quite impossible not to admire the extreme simplicity and grandeur of the work. Notliing here was done that was useless or merely ornamental, and the Avhole still stands with but little repair — and that little well done — after so many centuries of good service, as useful as at the first. A steep hill leads up from the valley below the aqueduct through a gateway in the walls into the city, and after threading the narrow winding streets we find ourselves in the fine Plaza de la Constitucion, which is surrounded by picturesque balconied houses, save at its north-west angle, where it opens so as to allow a fine view of the east end of the cathedral. The houses have generally extremely picturesque open upper stages of wood arcading, and the windows and balconies are all gay with the heavy curtains which protect them from the sun. The situation of the city is in every way striking. On either side of it there is a deep valley, and these at their meeting have between them the great rock on which the Alcazar is built — as admirably secui e a site for a castle as could have been selected. Going eastward along the narrow ridge the cathedral is soon reached, and this is the centre of the city, which then widens somewhat, before the edge of the hill is reached which leads down to the suburb below the aqueduct. In the two valleys are some of the best of the buildings : San Millan in one, the Templars’ Church and the Convent of El Parral in the other ; but most of the old churches are crowded closely together on the summit of the hill. I shall begin my architectural notes with the cathedral, in deference only to its rank, and not at all to its age or architec- tural merits. It is nevertheless a building of no little value in 182 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IX. the history of Spanish art, as being perhaps the latest Gothic buildiDg erected, and one which was yet but little influenced by Renaissance art. In the Appendix I give a translation of the interesting contemporary account of the church, written by one Juan Rodriguez, who appears to have been the canon in charge of the work. According to his account, Juan Gil de Hontanon, the architect of Salamanca Cathedml, was appointed in a.d. 1522 to superintend the work, and on the 8th of June in the same year the Bishop ordered a procession, and, going liimself to the site of the church, laid its foundation-stone at tlie western end. Cean Bermudez, in his account of this cathedral, sjDeaks of a compe- tition among several architects for the work, and says that the design of Rodrigo Gil de Hontanon — the son of Juan Gil — was selected.^ But this seems to be clearly contrary to the distinct statement of the Canon Juan Rodriguez. The work was com- menced, as we have seen, in 1522, and Juan Gil seems to have died circa 1531. His son Rodrigo wms not made Maestro mayor until 1500, and on the 5th of August, 1563, laid the first stone of the Capilla mayor. The inscription on his tombstone in the cloister ^ says that he laid the first stone of the church ; but if he did so it was on behalf of his father, who was then undoubtedly the Maestro mayor, and we may assume, I believe, that the greater part of the church, as we now see it, was finislied before the year 1577, in which he died, though, indeed, Madoz says that the Sacrament was moved to the new cathedral as early as 1558, though the chapels of the apse were not completed until 1593. The north door, by Juanes de Mugaguren, was added in A.D. 1026, and is thoroughly Pagan. The plan ^ of this church must be compared with that of the new cathedral at Salamanca, built by the same man. The details of the two churches are very similar ; but the scale of Segovia is sliglitly greater than that of Salamanca, and it has the enormous advantage of having a grand chevet in jjlace of a square east end. It will be seen, on reference to my account of Salamanca, that the architects who drew up the scheme for the cathedral there, intended that its end should be circular, but that nevertheless it has not been so built. It seems probable, there- fore, that Hontanon felt that this alteration was a mistake, or 1 Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Espafia, i. 1577. He set the first stone, which the 1>. 214, Bishop D. Diego de Ribera laid on the 2 Here lies Rodrigo Gil de Hontanon, 8th of June, 1525, Master of the Works of this Holy Plate XH. Church. He died the 5 1st of May, Chap. IX. SP]G0V1A : CATHEDPtAL. 183 else that we owe the amended plan of Segovia to the better taste of his son Eodrigo, who was master of the works of the eastern portion of the church. But in any case, whether it is to the father or the son that we ovve it, the internal effect is undoubtedly very noble, in spite of all the shortcomings which must be looked for in a work of such a date. The main columns are of grand dimensions, moulded, and rising from lofty bases planned with that ingenious complication of lines which was always so much affected by the later German and Spanish archi- tects. The arches are very lofty, and there is no triforium, but only a traceried balustrade in front of the clerestory, which consists of uncusped triplets filling the wall above the springing of the groining, and very low in proportion to the great height of the church, though at the same time amply sufficient for the admission of all the light necessary in such a climate. The aisle has a somewhat similar clerestory, but without the traceried balustrade which we see in the nave clerestory, and the aisles and chapels are all lighted with windows, each of one broad light. Most of the smaller arches here are semi-circular; but tliough this is the case, and though so many of the windows are of one light, there is no appearance anywhere of any attempt to revive the form or detail of earlier work. On the exterior the general character is just the same as that of Hontaiion’s work at Salamanca. There are the same ^^innacles and buttresses, the same parapets, and the same concealment of the roofs and roof-lines everywhere — even in the transepts, whicli liave no gables — and there is also a domed lantern over the Crossing and a lofty tower at the west end, finished with an octagonal stage covered with a dome, and rising from between four great pinnacles. So great, in short, are all the points of similarity, that I can well believe that portions of the two works may have been executed from the same plans, and this close co|)ying of the earlier work at Salamanca may perhaps have been the true reason of the respectably Gothic detail of the die vet, built as it was so near the end of the sixteenth century. The groining is all of the kind so common in Spain, having ogee lierne ribs in addition to the diagonal, and in place of ridge ribs. Not a little of the grand effect of the interior is owing to the rich stained glass with whicli all, or nearly all, the windows are filled. It is all, of course, of the very latest kind, and poor in much of its design; yet nevertheless it is often magnificent in colour, and in this respect rpiite beyond anything that most of our artists in glass seem to me to accomplisli nowadays. The Coro is 184 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IX. here — and probably was from the first — in the nave ; but there is nothing either in its fittings or in those of the Capilla mayor which struck me as worthy of note. The detail of the central dome is quite Pagan, and here and there throughout the work little indications of the same spirit peep out, and show how narrow was the escape which the whole church had of being from firs j to last executed in the Eenaissance style. With all its faults this church has grand points : this every one will allow who has seen it rising in a noble pyramidal mass above the houses of the town from the open sjiace in front of the Alcazar, from whence all its parts are seen to great advantage. Of the other subordinate buildings I need not say much. The canon, whose account I give in the xippendix, is much more enthu- siastic about them than I was, for in truth they are cold and tame in design and meagre in detail ; and wanting the effect of height and colour of the interior of the cathedral, want all that makes it so striking. I saw no great, if any, difference of style between tlie cloisters and the church ; but they were the cloisters of the old clmrch, and were removed here by a contract entered into by one Juan de Carapero in 1524. Campero was one of the archi- tects consulted as to the rebuilding of Salamanca Cathedral, and was evidently a mason or builder as well as an architect. I was not aware of the history of the cloister when I was at Segovia, and I did not notice any evidence of the work having been rebuilt and added to in the way described. The cathedral is the largest and most important, but at the same time the most modern mediaeval building in Segovia ; whilst, on the contrary, one of the smallest, the church of the Templars, is also one of the most ancient and curious ; it is situated by the roadside just out of the city, on its north-west side, and below the great rock which is crowned by the Alcazar. dTie date of its consecration in a.d. 1208 is given by an inscrip- tion which still remains in the interior, and which has been incorrectly given by Cean Bermudez. It is as folloAvs : — IIcTc sacra fundantes coelesti sede locentur ; Atqiie suberrantcs in eadem consocientur. Dedicatio ecclcsiaB beati Sepiilcbri Xrti Idns Aprilis Era mccxlvi. +. The plan is very peculiar.^ The nave is dodecagonal, and has a small central chamber enclosed with solid walls, round which the ’ See ground-plan, Plate VII I. SEGOVIA, p. 184. INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLARS CHURCH LOOSING N.E, ;. ■-;■ /w ^■-||: . .; C?J . ' ''S '■!.> 4; '■'•'■■ :>'# i.'‘s'v, ‘•■r‘ vK .>;• 4' ' ' J j'x’ ■ ; - ■ v.^ 'v . - Chap. IX. SEGOVIA: CONVENT OF EL PAIIRAL. 185 vaulted nave forms a kind of aisle. This central chamber is of two storeys in height, the lower entered by archways in the car- dinal sides, and the upper by a double flight of steps leading to a door in its western side. The upper room is vaulted with a domical roof which has below it four ribs, two parallel north and south, and two parallel east and west, and it retains the original stone altar, arcaded on its sides with a delicately wrought chevron enrichment and chevroned shafts. The uiDper chapel is lighted by seven little windows opening into the aisle around it. The room below the chapel has also a dome, with ribs on its under side. On the east side of the building are the chancel and two chapels, forming parallel apses, to the south of which is a low steeple, the bottom stage of which is also converted into a cliapel. The chapel in the centre of the nave is carried up and flnished externally with a pointed roof, whilst the aisle is roofed with a lean-to abutting against its walls. There are pilasters at the angles outside, small windows high up in the walls, and a fine round-arched doorway on the western side. The character of the whole of this interesting church is late Eoman- esque, and its value is considerable, as being an accurately dated example. It is not now used, the Templars having been suppressed in a.d. 1312. Within a few minutes’ walk of this church of La Yera Cruz (for this is its dedication) is the convent of El Parral, founded in the fifteenth century,^ by a Marquis de Villena, on a S]3ot once so beautiful as to give rise to the saying, Los huertos del Parral, Paraiso terrenal,” but now so dreary, desolate, decaying, and desecrated, that the eye refuses to rest on it, and seeks relief by looking rather at the grand view of the town on the rocky heights on the other side of the little valley. Juan Gallego, a native of Segovia, was the master of the works here in 1459, and it is recorded that before beginning to construct the convent he collected all the waters from the hill above its site, and distributed them by aqueducts for the service of the convent. The Capilla mayor was not commenced until A.D. 1472, in which year a contract was drawn up with Boni- facio and Juan de Guas, of Segovia, and Pedro Polido, of Toledo, binding them to complete the work within three years, for the sum of 400,000 maravedis. Then the tribune of the Coro was ^ Colmenares (Historia de la insigne been begun before 147L and the vault- Ciudad de Segovia ; Segovia. 1637) gives ing was finished in 1485. — Cean Ber- the date of the first foundation 1447, inudez, Arq. de Espana, i. p. 111. but the buildings do not seem to have 186 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IX. found to be too low for the taste of the monks, and it was taken down and rebuilt by Juan de Euesga, of Segovia, for 125,000 maravedis ; and by a contract signed in July, 1494, he bound himself to complete the work before the end of the same year. After this, in 1529, Juan Campero, whose name has already been mentioned in connexion with the rebuilding of the cloister of the cathedral, undertook to raise the tower twenty-nine feet.^ The ground-plan and general design of this church are very peculiar. The accompanying sketch-plan^ will explain them better than any words ; and, strange as the planning of the transepts looks, it is, nevertheless, very fine in effect. This is maiuly the result of the very remarkable distribution of light. The western part of the church is almost without windows, and the great western gallery coming forward just half the length of the nave, adds much to the impression of gloom at this end of the building. The eastern end seems to be by contrast all window, being lighted by twelve large three-light windows, with statues of the Apostles in their jambs. The effect of the brilliant light at the east end, and the deep gloom of the west, is most impressive, and shows how much architects may do by the careful distribution of light. Few old buildings are alto- gether without some sign of attention to this important element of beauty in building, whilst few modern buildings seem to me ever to have been devised with even any thought of the existence of such a phenomenon as a shadow ! The front of the gallery is elaborately panelled, and retinmed eastward on the north side, to form a gallery in front of the oi’gan ; and on the south, to make a passageway to the staircase by which the monks reached the Coro. The arch under the gallery is struck from three centres and richly cusped, and the whole is carried on a stone vault. A very richly carved and cusped doorway leads from the south transept to the cloisters, and to an elaborately painted chapel, which has been added on the south-east of the choir. The exterior of the church and convent is poor and uninteresting, though there is a rather fine double west door, with a statue of the lllessed Virgin in the centre, and saints on either side in the jambs. The conventual buildings deserve but little notice. In the modern cloister — fast falling to ruin — are retained the traceried balustrades which probably adorned the cloister built at the time of the foundation of the convent. ' Tlieise particulars are all given in Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Espaiia, i. pp. Ill, 120, 14 G. ‘ See Elate VUI. 'V iS?,- iiT--r. SAN ESTEEAN, SEGOVIA, p 187. SOBTH-EAST VIEW OF CHURCH AND STEEPLE, Chap. IX. SEGOVIA ; ^EHE ALCAZAR. 187 A very picturesque path leads up from El Parral into the city. The effect of the Alcazar from hence is very imposing, the enormous keep-tower which rises out of its western face being very prominent, with its outline marked by round corner turrets ino- j'ectiug from the angles so often seen in tlie old castles of Castile. Its walls, as well as many others in the Alcazar, are covered with diapers in plaster, with the pattern left slightly in relief, a mode of decoration which seems to have been extremely popular in Segovia in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Until very lately this Alcazar was covered with picturesque tall slated roofs, but, unfortunately, a lire has completely gutted the whole build- ing, and left nothing but the outside walls, which still, however, are most imposing in their effect. The old town walls diverge slightly from the Alcazar, and enclose the whole city ; their ontline is broken picturesquely with towers, sometimes round and sometimes square, and they wind about to suit the uneven and rugged surface of the rock on which they are built. The gateways are not very remarkable, though always effective. One of them is passed in coming from El Parral, and, as soon as the town is ]’eached, the noble steeple of San Esteban — one of its linest architectural features — is seen in front. I have seldom seen a better work than this. It is evidently one of a large class, most of the other steeples here reproducing the unusual arrangement of the angles. They are boldly splayed off, and in the middle of the splay is set a shaft, which finislies with a sculptured capital. The effect of this design is to give great softness of contour to the whole steeple, and yet to mark boldly and broadly the importance of the angles. The arcading of the various stages is richly and admirably managed, and the details throughout are very j)ure and good. I have found no evidence of its exact date, though it is evidently a work of the first half of the thirteenth century. The church to which this steeple belongs is remarkable for the remains of an external cloister against the walls of the nave. 'There are several churches here which have the same feature, and in other parts of this book I have mentioned similar cases at Las Huelgas, Burgos, and at La Antigua, Yalladolid. It looks like an arrangement for keeping the building cool, and is as good in its effect, as in so hot a climate it must be convenient. Of the early churches here none is altogether so fine as that of San Jffillan. It stands in the southern valley, not far from the aqueduct, and exactly on tlie opposite side of the town to the Templars Church. Ijike that, too, it is outside the walls, and in 188 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IX. a scantily-peopled suburb. It consists of a nave and aisles,^ all finished at the east end with apses, and protected on both sides by cloisters similar to those of San Esteban, save that they are confined to the sides, and do not return across the west front. There is a low square lantern at the Crossing, and transepts which do not project beyond the aisles, and hardly show them- selves, therefore, on the ground-plan. The centi’al lantern is finished with a corbel-table, roofed with a low tiled roof, and lighted by a small window in each face. The apses are similar in style and detail to most of the early Spanish apses, having engaged shafts at intervals, richly wrought corbel-tables, and round-arched shafted windows. Both the transepts probably had fiat gables, with single windows, like those in the apse, but the north transept has been destroyed for the erection of a steeple, which seems to have formed no part of the original plan. The most striking view of the church is from the north-west. The west front is quite unaltered, save by the addition of three little windows over the west door, and is a capital example of simple Eomanesque. The gables are all of the same pitch, and the aisle walls are arcaded and pierced with windows above the cloister roofs. The cloister is a very rich composition, the shafts being coupled, with finely sculptured capitals, and the arches enriched with billet mouldings. The corbel-tables and cornices to these cloisters have evidently been carved at a date long after the original foundation of the church, the edge of the eaves- cornice being cut in a rich interlacing pattern of ivy-leaves, which cannot, I think, be earlier than from a.d. 1250 to 1270, and the heads, figures, and foliage on the corbels under it are all of the same character. There are fine north and south doors here, and there is a local peculiarity in their design which deserves notice. Their jambs consist of shafts set within very bold square recesses; and the number of orders in the arch is double that of those in the jamb, they being alternately carried on the capitals of the shafts, and upon the square order of the jambs. The effect is good, the bold spacing of the shafts, and the massiveness of the intermediate square jambs, tending to give that effect of solidity which these early Spanish architects never tired in their attempts to attain. The interior of the church has been much modernized, but still enough remains to render the whole scheme intelligible. The arcades between the nave and aisles are all perfect ; they are very plain, but spring from carved capitals of large size. The ^ See ground-plan, Plate VIII. No. 26. NORTH-WEST VIEW. i Chap. IX. SEGOYIA : SAN MILLAN. 189 capitals of tlie nave arcades have their abaci planned with re-en- tering angles, so as exactly to fit the plan of the two square orders of the archivolt. Some of the caps are of foliage only, others are histories ; one I remember having all round it the Adoration of the Magi, who are represented as large figures on horseback, and produce a most strange effect in such a place. The cross arches under the lantern are old, as also are those across the aisles, but the roof of the nave is now all under-drawn with plaster, and there are no means of telling precisely how it was originally covered; but, on the whole, I incline to the belief that it must have had a cylindrical vault, with quadrant vaults in the aisles, though it is possible, of course, that it had a flat wooden ceiling. The square piers in the nave favour this alternative, inasmuch as they seem to rise higher than they would have done had the roof been a stone vault. The pilasters against the aisle walls also run up to the level of the plate inside, and this (though it is modern) is higher than the springing of the nave arcades, and seems to prove that there have never been cross arches in the aisles. The external walls of the aisles above the cloister roofs are arcaded with plain arches between the pilasters, by which it is divided into bays, and the aisle windows are set within these arches. The lantern is modernized, but there still remain coupled cross ribs on its under side, and these, though they are plastered, being similar to those under the central vault of the Templars’ Church, are probably original. I wish much that I could put my hands on some documentary evidence Avhich would fix the exact date of this very fine and interesting church, for, from its importance, it may be con- sidered to be a leading example ; and there is no doubt that it very largely influenced the other churches of this important city. It is possible, however, from the character of some of the detail, that part of it is older than the Templars’ Church, consecrated, as we have seen, in a.d. 1208 ; though other parts of the detail — as, for instance, that of the external cornices — cannot be earlier than A.D. 1250-1270. Before the last of these dates, therefore, I have no doubt the church was erected, though, as the arches are all, or nearly all, semi-circular, the greater part of the work was pro- bably finished early in the century, if not in the twelfth century, and the decorations may have been completed afterwards.^ 1 San Millan is said to have been San Esteban: none of them, I believe, founded in a.d. 923, and similar early retain any features of so great an anti- dates are given for Sta. Columba and quity. 190 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. IX. The non-introduction of pointed arclies is certainly in favour of the earlier date, seeing that in the Templars’ Church most of the main arches, rude as they are, are pointed; and were it not for the late character of some parts of San Millan, and looking only to the character of the plan and general design, I might have assumed its date to be about a.d. 1150. It is possible that the cloisters were added after the erection of the church. The object of these external cloisters has been, I believe, matter of considerable discussion, yet I confess that they always seemed to me to be adopted mainly, if not solely, on account of the excessive heat in Spain in summer, and to be well worth our imitation when Ave have to erect churches in tropical climates. That they were confined very much to certain localities is perfectly true, but this is constantly the case, with local developments, in all parts of Europe; and here, no doubt, the idea once suggested by some early architect was frequently repeated by him, without taking the fancy of his brethren generally enough to make them repeat it elseAvhere. Another example of the same class, which in its original kind. This church is, unfortunately, very inucliL modernized throughout. It seems to have liad three parallel apses at the state must have been finer than San Millan, is to be seen in the (Avpit-al in Cloister, San Martin, Segovia. i church of San Martin. Here the ' cloister AA^as carried not only along the sides, but across the Avest front also, AAoth a bold pro- jecting Avest porch, breaking its lines, and giving great character and dignity to the Avhole scheme. The west doorway of the porch has statues in its jambs, and the detail seems to me to be all genuine thirteenth century Avork. The illustration of one of the cloister capitals will, I think, prove this; for though the old faA'ourite device of couples of birds is repeated here, the lines are all extremely fine and graceful, and the carving of the abacus of an advanced Chap. IX. SEGOVIA: CIIUECHES. 191 east end, and transepts, against which the side cloisters of the nave were stopped. There is a modern lantern over the old crossing, and a tower to the west of it rising from out of the centre of the nave, which seems to be in part old. There were northern and southern as well as western doors, and openings in the cloister opposite each of them. San Itoman, a desecrated church near the palace of the civil governor, has a short nave, chancel, and apse, with a tower on the sontli side of tlie chancel. The walls are very lofty, and are all finished with coiTel-tables at the eaves. The apse has three round-headed windows, and there is a noble north door, similar in design to those of San Millan, and with the abaci and labels richly carved. The west end has a small doorway, and a circular window over it, the former certainly, and the latter pro- bably, not original. The lower stage only of the tower remains. This church must be of about the same age as San Millan. San racnndo is similar in plan to San Homan, and of the same date. The detail of the aj^se is precisely the same as that of San ]\rillan. There is a large west door, modernized, and an open cloister seems to have been added at a later date to the side of the church, and is now walled up. This church is dese- crated, and converted into a Museum of Paintings. Santa Trinidad has a fine apse, and this is again of the San Millan pattern. It has carved stringcourses at the springing of the windows, and again just over their arches, and there are three-quarter engaged wall-shafts between the windows, and a richly sculptured eaves-cornice and corbel-table. San Nicolas, close to Santa Trinidad, has two apses, each lighted with a single window, engaged wall-shafts, and the usual carved labels, abaci, and corbel-tables. The tower is on tlie north side, rises one stage above the roof, and is lighted with two round-arched belfry windows. A small apse was added rather later than the oriMnal fabric to the east of this o tower, and before its erection the plan must have been almost the same as that of San Roman, but reversed. About a hundred yards from San Nicolas is another church which is almost an exact repetition of San Roman. San Lnine (?), in the Plaziiela de Capuchinos, is of just the same class as the rest, with nave, chancel, and apse, and a second apse east of the tower on the south side. There are no side windows here, and only a single light at the east end. Another church, in the Plaza de Isabel II., is of the same plan as the last, with a modernized tower. The carving on the string- 192 GOTHIC AHCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. IX. courses here is of the same kind of natural foliage that I have described at San Millan. Near the aqueduct are two churches. One of them, S. An- tholin (I think), has a tower at the north-east of the nave ; its two upper stages have on each face two round-arched shafted windows, and the angles are treated in a precisely similar way to those of San Esteban, having bold splays with engaged shafts in their centres. Another church close to this is modernized, but retains its old towei*, with the angles treated in the same way. The cliurch of San Juan has remains of an external cloister on one side. The last church of this long, and I fear very dry, catalogue, is that of San Miguel, which stands in the Plaza near the cathedral. It has four bays of nave, shallow transepts, and a very short choir, which is, I think, apsidal, but almost concealed by a pagan Ketablo. The whole is of late fifteenth-century date, and must, I think, be the work of the same hand as the cathedral. Some figures at the w^est end, representing St. Michael and the Annunciation, have evidently been taken from some older building, and built into the walls here. There is a very beautiful triptych in the north transept, with a Descent from the Cross in the centre, which ought to be looked at. It is a fine work of, I suppose, the latter part of the sixteenth century.’ I have already mentioned the great Alcazar, and the old town walls and gateways. They are magnificent in their scale, and very picturesque. The Alcazar was burnt some two or three years ago, and is now roofless, and I was told that its interior liad been completely destroyed. I foolishly omitted to verify this statement by personal inspection, and contented myself with the sight of the exterior. The walls of the front towards the city are all diapered in plaster, and here and there about the town several other examples of the same kind of work are to be seen. The patterns are generally tracery patterns of the latest Gothic, repeated over and over again, so as to produce a regular diaper throughout. I presume that it was executed with a frame cut out to the required pattern, so as to allow of the ground being cut back slightly, leaving the pattern lines formed 1 I did not see the clmrcli of San Lo- all of the same kind as in other examples renzo. It has three eastern apses, and here, with much delicate imitation of an arcaded cloister on the western and natural foliage. — See Illustration in southern sides, some of the arches being Monos. Arqos. de Espana. round and some pointed. The detail is Chap. IX. SEGOVIA : MORESQUE TOWER. 193 in the original face of the plaster. This kind of decoration seems to be perfectly legitimate, and here, owing to the care witli which the plaster has been made and used, it has stood re- markably Avell, though most of the patterns that I saw had evi- dently been executed in the fifteenth century. In the front of the Alcazar these plaster patterns are carried not only all over the plain face of the walls, but also round the towers and turrets at the angles, so that the very smallest pos- sible amount of wrought stone is introduced. The great tower or keep standing back a few feet only from the front is similarly ornamented, but has stone quoins bonded irregularly into the Avails ; in its upper stage it has windoAvs surmounted by quaint stone canopies, and then a series of great circular turrets, cor- belled boldly out from the face of the Avail, and carried up a considerable height, give its extremely marked and Spanish air to this grand toAver. These turrets are of stone, and between them is a parapet boldly corbelled out on machicoulis from the Avails. With that contempt for uniformity Avhich marks mediaeval artists, the keep is more than twice as broad on one side as on the other, and the great mass of wall and turret, roofs and spirelets, A\diich crowned the Avhole building before the fire, Avell sustained its picturesque irregularity of shape. The front of a private house near the Avails, not far from San Esteban, is another capital example of the same kind of plastei’- Avork. Here the fa9ade is a perfectly smooth and unbroken surface, pierced for doors and windows, Avhicli are set in square panels of stone, and Avith a regular and straight line of stone quoining at the angles. At one end a Ioav toAver is carried up a feAv feet above the general line of the building. The Avindows are generally mere plain square openings ; but tAvo set side by side in the principal stage have delicate ajimez windoAvs of tAvo lights, Avith elaborately traceried heads. The patterns in the plaster are three in number : the first carried from the stone plinth up to the sills of the principal Avindows, Avhere it is cut by a narrow band of ornament, acting as a stringcourse to divide it from the second pattern, Avhich is carried up to the eaves, the to Aver being covered with a third diaper, rather less intricate than the others. Near this house is a to Aver in the Avails even more Avorthy of notice. It is of very considerable height, quite plain in outline, and pierced Avitli only one or tAvo square-headed AvindoAvs, but surmomited by a fine parapet supported on machicoulis. The Avhole toAver is built Avith bold stone quoins and horizontal bands o 194 GOTHIC ATCHTTTCTUIIE IN SPAIN. Chap. IX. of brickwork, each band two courses in height, at intervals of about tliree feet. Between these bands the walls are plastered and diapered. Here, as in the other house, only two or three patterns are used, but I think great judgment is shown in the repetition for the greater part of the height of the same pattern, whicli is changed at last near the top, where it was desirable to emphasize the work. Most men having three patterns to use would have divided theTii equally, but the real artist gives all their value to his simple materials by not doing so. The construction of this tower led naturally to its decoration. The wrought stone at the angles, tlie rough stonework of the walls, and the occasional bonding- courses of brick, were all used simply as the best materials for their respective parts ; and the rough stonework being plas- tered and diapered, gave a richness and polish to the whole work which it would otherwise have wanted, whilst it in no degree destroyed the air of stability of the wall, which is secured by the obviously constructional arrangement of the stone and bricdv. The Moors Avere always distiuguished by the beautiful use they made of plaster ; and Avhether or no these Segovian buildings were executed by Moorish architects, it is quite certain that at any rate we owe them to their influence and example. The patterns used are generally such as in stone-AA^ork Avould be un- hesitatingly attributed to the end of the fifteenth or first half of the sixteenth century, and to this period no doubt the Avorks I have been describing belong. They deserve a detailed notice because they prove, as do most Moorish Avorks, that plaster may be used truthfully and artistically, and that AAothout any approach to the contemptible effect Avliich the imbecility and dishonesty of the nineteenth-century designers of plaster-work have con- trived to impress on almost all their productions. j\Iy last work in Segovia was to go to the Alcazar to get a sketch of the toAvn, Avith the cathedral rising in a noble mass in its very centre, backed by the line of the Guadarrama moun- tains, looking black and angry with the storm-clouds Avhich SAvept over the sky and around their summits at sunset ; and then strolling quietly back into the town, I Avent into the cathedral, to be impressed, as one always must be in such a place, by the aAveful solemnity Avhich even the latest Gothic architects in Spain knew hoAV to impart to their buildings. C'hap. X. MADPJl). 105 CHAPTEK X. MADEID — ALCALA — GUADALAJAEA — SIGUENZA. On my first journey to Madrid I travelled most of tlie way from Valladolid by diligence, and though the way was long and weary, the passage of the Sierra de Guadarrama was very fine, and I remember few pictures moi-e lovely tlian that which we saw at sunrise, as we climbed the northern side of the mountains amid groups of stone-pines ; whilst the steep descent to the village of Guadarrama, on tlie south, with a slight distant view of Madrid, and a near view of the Escorial, was quite a thing to be remembered with pleasure. Now, however, instead of arriving at Madrid hot, dusty, and sore with a diligence journey, the railway is completed, and the line of country it takes is so beau- tiful between Avila and Madrid as to leave no room for regrets for the old passage of the mountains by road. The entrance to Madrid is not very striking. For the last three or four miles the road ]3asses by a hiir amount of planted woods, but the river by its side is dry and dreary, and every one in the hot season at which I arrived seemed to be gas^^ing for breath. A very small suburb oidy is passed before the Queen’s palace is reached : tliis is built on tlie edge of a steep hill overhanging the river, and commands a grand view of the Sierra de Guadarrama. This is indeed the one and only glory of such a site as that of Madrid, for were it not for this distant view, I know nothing more dreary and unhappy than the country with which it is surrounded. At the same time, partly owing to the great height above the sea, and partly, probably, to the neigh- bourhood of this mountain range, the climate here is most treacherous, changing rapidly from the most violent heat in the daytime, to what seems by contrast to be icy chilliness at night. A garden with statues is laid out in front of the palace, and beyond this, passing some narrow streets, one soon reaches the Puerta del Sol, a tine irregular space in the centre of the city, wdth a fountain in the centre which is always playing pleasantly, and on great occasions sends up a jet to an unusual height. The o 2 196 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN, Chap. X. Piierta del Sol is very irregular, and on sloping ground, and hence it has a certain pleasing picturesqueness, which probably accounts for the reputation it has achieved. There is one great attraction to me in Madrid, and only one — the Picture Gallery. And it is as well for travellers to take up their quarters in one of the hotels near the Puerta del Sol, where ’they are within a walk of it, rather than in the respectable Fonda de Ynglaterra, where I found myself quite too far from everything that I wanted to see. I discovered no old churches here. Madrid is, in fact, a thoroughly modern city, and is remarkable as not being the see of a bishop, the Archbishops of Toledo having succeeded in re- taining it in their diocese. I found, therefore, nothing whatever to do in the way of ecclesiologiziug ; and yet, on the whole, having formed a very low estimate of the place beforehand, I was rather agreeably disappointed. The situation is unquestionably fine, the views of the mountains beautiful, the streets busy and smart, and the fountains, which seem to be innumerable, are on a scale wdiicli W'Ould astonish our London authorities. The evenings are always deliciously cool, and then all Madrid is on the move ; the very well laid out and planted Prado is thronged with smart people on foot, and smarter people in carriages ; and until one has suffered as one does from the extreme heat of the day, it is hardly possible to imagine the luxurious freshness of the cool night. It is said, however, to be a dangerous pleasure, pul- monary complaints being very common. The two great sights are the IMuseo and the Armeria ; the latter is said to be the best collection of arms in Europe, but somehow I always managed to want to go there too eai-ly or too late, and, after divers mistakes, in the end did not see it at all. Of the ]\tuseo it is difficult to speak with too much enthusiasm : the number of pictures is enormous, and it seemed to me that thei'e was a larger proportion than is usual of very first-rate w'orks. Its deliciency is mainly in early pictures — Italian, German, and Spanish. The early Italian schools are represented by one Angelico da Fiesole only: this is a beautiful example; an Annunciation, with the expidsion of Adam and Eve from Eden on the left of the picture, and five subjects from the life of the Blessed Yirgin in the predella. Among these, the j\Iar- riage of the Blessed Virgin has a close resemblance to Perugino’s and Ivaffaelle’s celebmted pictures. I could see no examples of Erancia or IVrugino, not to speak of earlier men; whilst the Chap. X. MADRID: PICTURES. 197 few early German works were none of tliein of any great interest. On the other hand, the |hctiires hy Titian, Velasquez, llaffaelle, Veronese, Tintoret, JMurillo, and others of the great masters of their age, are niunerons and magnificent beyond description. Velasquez and Titian are both so grand that I hardly knew which to admire the most ; of the former, perhaps on the whole the most charming work is the portrait of Prince Balthazar, a noble boy, galloping forward gallantly on his pony ; whilst of the Titians, I think the most striking was a weird-looking por- trait of Charles V. in armour on horseback. Murillo of course is in great force ; he has frequent representations of the Assump- tion, always treated in the same way : his work has a religious spirit wanting in the manlier work of Titian and Veronese, but yet not the true religious spirit so much as a sentimental affectation of it. Of Kibera — better known in England as Spagnoletto — there are a great many examples, generally dis- agreeable portraits of emaciated saints in distorted attitudes, and a horrible elaboration of ghastliness. Juan Juanes, an earlier Spanish painter, is much more agreeable, and he seems to have been largely inspired by Perugino and his school ; a series of five subjects from the life of St. Stephen are perhaps the most interesting of his works here. The room in which the greatest treasures of the Gallery are collected is called the Salon de la Keyna Isabel. Unfortunately a large opening in the floor, to give light to a gallery of sculpture below, makes it a little difficult to see some of the pictures at all well. At its upper end is the famous Spasinio de Sicilia, a noble work, but spoilt by the awkward and distorted drawing of the soldiers on the left. Near it is a very fine Giovanni Bellini, the Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter ; and by its side a Giorgione, with a man in armour, as fine as anything 1 know, — the subject, the Virgin and Saints. By Bronzino there is a violin-player, a lad with a face beyond measure loveable. But it were endless to go on through a list even of the eltefs-d' oeuvre in such a collec- tion ; and it is the less necessary to say much more than gene- rally to praise the whole Gallery as one of the first, if not the first, in Europe, because, now that railways make the journey thither so much more easy, some, no doubt, of our thousands of annual travellers will make their way to Madrid, to make lists for themselves of the best of its pictures. There is as little interest in modern as in earlier architecture here ; the only development that struck me being a fashion the 198 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap X. people have of diaj^ering houses all over with a kind of thir- teenth-century painting on plaster ; but I was not struck with the beauty of the development. Tlie best street is the Calle de Alcala, leading from the Puerta del Sol to the Prado. It is of great width, rising from the Puerta del Sol and falling to the Prado, and not straight, all which points are much in its favour : but the houses on either side are not generally so fine as they should be, and there is consequently a slightly faded look about it, which is not otherwise cliaracteristic of Madrid. To see the Calle de Alcala to advantage, the day of a bull-fight should be selected. Then from half-past three to four all the w^orld streams along it to the arena, excited, running, pushing, buying red and yellow paper fans for the seats in the sun, and as noisy, boisterous, and enthusiastic as all the world at any of our owm national gatherings. The picadors in their cpiaint dresses come galloping along on their sorry steeds, each attended by a man in a blouse riding on the same horse, and wliose office it is afterw ards to make the poor wretch face the bull by beating liim with a long stick. Omnibuses and vehicles of all kinds bring their share of the mob ; and when I took my seat, I believe there w^ere not less than twelve thousand people assembled, every seat in the rather shabby but vast arena being full. Women formed a very small proportion only of the whole number, and I noticed that a lady who sat near me seemed as much shocked as I w^as at the brutal parts of the exhibition ; for all parts of it are by no means brutal, and, indeed, 1 should be inclined to limit the term to those parts in Avhich horses are introduced. It w^ould be quite as pleasant to indulge oneself by an occasional visit to a knacker’s yard, as to sit quietly looking on whilst a furious bull rips up a miserable beast, usually blind- folded, in order that it may not move from the spot at vvhich the 2 oicador chooses to i*eceive the attack ; but this part of the per- formance over, there is little that is disgusting, and a great deal that is singularly exciting and skilful. The men seldom seem to be in any real danger of being caught by the bull, and uothiog can be cleverer than the w^ay in which one of the clmlos will dance before him half across the arena, ahvays avoiding his charge by a hair’s-breadth only, or in wliich one of the handerilhros^ seated in a chair, will plant his two arrow's exactly on each side of the bull just as he stoops to toss him, and the next instant jump out of his seat, whilst the chair is dashed to atoms by the furious beast. I felt, how'ever, that one bidl-fight was enougli for me ; the treatment of each bull is of necessity the same, and the mules Chap. X. ALCALA : EL MAGISTRAL. 199 have no sooner galloped out of one door trailing the dead bull and his victims out of the arena, than another dashes in from the opposite side, only to meet the same fate. Tlie way in which the bulls come in is very striking : they rush in madly like wild beasts, and generally charge rapidly at one of the ijicador8 or chulos. I asked a Spaniard how this was managed, and he explained that in tlie den from which they emerge they are goaded with sharp-pointed spears just before the doors are opened, and of course come into the arena mad witli rage ! The object of bull-fights seems to be generally charitable — in the sense that charity bazaars are so. At Valencia, wliere they have recently erected an arena which almost rivals in size the Homan amphitheatres, the work has been done by the trustees of the hospitals, and this seemed to be usually the destination of the receipts whenever I saw them advertized. That it is possible to have a bull-fight of even a worse kind than the Spanish I learnt at Mines, where the cicerone showing me the amphi- theatre explained that they had a bull-fight every Sunday, but never killed their bulls — only goaded them week after week ! Whilst I was at Madrid I made an excursion to Alcala de Henares, the seat of Cardinal Ximenes’ famous university, under the impression that I should find a good deal to reward me. In this, however, I Avas disappointed, as the churches are mostly works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the whole place is decayed, unprosperous, and uncared for, without being picturesque and venerable. The principal church, ‘‘ El ]\ragistral,” of SS. Just y Pastor — the tutelars of the city — is a large, late church of poor style. It lias a nave and aisles of five bays, transepts and choir of one bay, and an apse of three sides. The aisle round the apse is con- trived with three square bays and four triangular, and is evidently founded on the beautiful plan of the chevet of Toledo cathedral ; but I must say that Pedro Gumiel el ITonrado,” Eegidor of Alcala, and architect of this church, has perfectly succeeded in avoiding any repetition of the beauties of Toledo ; his work being thoroughly uninteresting and poor. The three western bays of the nave are open ; the tivo eastern enclosed Avith screens and stalled for the Coro. A bronze railinc: under the Crossing con- nects the Coro Avitli the Capilla mayor. There are no less than six pulpits here ! tAvo at the entrance to the choir for the Epistoler and Gospeller, tAvo on the Avest of the Crossing, and two more opposite each other against the second column from the Avest in 200 GOTHIC ^ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. X. the nave. It looks just as though they had ordered a pair of pulpits as they did a pair of organs ; and as preaching does not seem to be much the fasliion now in Spain, I had no opportunity of learning liow these many pulpits were to be used. There are two organs, one on each side over the Coro ; that on the south so picturesque as to be worthy of illustration. Organ, Alcala. Two great monuments — one in the nave, and one under the Crossing — are remarkable for the position of tlie effigies with their feet to the west. On the south side of the south transept is a small chapel roofed with a most rich and delicate Moorish plaster ceiling ; the whole was richly coloured. It did not appear to be earlier than the church, which is said to have been constructed between the years 1497 and 1509. Chap. X. ALCALA : UNIVERSITY— BISHOP’S PALACE. 201 The University founded by Ximenes is in a wretched state of dilapidation; it is said to have been designed by the same Pedro Gumiel who built SS. Just y Pastor, but the work, so far as I saw it, was all Eenaissance. The facade and court behind it were the work of Kodrigo Gil de Hontahon, between a.d. 1550 and 1 553, and he destroyed Pedro Gumiel’s work in order to erect it. By the side of the college stands the church of San lldefonso, which I suppose must be the chapel built by Pedro Gumiel. It is, I believe, desecrated, and no one could tell me where the key was to be found, so that I was unable to do more than get a note of the curious Cimborio from the exterior. It is not a lantern, but rather a raising of the whole centre of the church above the remainder. It is constructed of brick and stone, and is evidently of late date. Under this Cimborio, I believe, is the monument of the great Cardinal. There are consider- able remains of the old walls, with circular towers rather closely set around them. The bishop’s palace retains a fine tower, which seems to have been con- nected with the town walls. It is plain below, but has turrets pictu- resquely corbelled out on machicoulis over the centre of each side and at each angle. A wing of the palace which joins this tower has some very remarkable domestic windows, which deserve illustra- tion. The shafts are of marble, the tracery and the wall below the sill of stone, but the wall of brick. The shafts are set behind each other, there is a good ball- flower enrichment in the label, and the mouldings are rich and good of their kind. Such a window seems to unite the characteristics of two or three countries, and is, indeed, in this, an epitome of Spanish art, Domestic Window, Alcald, 202 GOTHIC AECHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. X- which borrowed freely from other lands, and often imported foreign architects, yet, in spite of all this, is still almost always national in its character. It is an easy journey from Alcala to Guadalajara ; and though the latter place disappointed me much, it is still worthy of a few hours’ delay to those who pass by it on the Madrid and Zaragoza railway. Seen from the distance it is an imposing city, and if it be seen as I saw it during fair time, full of peasants in gay costume, the general impression may be not unpleasant ; but unfortunately, the early arcliitectural remains are few and gene- rally insignificant. The church of Sta. Maria is the subject of a picturesque view in Villa Ainil’s book, and he deserves great praise for the skill with which he has created something out of nothing. I could find no feature worth recording save its two Moresque doorways, in one of which — that at the west end — the arch is of the pointed horseshoe form, and the archivolt is built of bricks, some of which are set forward from the face of the wall in the fashion of the rustic work in the execution of which certain schools of architects everywhere seem to take a grave pleasure, of which, perhaps, it would be unkind to wish to deprive them. The church of San Miguel has a portion of the exterior built in a ricli nondescript style — debased Moresque is, perhaps, the right term for it — in the year 1540, as an inscription on the church records. The lower part of the only original portion remaining is built of rough stone, the upper of brick ; and it is argued by some, I believe, that the use of the two materials proves that the woi’k was executed at different epochs. To me it seemed that the whole was uniform in style, and evidently the work of sixteenth-century builders. It has large circular pro- jections at the angles, which are finished with fantastic cappings, and sham machicoulis below the ponderous overhanging cornices which ornament the walls both at the end and sides. These cornices have deep brick consoles at intervals, the spaces be- tween them filled with crosses on panels of terracotta. The rest of the church seems to be modernized. Both liere and at Sta. Maria there are external cloister passages outside the church walls, modern in style and date, but similar in object to those of Segovia and Valladolid already described. Another little church, called La Antigua, has an eastern apse of brick and stone, with window openings of many cnsps formed very simply with bricks of various lengths. This work is similar to much of the Moresque work at Toledo, and it is rather remarkable how ■} ' ' ,'- ': ■:iA'jk*^- t ^ ..• f« ’ '■; ■ 'jvi.;-.-' i. . {• r ■ ' > - i ■-■ ’ ‘ r^- :RI H- K,-a dT f ] i Chap. X. STGUENZA : CATHEDRAL. 205 tlie simple cylindrical columns were abandoned for the fine groups of clustered shafts which are elsewhere used. The general style of the church is a very gi’and and vigorous first-pointed, early in the style, but still not at all Eomanesque in character ; and I know few interiors which have impressed me more with their extreme grandeur and stability than this. The truth is, that the somewhat excessive solidity of the work — as heavy and ponder- ous in substance as the grandest Romanesque — is singularly noble when combined as it is here with very considerable height in the columns and walls, and with fine pointed arches, early traceried windows, and good sculpture. Unfortunately this massive grandeur is only a matter of envy to a wretched architect in the nineteenth century, whose main triumph, if he would prosper, must be to use as few bricks and as small fragments of stone as he can, to the intent that his work should certainly be cheap, and in forgetfulness, if possible, that it will also certainly be bad ! Here, however, the architect wrought for eternity as far as was possible, and with a success which admits of no doubt and no cavil. He has been singularly fortunate, too, in the comparative freedom from subsequent alterations which his work has enjoyed. The Renaissance procession-path round the choir, which is the most important addition, certainly spoils the external effect ; but it is hardly noticed in the interior, until you find yourself under its heavy and tame panelled roof, and outside the solid wall which still encircles the ancient apse. The groining of the choir and transepts is sexpartite, but everywhere else it is quadripartite ; and the ribs, which are very bold in their dimensions, are generally moulded, but over the crossing are enriched with the dog-tooth ornament. The same decoration is also carved on the clerestory windows of tlie choir and transepts. The original windows generally still remain. Those in the aisles are single round-headed lights of grand size, with double engaged shafts, both inside and outside : those in the clerestory are of more advanced character, some being of two and some of four lights, of the best early plate tracery, with pointed enclosing arches. The western bay of the choir has lancet clerestory windows, and the apse of seven sides has also a lancet in each face, with a sort of triforium below, which is now closed, but which before the addition of the procession-path was probably pierced. Below tliis quasi-triforium the wall of the apse is circular in plan, whilst above it is [)olygonal, and the difference shows the very gradual way in which the building was erected. 206 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. X. one of the most usual points of distinction between the Eoman- esque and the early-pointed planning of an apse being that in the former it is circular, and in the latter polygonal. In speaking of the windows, I have omitted to mention the finest, which are undoubtedly the roses in the principal gables. That in the south transept is one of the finest I know ; ^ and whilst it is remarkable for the vi^’orous character of its design it is also to be noted for a peculiarity which I have before observed in early Spanish traceries. This is the mode in which the traceries are, as it were, packed against each other. It is espe- cially noticeable in the outer line of circles which are inserted like so many wheels abutting against each other, and without the continuous central moulding to which we are generally accustomed. Here, as well as in the interior, the dog-tooth ornament is freely used ; and the outer mouldings of the circle are of good character. The exterior of this church is of as great interest as the interior. The two western steeples are of the very jilainest possible cha- racter, pierced merely with narrow slits, which light the small chambers in the interior of the tower. The buttresses are of enormous size ; and in the angles between them and the walls are set engaged shafts, which run up to and finish under the arcaded eaves-cornices with which the walls are finished under the roof. At the west end these shafts are carried up to a greater height, and support three bold arches, one in each division of the facade, corresponding in height pretty nearly with the groining inside. I find, on looking at my notes on this church, tliat I observed upon this as a feature which I recollected at Notre Dame, Poitiers; and there is some signi- ficance, therefore, in the record of the fact that the second bishop, in Avhose time probably this part of the church was built, was a native of that city. The western door is round-arched, but the cornice over it has been destroyed ; and the finish of the buttresses and whole upper part of the west front have been modernized. The transejit doors are not old, but seem to be in their old places, placed close to the western side, so as not to interfere with the placing of an altar against the eastern wall. At Tudela cathedral the old doorways still remain just in the same place; and viewed in re- gard to convenience, and not with a view to making the most ^ See an illustration of tins window on tlie ground-plan of Sigtienza Ca- thedral, Plate XIII. Chap. X. SIGUENZA : CATPIEDRAL. 207 important and regular architectural elevation, there is no doubt as to the advantage of the plan. In addition to the two western steeples there is also one of more modern erection and smaller dimensions on the east side of the south transept. The other late additions to the church are some chapels on the south side of the choir, a grand sacristy on its north side, some small chapels between the buttresses on the north side, and the Parroquia of San Pedro, running north and south, near the west end. This and the cliapel on the south side of the choir are of late Gothic date, and of very uninteresting character. Indeed it is remarkable how little the work of the later Spanish architects ordinarily has in it that is of much real value. The early works always have something of that air of mystery and sublimity which is the tnie mark of all good archi- tecture, whilst the later have generally too much evidence of being mere professional cut-and-dried works, lifeless and tame, like the large majority of tlie works to which a vicious system of practice has reduced us at the present day. The cloister, to which also the same remark will apply, was finished in a.d. 1507 by Cardinal Mendoza, as we learn from an in- scription in Homan letters with a Renaissance frame round them, which is let into the wall on the soutli side ; ^ and I noticed that the very florid early Renaissance altar-tomb and door to the cloister, which fills a great part of the inside of the nortli tran- sept, is inscribed to the memory of the same cardinal.^ The buildings round the cloister are not -remarkable. The summer Chapter-house is of grand size, with a rather good fiat painted ceiling, and pictures of the Sibyls against the Avails. At the south end is a chapel with an altar, divided by an iron Reja from the Chapter-room. A Renaissance doorway to another room on the east side of the cloister has the inscription, Musis . sac7'ci . domus . liec^ and leads to the practising-room for the clioir. The ritual arrangements here are of the usual kind. The bishop’s stall is in the centre of the west end, and was made for its place ; but the whole of the woodAvork is of the latest Gothic, and proves nothing as to the primitive arrangement. Gil Gon- ^ Hoc. claustrum. a. fundamentis. vembris. anno. Salutis. m.C.C.C.c.C.v.it. fieri, mandavit. Reverendissimus. Domi- procurante. D. Serrano. Abbate. S. nus. B. Carvaial. Car. S. +. in. Jerusalem. Columbe. ejusdem. ecclesias. operario. patriarcha. lerosolimitan. episeopus. ^ B : Carvaial ; Car : S: +: eps; Sagun- Tusculan. Antistes. hujus. alme. basilice. tin : quod, ccmpletum. fuit. de. mense. No- 208 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. X. zalez Davila^ gives an inscription from the tomb of Simon de Cisneros, who died in 1326, and who is there said to be the bishop : “ Qui hanc ecclesiam aiithoritate apostolica ex regulari in secularem reduxit ac multis sedificiis exornavit.” I hardly know what buildings still remaining can be exactly of this date ; but it is evident that the statement refers to subordinate build- ings, and not to the main fabric of the church. The people of Sigucnza seem to be more successful than is usual in Spain in the cultivation of green things. The cloister garden is prettily planted, and has the usual fountain in the centre. There is a grove of trees in the Plaza, on the soutli side of the church ; and a public garden to the north is really kept in very fair order, and looks pleasantly shady. I saw no other old building here except a castle on the hill above the town, with square towers projecting at intervals from the outer wall ; but it seemed to have been much modernized, and I did not go into it. 1 Teatro EccL, i. KU. I Chap. XI. TOLEDO. 20D CHAPTEE XL TOLEDO. Toledo is now extremely easy of access from Madrid, a branch from the main line of the Alicante railway turning off at Cas- tellejon, and reducing tlie journey to one of about two or three hours only, from the capital. Of old the road passed through Illescas, and the picturesque church there, illustrated by Villa Amil, made me regret that the less interesting railroad ren- dered the journey by road out of the question. The country traversed by the railway is very uninteresting, and generally looks parched and arid to a degree. Near Aranjuez the waters of the Tagus have been so assiduously and profitably used, that a great change comes over the scene, and the train passes through woods where elms and other forest trees seem to thrive almost as well as they do in damp England ; and one can easily understand how this artificial verdure in the plain must delight the Castilian, Avho otherwise, if he wishes to enjoy such sights, must leave the heat of the plain for the cold winds of the mountain ranges of the Guadarrama. Aranjuez is, however, but an oasis in this Castilian desert, and the railway, soon leaving it behind, wends its way along the treeless, leafless plain to the ecclesiastical capital of the kingdom. On the opposite or right bank of the Tagus, the hills rise to a consider- able height, and here and there their dull brown outlines are marked, though hardly relieved, by large clusters of houses surrounding the lofty and apparently uninteresting churches which mark the villages, whose tout ensemble seems everywhere on nearer inspection most uninviting to the eye. The banks of the Tagus are more refreshing, for here the water-wheels for raising water, which line the margin of the stream, suggest some desire on the part of the people to make the most of their opportunities, and they are rewarded by the luxuriant gi’owth which always attends irrigation in S23ain. I looked out long and anxiously for the first view of Toledo, but the hills, which nearly surround it, conceal it altogether until one has arrived within about two or three miles dis- tance ; and here, with the Tagus meandering through its vega p 210 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XL in the foreground, the great mass of the hospital outside and below the city to the right hand, and the wall-encircled rock on which the city is perched, crowned by the vast mass of the Alcazar to the left, the view is certainly fine and impressive. From most points of view, both within and without the city, the cathedral is seldom well, and sometimes not at all, seen, standing as it does on much lower ground on the side of the rock which slopes towards the least accessible part of the river gorge, and much surrounded by other buildings, whilst the Alcazar, which occupies the highest ground in the whole city, is so vast and square a block of prodigiously lofty walls (old in plan, but modern in most of their details), as to command atten- tion everywhere. The other side of the river is edged by bold hills, and all along its banks are to be seen water-wheels so placed as to raise the water for the irrigation of the land on either side. It is not, however, until after more intimate knowledge of the city has been gained, that its extreme picturesqueness and interest are discovered. The situation is, indeed, most wild and striking. The Tagus, winding almost all round the city, confines it much in the fashion in which the Wear surrounds Durham. But here tlie town is far larger, the river banks are more rocky, precipitous, and wild than at Durham ; whilst the space enclosed within them is a confused heap of rough and uneven ground, well covered with houses, churches, and monasteries, and intersected everywhere by narrow. Eastern, and Moorish-looking streets and alleys, most of which afford no passage-room for any kind of carriage, and but scanty room for foot passengers. It is, consequently, without exce]3tion, the most difficult city to find one’s way in that I have ever seen, and the only one in which I have ever found myself obliged to confess a commissionaire ^ or guide of some sort to be an absolute necessity, if one would not waste half one’s time in trying to find the way from one place to another. The railway station is outside the city, which is entered from it by the famous bridge of Alcantara, which has a single wide and lofty arch above the stream, guarded on tlie further side by a gateway of the time of Cliarles V., and on the town side by one of semi-Moorish character. Above it are seen, as one enters, the picturesque a[)ses of the old church of Santiago, and the tolerably perfect remains of the double enceinte of the city ^ Senor Cabezas, a commissionaire, the Moorish remains ; and to see these to be heard of at the Fonrla de Lino, last it is indispensable to have some may be recommended. He knows all conductor who knows both them and the most interesting chiircbes, as well as their owners. Chap. XI , TOLEDO; THE ALCAZAR. 211 walls ; whilst on the opposite side of the river, as a further guard to the well-protected city, was the Castle of San Cervantes^ (properly San Servando), of which nothing now remains but a few rugged towers and walls crowning the equally rugged rocks.^ The road from the bridge, passing under the gateway which guards it into a small walled courtyard, turns sharply to the right under another archway, and then rises slowly below the walls until, with another sharp turn, it passes under the magnificent Moorish Puerta del Sol, and so on into the heart of the city. The Alcazar is the only important building seen in entering on this side ; but from the other side of the city where the bridge of San Martin crosses the Tagus, the cathedral is a feature in the view, though it never seems to be so prominent as might be expected with a church of its grand scale. From both these points of view, indeed, it must be remembered that the effect is not produced by the beauty or grandeur of any one building ; it is the desolate sublimity of the dark rocks that bound the river; the serried phalanx of Avail, and town, and house, that line the cliffs ; the tropical colour of sky, and earth, and masonry ; and, finally, the forlorn decaying and deserted aspect of the whole, that makes the views so impressive and so unusual. Looking awAy fi'om the city walls towards the north, the view is much more riant, for there the Tagus, escaping from its rocky defile, meanders across a fertile vega, and long lines of trees, with here a ruined castle, and there the apse of the curious ^ This castle is said by Ponz to have been built by Archbishop Tenorio, circa 1340. — Yiage de Espaiia, i. 163. 2 It seems that the bridge of Alcan- tara fell down in the year 1211, and when it was repaired Enrique I. built a tower for the better defence of the city, as is recorded in an inscription given by Estevan de Garibay as follows : Henr- rik, son of the king Alfonso, ordered this tower and gate to be made, to the honour of God, by the hand of Matheo Paradiso in the era 12.55” (a.d. 1217). In A.D. 1258 the king D. Alonso ‘^el Sabio ” rebuilt the bridge, and put the following inscription on a piece of marble over the point of the arch : “ In the year 1258 from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, was the grand deluge of water, which commenced before the month of August, and lasted until Thursday the 26th of December; and the fall of rain was very great in most lands, and did great damage in many places, and especially in Spain, where most of the bridges fell ; and among all the others was demolished a great part of that bridge of Toledo, which Halaf, son of Mahomet Alameri, Alcalde of Toledo, had made by com- mand of Almansor Aboaamir Mahomet, son of Abihamir, Alquazil of Amir Almomenin Hixem ; and it was finished in the time of the Moors, J87 years before this time ; and the king, D. Alonso, son of the noble king D. Fer- rando, and of the queen Dona Beatriz, who reigned in Castile, had it repaired and renovated ; and it was finished in the eighth year of his reign, in the year of the Incarnation 1258.” Cean Ber- mudez, Arq. de Esp., i. p. 254-255. The bridge was restored again by Arch- bishop Tenorio in 1380, and fortified in 1484 by Andres Manrique. — Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 783. p 2 212 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. clmrch of the Cristo cle la Vega, and there again the famous factory of arms, give colour and incident to a view which would anywhere he thought beautiful, but is doubly grateful by com- parison with the sad dignity of the forlorn old city. The buildings to be studied here are of singular interest, inasmuch as they reflect in a great degree the striking history of the city itself, as well as of the kingdom of which it was so long the capital. There is no doubt that there was a cathedral, as well as some churches,^ here before the conquest of this part of 1 I must mention in this place one very curious collection of relics of the age of the Gothic kings of Spain. This is the marvellous group of votive crowns discovered in 1858 in a place called La Fuente de Guarrazar, in the environs of Toledo, and which were immediately purchased by the Emperor of the French for the Museum of the Hotel de Cluny. They consist of five or six crowns, with crosses suspended from them, and three smaller crowns without crosses. They are of gold, and made with thin plates of gold stamped with a pattern, and they have gold chains for hanging them up by, and are adorned with an infinity of stones. They have been illustrated in a volume published by M. F. de Las- teyrie, with explanatory text. I cannot do better than quote the conclusions at wdiich he arrives : “fl) The crowns found at Guarrazar are eminently votive crowns. (2) They have never been worn. (3) Their construction belongs probably to the age of Reccesvinthus and the episcopate of S. Ildefonso, who excited so great a devotion to the Blessed Virgin in Spain. (4) One of the crowns was offered by Reccesvin- thus (whose name, formed in letters suspended from its edge, occurs on it) ; possibly the next in size may have been given by the queen, and the rest by their officers. (5) The place from which they came was a chapel called N. Dame des Cormiers. (G) All of the crowns, though found in Spain, appear to belong to an art of the same northern origin as the conquering dynasty which then occupied the tlirone. They certainly give the idea of an extraordinary skill in the gold- smiths’ art at this early period (circa 650-672), and it is j^robable that they had been buried wliere tliey were found at the time that the Moors entered Toledo as conquerors in a.d. 711.”' — See Description du Tresor de Guarrazar, &c., par Ferdinand de Lasteyrie, Paris, I860. Since this discovery some other crowns have been found in the same neighbour- hood, and these are, I believe, preserved at Madrid. They have been described in a short paper in the Proceedings of the Society of Anticjuaries, to which I must refer my readers. The crowns preserved at the Hotel Cluny certainly form one of the greatest attractions in that attractive collection. They are in a singularly perfect state of preservation. Their workmanship is rather rude, and they all appear to be of as nearly as possible the same age and manufacture, dliere can be no question that M. F. de Lasteyrie is right in saying that they were never worn as crowns : they were designed for suspension before an altar, and most of them have' crosses hanging from them. The largest crown — that of Reccesvinthus, is formed of two plates of gold, the inner plate plain, the outer pierced, beaten up, and set with very large stones. The plates of gold ill many cases are stamped with a pattern. At the top and bottom of the jilate which forms the coronet is a narrow band of cloisonnee gold, the spaces in which seem to have been filled with glass or red-coloured enamel. The largest crown is eight-and-a-half inches in diameter, and has a splendid jev/elled cross suspended from its centre, and the name of the king in large Roman letters hung by chains from its lower edge, and formed of cloisonnee gold. When I see such work done in the seventh century, and then look at modern jeweller’s work, I am tempted to think that the much vaunted progress of the world is not Chap. X[. TOLEDO: MOOKI8H RTRUGTLILE^^. Spain, in A.D. 711, by tlie Moors; and in the course of the long- period of nearly four centuries during which the Mahomedan rule lasted, many buildings were erected, and a J^loorish popula- tion was firmly planted, which, when Alonso VI. regained the city in 1085, was still protected, and continued to live in it as before. The Moors had, indeed, set an example of toleration ^ worthy of imitation by their Christian conquerors ; for thong] i it is true that they converted the old catliedral into their pi-inci- pal mosque, they still allowed the Christians to celebrate their services in some other churclies ^ which existed at the time of the Conquest ; and during the greater part of the Christian rule, their tolerant example was so hrr followed, that the Moors seem to have enjoyed the same freedom, and to liave lived there unmolested, whilst they built everywhere, and acted, in fact, as architects, in the old city, not only for themselves, but also for the Christians and the Jews, down to the establishment of the Inquisition. It is a very remarkable fact, indeed, that with one grand exception nearly all the buildings of the twelfth, thir- teenth, and fourteenth centuries, which are to be seen here, are more or less IMoorish in their character ; ^ and tliough the cathe- dral, which is the one exce^^tion, is an example of thorougldy always in the right direction. Gold and silver ornaments were exported from Spain to so considerable an extent, that the tiara of the Pope, being richly wrought with precious metal, was called Spanocliata. — Masdeu, Hist. Critica. 1 ‘‘The Christians, in all matters ex- clusively relating to themselves, were governed by their own laws, adminis- tered by their own judges. Their churches and monasteries (rosso inter spinasj were scattered over the principal towns, and their clergy were allowed to display the costume and celebrate the pompous ceremonial of the Romish religion.” — Prescott, Hist, of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. p. 5. 2 Sta. Justa (founded in 554), Sta. Eulalia (559), San Sebastian (601), San Marcos (634), San Lucas (641), San Torcuato (700), and Nuestra Senora del Arribal were the churclies so granted for the use of the Mozarabic Liturgy. See D. Manuel de Assas, ‘ Album Art. de Toledo,’ Art. ii., and D. Sisto Ramon Parro, ‘Toledo eu la Mano,’ p. 167 et seq. 3 “The most remarkable buildings which illustrate the Mahomedan archi- tecture in Toledo are the following ; — The Mosque, now church of Cristo de la Luz, the Synagogues Sta. Maria la Blanca and El Transito, the church of San Roman — probably once a Mosque or Synagogue — the gateways De V^isa- gra and Del Sol, and one on the Bridge of Alcantara, the Alcazar, the Palace of D. Diego, the Casa de Mesa, the Taller del Moro, the Temple (No. 10, Calle de San Miguel), the College of Saint Cathei'ine, the house No. 17, Calle de las Tornerias, the ruins of the Palace of Villena, those of St. Augus- tine, of San Gines, the Baths de la Cava, the Castle of San Servando (or Cer- vantes), the Palace of Galiena, and finally the Churches of SS. Ursula, Torcuato, Isabel, Marcos, Justo, Juan de la Penitencia, Miguel, jMagdaleua, Coueepcion, Sta. Fe, Santiago, Cristo de la Vega (or Sta. Leocadia), SS, Tome and Bartolome'.” — ^ D. Manuel de Assas, Album Artist, de Toledo, and Toledo Pintoresca, Don J. Amador de los Rios, There are other remains, ami among them a very fine room behind the house. No. 6, Calle la Plata. 214 GOTHIC ARCmTECTURP] IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. pure Gothic work almost from first to last, there never seems to Lave been any other attempt to imitate the Christian archi- tectural idea of which it was so grand an exponent. I have purposely avoided going to those parts of Spain in which the ]\loors were undisputed masters during the middle ages ; but here it is impossible to dismiss what they did without proper notice, seeing that, after Granada and Cordoba, perhaps nowhere is there so much to be seen of their work as in Toledo. The buildimrs to be examined will be best described under certain heads, reserving the cathedral for the last, because some of the Moorish buildings are the oldest in the city, and these lead naturally on to the later works of the same class. The order in which I shall attempt to take them will be therefore as follows : — I. The Moorish mosque : II. The Jewish synagogues ; III. The Moorish houses ; IV. The Moorish work in clmi-ches ; V. The gateways, walls, and bildges ; VI. The cathedral and other examples of Christian art. 4Tiere are, indeed, some works anterior to the rule of the ]\toors, for below the walls, in the vega, are said to be some slight remains of a Roman amphitheatre ; ^ in addition to which there are still some fragments of work j^ossiblg Visigothic, and anterior therefore to the Moorish Conquest of 711. These are confined to a few capitals which have some appearance of having been re-nsed by the IMoors in their own constructions, such e.g, as the capitals of the Mosque now called the ‘‘ Cristo de la Luz,” and those of the arcades on either side of the church of San Roman, together with some fragments preserved in the court of the hospital of Sta. Cruz. They are very rudely scidptured, and bear so slight a resemblance to the early Romanesque work of the same period, that it is difficult, I think, to decide posi- tively as to their age. It is certain, however, that the earliest distinctly IMoorish capitals are entirely unlike them in their cliaracter, and quite original in their conception ; and it is, of course, very i^ossible that the Moors, pressed by the necessity of the case, would, after their conquest, not only have retained some of the existing buildings, but also have re-used the best of their materials in their new works. 41ie earliest of the distinctly Moorish buildings is a little mosque ’ Ronz, Viage de Espafia, vol. i. p. 210, gives a view'd tlie considerable remains of a Roman aqueduct. I believe these have now entirely disappeared. Chap. XI. TOLEDO : S. CRISTO DE LA LUZ. 215 — now called the chnrcli of Cristo de la Lnz” — which was standing at the time of the entrance of Don Alonso YI. into the city, on Sunday, May 25, 1085. He entered by tlie old Puerta de Yisa- gra, and, turaing into this the first mosque on his road, ordered mass to be said, and hung up his shield there before he went further. No doubt the nave of the build- ing is still very much in the state in which he found it ; it is very space is subdivided into nine compartments by four very low circular columns, which are about a foot in diameter. Their capitals are some of those of which I liave just sjDoken ; they are all different, and, it seemed to me, more like Moorish work than the other capitals of the same class at San Eoman and Sta. Cruz. The arches, of which four spring from each capital, are all of the round horseslioe form ; above them is a string-course, and all the intermediate walls are carried up to the same height as tlm main walls. They are all pierced above the arches with arcades of varied design, generally cusped in very Moorish fashion, and supported on shafts ; and above these each of the nine divisions is crowned with a little vault, formed by intersecting cusped ribs, thrown in the most fantastic way across each other, and varied in each compartment. The scale of the whole work is so diminutive that it is difficult, no doubt, to understand how so much is done in so small a space ; but, looking to the early date of the Avork, it is impossible not to feel very great respect for tlie workmen who built it, and for the ingenious intricacy which has made their work look so much larger and more important than it really is.^ It is, indeed, an admir- small, only 21 ft. 7J in. by 20 ft. 2 in., and this S. Cristo de la Luz, Toledo. * There is a view in Villa Amil’s the figures introduced is so much too work of this interior, but the scale of small as to increase largely the apparent 216 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XL able instance of the skill and dexterity in design which seem to have marked the Moors so honourably from the first, and which must have made them, as far as one can judge, in every respect but their faith so much the superiors of their Christian contem- poraries. An apse has been added for the altar, but this is evidently a much later addition to the old mosque. The exte- rior face of the walls is built of brick and rough stone. The lower part of the side wall being arcaded with three round arches, within the centre of which is a round horseshoe arch for a doorway ; above is a continuous sunk arcade of cusped arches, within Avhich are window openings with round horseshoe heads. The lower part of the walls is built with single courses of brick, alternating with rough stonework ; the piers and arches of brick, with projecting labels and strings also of unmoulded brick. The arches of the upper Avindows are built Avith red and green bricks alternated. The horseshoe arches here are built in the usual Moorish fashion, the loAver part of the arch being con- structed Avith bricks laid horizontally, and cut at the edge to the required curve ; and about halfway round the arch they are cut back to receive the arch, Avhich is there commenced. In the same Avay the cinquefoiled arches of the ujiper arcade have their loAvest cusps formed by the stone abacus, the intermediate cusps by bricks laid horizontally and cut at the edge, and the upper central cus^d alone has any of its masonry constructed as an arch. The upper stage of the mosque called De las Tornerias is ]\Ioorish Avork of the same plan as the Cristo de la Luz ; but I am much inclined to doubt Avhetber it is equally ancient. The rosettes cut in the vaults, and the cusped openings, give this impression, and the vaults are quadripartite and domical in sec- tion, the centres of the nine small bays of vaulting being raised higher than the others, and having two parallel ribs crossing each other both Avays, in the Avay I have already noticed in the Cliap- ter-house at Salamanca, and tlie Templars’ Church at Segovia. There is, so far as I knoAv, no other mosque in tlie city so little altered as these ; but among the cliurches some are said to have been first of all built for mosques. San Eoman is one of these. It Avas converted into a parish church at the end of the eleventh century,^ and the column and arches betAveen the size of the building; otherwise the ture,’ and is from a drawing by M. drawing is fairly correct. The illustra- Girault de Prangey. tion which I give is borrowed from Mr. i I find that Archbishop Rodrigo Fergusson’s ' Handbook of Architec- consecrated the church of San Roman Chap. XL TOLEDO : S. MARIA LA BLANCA. 217 nave and aisles are probably of this date. The arches are of the horseshoe form, and the capitals are, 1 think, commonly quoted as some of the earlier works re-used by the Moors. But I very much doubt whether their style justifies my attributing to them any date earlier than the eleventh century. The church was not consecrated until June 20th, 1221, but there can be no doubt that it was built before this date. The noble steeple is one of the works built by Moorish architects for Christian use, and it will be better, perhaps, to reserve it for description with other works of the same class. Of the two synagogues the older is that which was founded in the twelfth century, but seized in a.d. 1405 by the Toledans — instigated by the preaching of San Vicente Ferrer — and dedi- cated as a church under the name of Sta. Maria la Blanca.^ The modernized exterior is of no interest, but the interior is fairly preserved by the zeal, I believe, of some Spanish antiquaries, having long been disused as a church. In plan it consists of a nave, with two aisles on either side. A quasi-chancel was formed at the east end (in the sixteenth century apparently) by the pro- longation of the central compartment or nave beyond the aisles, and the intermediate aisles were also lengthened to a less extent at the same time. There are eight horseshoe arches rising from octagonal columns in each of the arcades, and the whole of* them, as well as their capitals, are executed in brick, covered with plaster. The capitals are exceedingly elaborate, but very slightly varied in pattern : they have but little connexion with any of the usual types of Byzantine or Bomanesque capitals, though tliey have rather more, perhaps, of the delicate intricacy of the former tlian of any of the features of the latter, and they are, I imagine, very much later than the original capitals wliich they overlay. iVll the Moorish decorative work seems to have been executed in the same way in plaster. This was of very fine quality, and was evidently on the 20tli of June, 122L See his Historia de Rebus Hispanioe, in Espaha Sagrada, vol. ii. p. 23. ‘ San Vicente Ferrer is said to have converted more than 4000 Toledan Jews in one day in the year 1407; and in 1413 a vast number were converted in Zaragoza, Calatayud, and elsewhere in the north of Spain. One cannot but fear that coming events in this case cast their shadows before them, and that the Jews had a shrewd suspicion of the coming of the edict of 1492, by which 170,000 Jewish families were ordered to leave the kingdom if they would not be baptized. The establishment of the Inquisition was the necessary con- sequence of such an edict. See Don J. Amador de los Rios, Estudics sobre los Judios de Espaiia, pp. 84, 106, 156. The illustration which I give of the interior of this synagogue is borrowed from Mr. Fergussou’s ‘ Handbook of Architectui'e.’ The original view is in M. Villa-Amil’s work, and gives a fairly correct representation of the general effect of the building. 218 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. cut and carved as if it had been stone, and seldom, if ever, I think, stamped or moulded, according to the mistaken practice of the present day. The consequence is that there is endless variety of design everywhere, and — wherever it was desired — any amount of undercutting. The spandrels above the arches are filled in with arabesque patterns, and there is a cusped wall arcade below the roof ; but almost all of this is evidently of much later date than the original foundation, as the ])atterns are all of that large class of Moorish devices which, though they retain many of their old peculiarities, borrow largely at the same time fi'om the traceries and cusping of late Gothic work. Unfortunately in such work the material affords so small an assistance in the detection of alter- ations, that it requires the exercise of considerable caution to ascer- tain their exact limits ; and in Toledo, as in most places, people seem always disposed to claim the highest possible antiquity in all cases, seldom allowing anything to have been done by the Moors after the restoration of the Christian rule, though, in fact, the exact converse of this would he nearer the truth. The roof has coupled tie beams — placed a very slight distance apart — an ar- rangement of which the Moorish carpenters seem to have been always very fond. The pavement is very good, but must, I imagine, be of about the date of the conversion of the synagogue into a church. It is divided into compartments by border tiles, laid down the length of the churcli on either side of the columns. The spaces between these are filled in with a rich diaper of encaustic and plain red tiles, whilst the general area between tliese richer hands is paved with large red, relieved by an occa- sional encaustic tile. The latter have patterns in white, dark blue, and yellow, and in all cases they are remarkable for the beautiful inequality both of the colours and of the surface of tlie tiles. Both colour and material are in themselves better than the work of our tile-manufacturers at the present day, and illus- trate very well the difference between hand- work and machine- work, which I have already noticed in comparing the old and new modes of dealing with plaster. The IMoorish tiles are very commonly seen in Toledo, and were used both for flooring and inlaying Avails, and in some cases for the covering of roofs. This synagogue of Sta. Maria la Blanca is on the Avhole disappoint- ing. I went to it expecting to see a building of the ninth or tenth century, and found instead a fabric possibly of this age, but in which — thanks to the })lasterers of the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries — nothing of the original building but the octag*onal columns and the simple form of the round horseshoe arches is still visible. Nevertheless it Avell deserves examina- STA. MARIA LA BLANCA, TOLEDO. INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST. I ■■•ii .4 Chap. XL TOLEDO: THE CliUECH DEL TRANSITO. 219 tion, and a more accurate knowledge of tlie detail of Moorisli work wonld, I dai-e say, liave enabled me to separate more clearly tlie work of the original church from the additions with wliich it has been overlaid. The other synagogue is now converted into the chnrcli called del Transito,” ^ and about the date of this there is no doubt. It was erected by Samuel Levi,^ a rich Jew, who held the office of treasurer to Pedro the Cruel, and was completed in a.d. 1366 ; but it did not long retain its first purpose, the Jews having been expelled the kingdom in 1492,^ and this synagogue having then been given by Ferdinand and Isabella to the order of Calatrava. The building is a simple parallelogram, 31 feet 5 inches wide, by 76 feet in length. The lower portion of the side Avails is quite unornamented for 20 or 25 feet in height ; but above this is very richly adorned with plaster-Avork. There is, first, a broad band of foliage, Avith Hebrew inscriptions above and beloAv it, and above this on each side an arcade of nineteen arches, sjAringing from coupled shafts, eight of its divisions being pierced and filled with very elaborate lattice-work. The end Avail (now the altar end) has a A^ery slight recess in the centre, and the whole of it to Avithin some seven feet of the floor is covered Avith rich patterns, inscriptions, and coats of aiuns, whilst above the arcade is continued on from the side walls in eight divisions. The arcades are all cusped in the usual Moorish fashion, the outline of the cusps being horseshoe, but witliout an enclosing arch. The end opposite to the altar has two windows pierced in the upper arcade, and three windoAvs below ^ Said to have been so called on ac- count of the passing-bell rung at the death of any of the Knights of Cala- trava, to which it belonged after A.D. 1492 ; but more probably owing to its possession of a picture of the Assumption, the church having some- times been called Nuestra Senora del Transito. It is also called San Benito. See D. Man. de Assas, Alb. Art. de Toledo. 2 For some notice of Samuel Levi, and the inscriptions in the Synagogue, see Don Jose Amador de losRios, Estu- dios sob re los Judios de Espaiia, pp. 52-7. Translations of these long and curious Hebrew inscriptions are given by D. F. de Rades y Andrada in his Chronicle of Calatrava, pp. 24, 25. ^ The capture of Granada, on Jan. 2nd, 1492, and the expulsion of the Jews at the end of July in the same year, were jointly recorded over the door ‘Dlel Escribanos ” at the west end of the cathedral ; and at the same time so great was the zeal for the Christian faith that nothing else was tolerated anywhere in Spain, and least of all here under the eye of the Primate. Yet it is more than doubtful whether the country gained in any way — moral or material • — by such a measure ; it lost its most skilled workmen, its most skilled agri- culturists; and the gloom-ins 2 >iring effect of the necessary Inquisition, seems jDermauently to have fixed itself on Spanish art and manners. 170,000 fcxmilies of Jews, at the time of their expulsion, were compelled to leave the kingdom in four months, or be bajxtized. — Don J. A. de los Rios, Estudios s. 1. Judios, p. 156. 220 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. breaking np into tlie band of foliage and inscriptions. The whole is now whitewashed, and though the detail is all fantastic and overdone, the effect is nevertheless fine, owing to the great height of the walls and to the contrast between the excessive en- richment of their upper and the plainness of their lower part. The Retablo over the principal altar is a work of the end of the fifteenth century, but not of remarkable merit, having paintings of Scripture subjects under carved canopies ; there is another of the same class against the north wall. The roof is a grand example of the Moorish “ artesinado ” ^ work. It has coupled tie-beams, and a deep cornice, which is carried boldly across the angles, so as to give polygonal ends to the roof, which is hipped at the ends, the rafters sloping equally on all four sides. These rafters are only introduced to improve the appearance of, and — it may be — the possibility of hearing what was read in, the syna- gogue. The pitch of the real roof is very flat, and where a flat roof is absolutely necessary, this kind of ceiling is undoubtedly very effective. At some height above the plate the sloping rafters are stopped by a flat ceiling below the collar rafters, panelled all over in the ingeniously intricate geometrical figures of which the Moorish arcliitects were so fond, and in the device of which they were al^^ays only too ingenious. The rafters as well as the tie-beams are used in pairs placed close to each other, and the space between them is divided into panels by horizontal pieces at short intervals, with patterns sunk in the panels. There is a western gallery, and some seats made of glazed encaustic tiles on each side of the sanctuary. The exterior has arcades answering to those of the interior : it is built mainly of brick, with occasional bands of rough stone- work. The bricks are 11 in. by 7| in. by IJ in. in size, and are used with a mortar joint 1 J in. in thickness. It is impossible to deny the grandeur of the internal effect of this room. The details are entirely unlike what I should wish to see repeated ; but the proportions, the contrasted simplicity and intricacy of the lower and upper part of the walls, the admis- sion of all the light from above, and tlie magnificence of the roof, might all be emulated in a Gothic building, and I have seen few rooms which have appeared to me to be more suggestive of the right form and treatment for a picture gallery or saloon for any state purpose. 1 From artesa, a kneading-trough ; a of roof, and I follow Mr. Ford’s example carved ceiling, made in the shape of an in adopting it, as we have no term inverted trough. This term is usually which exactly represents it. applied by Spanish writers to this class Chap. XL TOLEDO : MOOETSH HOUSES. 221 The two synagogues I have described stand now in the most deserted and melancholy part of Toledo. The old Juderia, or Jews’ quarter, is decayed and abandoned. The Jews, of course, are all expelled from it, and the Christians seem to have avoided their quarter as though there were a curse on it. Samuel Levi, the founder of El Transito, built for himself a magnificent palace near it, of which, I believe, some part still exists, though I did not see it. The Moorish houses, which I must now shortly describe, appear to be very numerous and of all dates, from the twelfth century down to tlie conquest of Granada; and it seemed to me that up to this time almost all the houses must iiave been tl)e work of Moorish architects. Tiie Jews and JMoors were both very numerous bodies — so mucli so that Toledo is charged by an old writer with having liad in it none others, — and there is nothing to show tliat the Christians ever employed any other architects. TTie common type of liouse is one which is completely Moorish in plan, even when the details are not so. It almost always liad a long dark entrance passage, with an outer door to the street, studded thickly with nails of the most exaggerated size, and furnished with great knockers. The outer room or passage — ceiled with open timbers, boarded or panelled between — opens into the iJatio or central court, over which in hot weather an awning or curtain could be hung. This imtio is surrounded by open passages on all sides, supported by wooden posts, or some- times on granite columns, and the staircase to the upjjer floors rises from one angle of it. The woodwork is generally well Avrouglit with moulded ends to the joists and moulded plates. Here are usually one or two wells, the court having been the impluvium whei’e all the water from the roof was collected in a large cistern below the pavement. Toledo is still a clean city, and Ponz,^ defending its credit from an attack by an Italian writer, maintains that the women are so clean that they wash the brick-floors of their houses as often as they do their dislies ! TTiis is the type of house to be seen probably in every street in the city ; but here and there are still left other houses of distinctly Moorish architecture, and of extreme magnificence in their adornment. Looking to the frail material of all these enrichments, the wonder is, not that so few houses remain, but rather that anything at all exists ; and even in their present forlorn state there is sometliing very interesting in these houses ‘ Viage de Espaaa, vol, i. p. 41. 222 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. CHA1\ XL and rooms and decorations, so utterly unlike anything to wtiicli a northern eye is ever accustomed at home. The examples of Knocker and Nails on Door, Toledo. this class which I saw seemed to be all of the same date — either of the fourteenth or fifteenth century — and though full of variety in their detail, extremely similar in their general effect. A room in the Casa de Mesa is the finest I saw, and I suppose that even in the South of Spain there are few better examples of its class. Its dimensions are 20 ft. 3 in. in width, by about 55 ft. in length and 34 ft. in height. The walls are lined at the base with very good encaustic tiles, rising nearly 4 ft. from the floor ; above this line they are plain up to the cornice, save where the elaborately-decorated entrance arcliway — an uncusped arch, set in a frame, as it were, of the most fantastic and luxuriant foliage, arcading, and tracery — occupies a considerable part of one of the side walls. A very deep cornice of but slight projection, with a band of enrichment below it, suriminds the room, and this is interrupted by the doorway at the side, and by a small two-light window at one end. This window of two lights, with a cusped round-arched head to each light and some delicate tracery above, is framed in a broad border of tracery work, copied from the latest Gotliic panelling, so that the whole design is a com- plete mixture of Gothic and Moorish detail. The ceiling is in Chap. XI. TOLEDO : MOORISH HOUSES. 223 its old state and of the usual artesinado descri23tion. Its section is that of a lofty-23ointed arch, truncated at the to^), so as to j^ive one 2>^iiel in width flat, the rest being all on the curve. The roof is hij)ped at both ends and panelled throughout, eacli panel being filled in with a most ingenious star-like pattern, of the kind whicli one so commonly sees in Moorish work. The patterns are formed by ribs (square in section) of dark wood, with a white line along the centre of the soffeit of each. The sides of the ribs are j^ainted red, and the recessed ^^aiiels have lines of white beads painted at their edges, and in the centre an arabesque on a dark blue ground. The colours are so arranged as to mark out as dis- tinctly as |)ossible the squares and patterns into which it is divided, and the sinking of some panels below the others allows the same p»attern to be used for borders and grounds with very varied effect. The reds are rather crimson in tone, and the blues very dark. The jfiaster eurichments on the walls seemed, as far as I could make out, to have been originally left white, with the square edges of the ^daster ^^ainted red ; but I cannot speak quite positively on this point. A room in a garden behind the house No. 6, in the Calle la Plata, is an almost equally good examjfie, though on a smaller scale, and with a flat ceiling. The great entrance archway in the middle of one side is fringed with a crowd of small cusps, but otherwise it is treated very much in the same way as the door in the Casa de J\Iesa. The cornice here also is very deep, and the band of })laster enrichment below it is filled with Gothic geometrical tracery ^^atterns. The ceiling is particularly good, being diapered at regular intervals Avith figures formed by two squares set across each other, with an octagonal cell sunk in the centre of each. This room is about 36 ft. long by 1 1 ft. 8 in. wide, and 11 ft. 5 in. high to the band below the cornice, and a little over 16 ft. in total height. The Taller del Moro,” so called because it was turned into a workshop for the cathedral, and is in tlie Calle del Moro, is a more important work, consisting of three apartments, lavishly deco- rated. Don Patricio de la Escosura, in the letterpress to ^ Esj^ana Artistica y Monumental,’ considers the date of this building to be between the ninth and tenth centuries ; ^ but I see no reason whatever for believing that its 2)laster decorations are earlier than 1350, or thereabouts. The list which I have already given of Mooilsh w'orks will show how many I have to leave undescribed ; but I had not ^ Espaua Aft. y Muii., vol. i. p. 78. 224 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. time to see all, and it is not worth while to describe with any more detail those that I did manage to see, for they are all extremely similar in the character of their decorations. TJie work of the same kind in the churches of Toledo is of more interest, because here it is of that partly Moorish and partly Christian character, which shows that the IMahomedan architects, to whom no doubt Ave OAve most of it, Avrought under the direction to a considerable extent of their Christian masters, and in some respects Avith very happy results. In most of the general views of Toledo, some steeples which are attaclied to churches of this class are to be seen, and they give much of its character to the city. I saAv six of these, namely, those of San Tome, San Miguel, San Pedro Martyr, Sta. Leocadia, San Eoman, and La Concep- cion ; Avhilst among the churches in the same style are parts of Sta. Isabel, San Eugenio, San Bartolome, Sta. Ursula, Sta. Ee, Santiago, and San Vicente. Tlie Avhole of these Avorks are very similar in their general character, being built rather roughly of brick, Avith consider- able use of cusped arcades in a succession of orders one over the other, the churches generally being finished Avith apses at the east end, and the toAvers being built Avithout buttresses, and roofed Avith tiled roofs of moderate pitch. The steeple of San Eoman is the finest example of its class to be seen here. Eor half its height it is perfectly plain, built of rough stone, Avith occasional courses of brick, and quoined Avith brick. The string-courses are all of brick, un- moulded. The character of the three upper stages Avill be best understood by the illustration Avhicli I give. The cusped arch of the loAver of these stages is certainly very pretty, but the common form of trefoiled Moorish arch enclosed Avithin it seems to me to be the most frightful of all possible forms. It is neither graceful in itself, nor does it convey the idea of repose or strength ; and it is so completely non-constructional, that the lower portion of the a]Aparent arch is never built as an arch, but ahvays Avith horizontal courses. In the belfry stage the bold variation of the openings is Avorthy of notice; and throughout the Avhole the utmost praise is due to the architect Avho, Avith none but the commonest materials, and at the least possible expense in every AA'ay, has, nevertheless, left us a Avork much more Avorthy of critical examination than most of the costly works in brick erected by ourselves at the present day. It is amazing hoAV much force is given by the abandonment of mouldings and chamfers, and the trust in broad, bold, square soffeits to all the openings. I must not omit to mention that the small red Chap. XI. TOLEDO : CHURCH OF SAN ROMAN. 225 sliafts in the arcade below the belfry seem to be made of terra- cotta. The construction of the steeple is very peculiar. In the lowest stage it is divided by two arches springing from a central San Roman. Toledo. pier, and the two compartments thus formed are roofed with waggon-vaults. In the next stage the central pier is carried up, and has four arches springing from it to the walls. The four spaces left between these arches are vaulted with barrel-vaults at right angles to each other. The steps of the ascent to tliis tower are carried on arches against the side walls, with occa- sional openings in the vaults when necessary for passing. San Iloman has a nave and aisles, with arcades of two arches between them; a chancel, mainly of Renaissance style, covered with a dome, but with some late Gothic groining to its apse ; and Q 226 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. a south chancel aisle ending without an apse. The tower is on the north side of the chancel. The whole church is plastered and whitewashed most painfully, but still retains one or two interest- ing features. The footpace in front of the altar has a good pave- ment of large plain red tiles, laid diagonally, with small encaustic blue and white glazed tiles at intervals. The whole pavement is divided into a number of strips by rectangular bands of blue stone. The altar at the east end of the south choir aisle also deserves a note, being built with a solid black stone front, carved in imita- tion of embroidery and fringes, with an inscription on the super- frontal, and a shield suspended in the centre of the frontal. This strange device for economizing altar vestments was not common, I think, here, but several examples remain in the new cathedral at Salamanca. The reredos over this altar has a very sweet painting of the Last Supper, the figure of our Lord being Santa Magdalena. Toledo. much raised above those of the apostles, and the table at which He sits being polygonal. Sta. Magdalena has a smaller and simpler tower of the same Chap. XT, TOLEDO: STEEPLES OF SAN TOME, ETC. 227 class ; it is perfectly plain below the belfry stage, wliicli has two windows in each face. The bells hang here, as is so often the case in Sonthern buildings, in the window ; and in all these buildings, as in most other old examples of brickworlc, the piitlog-holes (or holes for the insertion of the scaffold-poles) are left open. The bricks, too, are used very roughly and pictn- rescpiely with a very thick mortar-joint, and the consequence is that every part of this work has a value in texture and light and shade undreamt of by those who have never seen anything but our own smooth, smart, and spiritless modern brick walls, built with bad bricks and no mortar.^ The steeple of San Tome is so absolutely identical in its details — save that its shafts of glazed earthenware are alternately green and yellow — with that of San Roman, that it is unneces- sary to describe it.^ San Pedi'o ]\tartyr has a steeple which is much wider on one side than on the otlier, but is otherwise similar to that of San Roman in its general design. San Miguel, and Sta. Leocadia, and La Concepcion, have steeples more like that of La Magdalena, the towers being small, and with only one arcaded stage below the belfry. The masonry and brickwork is the same in all tliese examples, but their scale differs considerably, the steeple of San Roman being by far the largest and loftiest, that of San Tome the next, and the others a good deal smaller. All these steeples seem to me to illustrate not only the proper use of brick, already mentioned, but also the great difference between old and new works in the degree of simplicity and amount of cost with which their authors appear to be satisfied. It is seldom, indeed, at the present day, that we see a steeple erected which has not cost twice as much, in proportion to its size and solidity, as either of these old Toledan examples ; and it is to be feared that few of us now have the couraa’e ^ I am aware that in saying this I blame myself as much as any one else. The truth is, that so violent is the popular pi'ejudice on some points that he must be a bold architect who ven- tures to run counter to it ; and I am quite sure that the first brick building I erect with the brickwork executed in the proper way will be met by a storm of abuse from all sides. This is a great snare to most of us. Nothing is more easy than to secure popular applause in architecture. Tf we abstain from study, thought, or over- labour about the execution of every detail, we may still do what every one will agree is right and proper, because it has been done five hundred times before ; but if we only give a fair amount of all three we are sure to meet with plenty of critics who never give any of either, and who hate our work in proportion to their own incapacity to criticize it from their old standpoint. 2 A good illustration of San Tome is given in Villa Amil, vol. ii. Q 2 228 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XL to trust entirely in the virtue of doing only what the money given to ns to spend will properly allow, Avithont raising that silly and too-freqiiently-heard wail about our Avork having been spoilt for Avant of money, Avhich no medisBval work, however poor, ever was ! I liave been unable to satisfy myself, by any documentary evi- dence, as to the age of these buildings. There is some record of extensive Avorks in the church of San Tomd, in the beginning of the fourteenth century,^ but, as we see that the church has since been paganized Avitliout damage to the town, it is possible that they may also have escaped the previous Avorks. On the other liand, the king Don Alonso YIIl. is said to have been pro- claimed from the steeple AvindoAv of San Eoman, in 1166; and, looking to the character of the Puerta Yisagra — an un- doubted AA^ork of the commencement of the twelfth century — I do not know Avhether Ave should be justified in refusing to give the steeple of San Roman the date claimed for it, thougb my impression when I Avas looking at it, Avithout consulting any authorities, Avas, that this Avork Avas none of it older than the end of the thirteenth century. The first impressions of an English eye in looking at this Moorish Avork are not, hoAvever, much to be depended on, the profusion of cusped arches, in Avhich the Moorish architects so early indulged, alAA^ays giving their Avork a rather late effect. Among the churches of Moresque character that I saAV, I may specially mention those of Santiago and Sta. Leocadia. The former appeared to me to be a Avork mainly of the fourteenth century. It is a parallel-triapsidal church, and has some old brick arcading on the exterior of the chancel aisle, but is generally so bedaubed Avith jdaster and Avhitewash as to be uninteresting. It is said to have an artesinado ceiling, but I do not recollect this, and I belicA^e it has a plaster ceiling beloAV the old one. The pulpit is a rather striking Avork of that mixed ]\roorish and Gothic detail AA^hich prevailed in the fifteenth century. One fact I noticed here, and again at Yalencia Cathe- dral, Avas, that the pulpit had no door, and the only access seemed to be over the side, by aid of a ladder! When pulpits Avere erected, it is fair to suppose tliat they Avere meant to be used ; but in the Spain of the present day it is, pei-haps, not of much consequence if they are unusable, as sermons do not seem to be very much in vogue. ^ Toledo en la Mano, pp. 249 et seq. Escosura in Villa Amil, vol. ii, p. 51. Chap. Xr. TOLEDO : WALLS, GATEWAYS, BRIDGES. 229 Of the other churches in the city 8ta. Isabel has a polygonal apse, with each side arcaded witli a ]\Ioorish trefoil arch. San Eugenio has a similar apse, with a second stage, with mul- tifoil arcading all along it ; and San Bartolome has three of these cusped and arcaded stages in its apse. Sta. Ursula has a stone apse, circular in plan, coursed with brick, and pierced with three Moorish windows. La Concepcion has a polygonal apse of rude stonework below, and is coursed with bricks from mid- height upwards, with three Moresque windows set within square recessed panels; whilst Sta. Ee presents the unusual feature of buttresses to the apse, and has an interlacing arcade below the eaves, and long lancet windows set within Moresque cusped panels. Sta. Leocadia (commonly called Cristo de la Yega), just outside the city, and in the valley below its walls, also retains the apse of its church, erected on a site which is said to have been first built upon as early as the fourth century. This is entirely covered Avith arcading from the ground to the eaves, arranged in three equal orders, the lower cusped, the next having the common Moorish trefoil, and the upper being round- arched. Some of the panels of these arcades are pierced for light. The existing building is probably in no part earlier than the twelfth century; it consists of a small modern nave, a sanctuary of two bays Avitli round transverse arches, and cusped Moresque arches in the side walls. The apse at the east end is roofed Avitli a semi-dome. At the west end is a small modern cemeteiy, full of gravestones, inscribed at least as fully, fondly, and foolishly, as those we indulge in in our own cemeteries. In addition to these more important works there are, in the cathedral, a door leading into the chapter-room, and a recessed arch in one of the chapels on the south side of the nave, executed by Moorish artists probably in the fifteenth or six- teenth century. It has been absurdly enough suggested that these are parts of the ancient mosque which stood on the same site ; but there is no ground Avhatever for the idea, the work being evidently of much later date, and it being at the time a common fashion to introduce some Avork of this kind into buildings Avhich otherwise are purely Gothic. dTie last head under Avhich I have to describe Moorish Avork, is, perhaps, also the most interesting. The Avails, gate av ays, and bridges of Toledo are, I think, the finest I have anyAvhere seen ; in part, at least, of extreme age, very perfectly preserved, and on a grand scale. There is a double line of AA^all on the unprotected side of the city toAvards the Vega, the inner line said to be the 230 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XL work of the Visigoths, before the ]\roorish conquest, in 711,^ and the outer built in 1109, by Alonso VI. Both walls seem to go from the Bridge of Alcantara on one side of the city, to the Bridge of St. i\rartin on the other. Outside the wall the hills and walls slope down rapidly to the Talley ; whilst within them the uneven surface is covered thickly with houses everywhere, until the Tagus, winding round three parts of the city in its deep, savage, and solitary dehle — a solitariness all the more impressive from being so near to the busy hive of men — encloses it, and makes defensive erections almost unnecessary. 1 have already given some account of the Bridge of Alcan- tara.^ It is of two lofty arches, with a bold projecting pier Piu rta del Sul. Toledo. between them. Here is one of the best points of view of the two lines of wall, which are broken constantly by round or square ^ Ford’s Handbook, p. 777. ^ See ante, p. 210. Chap. XI. TOLEDO : PUERTA DE VISAORA. 231 projecting towers, and ascend and descend in the most pictu- resque fashion, to suit the rugged inequality of the rocks on which they are built. I know no view more picturesque and magnificent. The first gateway reached is the Puerta del Sol, which is so admirable an example of the picturesqueness of which the style is capable, that I cannot resist giving an illustration of it. It is, indeed, not only picturesque, but in all respects a dignified and noble work of art. The variety of arches, one behind the other, which is seen here, was a very favourite device with the Moorish architects. Here, I think, there are four, two pointed and two round, but all horseslioe in their outline. The outer gateway on the old Bridge of St. Martin has five such arches, two of them being round and one pointed horseshoe, one a plain round, and one a plain pointed arch. In the Puerta del Sol the intersecting arcades in brick- work over the arch, and the projecting turrets on a level with them, are extremely picturesque. The materials used are wrought stone, rough walling stones, and brick. The battle- ments are of a type which was repeated by the Christians in most parts of Spain, but was, no doubt, derived first of all from the Moors. The situation of the gateway is charming; with due regard to military requirements it turns its side to the enemy, and is reached by a winding road, which bends round at a shaiq) angle just before reaching it. To the left is seen the sweet view over the Vega, watered and made green by the kind river ; a view which gains immensely on one’s liking, compared, as it always is, with the dreary arid hills beyond, and with recollections of the weary waste over which so much of the traveller’s road to Toledo must needs lie. The age of this gateway is not known, but it dates probably from the end of the twelfth, or beginning of the thirteenth century. So, at least, I judge by comjiaring it with the next gateway, that called the Puerta de Visagi-a, the finest gateway in the outer wall (which was erected circa 1108-26), and which cannot, therefore, be earlier than the beginning of the twelfth century. The design of this Puerta de Visagra is clearly due to a IMoorish architect, and it is extremely interesting to find tlie Christian king, so soon after his conquest of the city, making use of the Moors for his work, and to find them doing their best, apparently in their capacity as builders, to second his endea- vours to make the recapture of the city by the Infidels impos- sible. The materials of this a’ate are the same as those of the other, but its character is much heavier and ruder. The 232 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. contrast between the grand outer arch and the extremely small inner arcli is very curious ; the ground has, however, risen considerably in front of it, so that its real proportions are very much concealed. The wall is carried out in advance of this gateway, and has an angle- tower, which was schemed, no doubt, to secure the proper defence of the entrance. Further along, beyond the point at which the two walls unite, we reach the Bridge of St. Martin — a noble arch of even grander scale than that of Alcantara, and, like it, guarded at either end by gate- ways, of which that on the further side has the remains of ]\Ioorish work in the arches which span it, and which have been already mentioned ; it is finished with the Moorish battlement. This bridge has five arches, of wliich the largest is magnificent in scale, — no less than 140 (Spanish) feet wide by 95 high. The arches are very light and lofty, and spring from grand piers, behind which the rocky defile is seen in its greatest grandeur. It seems to have been built in 1212, and repaired, the central arcli being rebuilt,' by Archbishop Tenor io, circa 1339. J\Iy notice of these various works has been, as it ywere, only the preface to the real glory of Toledo ; for interesting and unique as some of them, and strange and novel as all of them are, there is a higher value and a greater charm about the noble metropolitan church of Spain than about any of them : a charm not due only to its religious and historical associations, but resulting just as much from its own intrinsic beauty as an example of the pure vigorous Gothic of the thir- teenth century, such as when I left France on my first Spanish journey I supposed I should not see again till my eyes rested once more on Chartres, Notre Dame, Paris, or Amiens ! Here, however, we have a church which is the equal in some respects * An inscription was put up in tlie time of Philip II. giving the history of the bridge, and stating that it had been rebuilt by Pedro Tenorio, the arch- bishop : “ Ponteni cujus ruinaj in de- clivis alveo proximo visuntur, fluminis inundatione, Cjum anno Domini mcciii. super ipsum excrevit, diruptum Tole- tani in hoc loco mdificaverunt. Im- becilla hominum consilia, quern jam amnis l&edere non poterat, Petro et Hen- rico fratribus pro regno contendentibus interruptum, Petrus Tenorius arcbiepis- copus Toletan. reparadum curavit.” A quaint story is told of the building of this bridge. The architect whilst the work was going on perceived that as soon as the centres were removed the arches would fall, and confided his grief to his wife. She with woman’s wit forthwith set fire to the centring, and when the whole fell together all the world attributed the calamity to the accident of the fire. When the bridge had been rebuilt again she avowed her proceeding, but Archbishop Tenorio, instead of making her husband pay the expenses, seems to have con- fined himself to complimenting him on the treasure he possessed in his wife. — ■ Cean Bermudez, Not. de los Arquos., &c., vol. i. p. 79. Chap. XL TOLEDO: CATHEDRAL. 233 of any of the great French churches ; and I liardly know how to express my astonishment that such a building should be so little known, and that it should have been so insufficiently if not wrongly described whenever any attempt at a description has been made by English travellers who have visited it. The cathedral is said to have occupied the present site before the capture of the city by the Moors. ^ They converted it into a mosque, and in course of time enlarged and adorned it greatly. At the capitulation to Alonso VI., in 1085, it was agreed that the Moors should still retain it; but this agreement was re- spected for a few months only, when the Christians, without the consent of the king, took it forcibly from them and liad it consecrated as their cathedral.^ Of this building nothing remains. The first stone of the new cathedral was laid with great ceremony by the king Don Fernando III., assisted by the Archbishop, on the 14th of August, a.d. 1227 ; ^ and from that ^ A stone was found in the 16th cen- tury with this inscription on it: — IN NOMINE DNI CONSECEA TA ECCLESIA SCTE MAEIE IN CATHOLICO DIE PRIMO IDES APEILIS ANNO EELI CITER PRIMO REGNI DNI NOSTRI GLORIOSISSIMI II RECCAREDI REGIS ERA DCXXV This stone is still preserved, and is interesting as a proof that a church was standing here in the year 587. - Bernard, the first bishop, after the expulsion of the Moors was sent from France, at the request of the king, by Hugo, Abbot of Clujayr The story of this seizure of the mosque is as follows : “Regina Constantia hortante de revete adscitis militibus Christianis, majorem Mezquilam ingressus est Toletanam, et eliminata spurcitia Mahometi, erexit altaria fidei Christianee, et in majori turri campanas ad convocationem fide- lium collocavit.” The king came back forthwith in great wrath, determined to burn both queen and archbishop, and riding into the city was met by a crowd of Moors, to whom he cried out that no injury had been done to them, but only to him who had solemnly given his oath that their mosque should be i^reserved to them. They, however, prudently begged him to let them release him from his oath, whereat he had great joy, and riding on into the city the matter ended peacefully. — Archbishop Rodrigo, De Rebus Hispaniie, lib. vi. cap. xxiii. ^ “ In the cm 1264 (a.d. 1226) the king D. Fernando, and the archbishop Don Rodrigo, laid the first stones in the foun- dation of the church of Toledo.” — Anales Toledanos III. Salazar de Men- doza, in the prologue to the Chronicle of Cardinal D. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, says that the function took place on the 14th Aug. 1227, the eve of the Assump- tion. The archbishop, in his History, lib. ix. cap. 13, says that the work was carried on to the great admiration of the people : “Et tunc jecerunt primum lapidem” (the Toledo MS. has lapides) “Rex et Archiepiscopus Roderi- cus in fundamento ecclesise Toletanaj, quse in forma mexquitse ’ (of a mosque) ‘ ‘ h tempore Arabum adhuc stabat : cujus fabrica opere mirabili de die in diem non sine grandi admiratione hominum exaltatur.” It is vexatious to find the archbishop who laid the first stone writing a history of his own times, and saying nothing throughout the entire volume beyond these few words about his cathedral. No one seems to be able to j udge what will interest another age. Most of the archbishop’s facts are 234 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. XL time to the end of the seventeenth century additions to and alterations of the original fabric seem to have been constantly in hand. The cathedral is built east and west, according to the uni- versal tradition of the Church,” says Bias Ortiz, forgetting ap- parently that this is no tradition of the Eoman Church. I think it is always attended to in Spain, save in cities like Barcelona, where the commercial intercourse with Italy perhaps introduced the Italian tradition. The feeling about the Orientation of churches was stronger among the English and Germans than anywhere else, and possibly the Spanisli tradition dates from the time of the Visigothic kings. It was the same king who laid the first stone of Burgos Cathedral in 1221, and it will be remembered that Maurice, the tlien Bishop of Burgos, is said to have been an Englishman, and had been Archdeacon of Toledo. Ferdinand’s first wife was a daughter of the Duke of Suabia, his second a French- woman. The name of the architect was |3reserved on his epitaph, which I copy frojii Bias Ortiz : — “ Aqiii : jacet : Petrus Petri : magister Eclesia : Scte ; Marie ; Toletani : fama : lAr exeiupliim : pi’o more : liuic : bona ; Crescit : qui preseus : tem 2 )liiin : construxit : Et hie quiescit : quod ; quia ; tan : mire : Fecit ; vili ; sentiat : ire : ante • Dei : Vultum : pro : quo ; nil ; restat : inultum : Et sibi : sis ; merce : qui solus : cuncta ; Colierce ; obiit : x dias de Novembi'is : Era : de m : et cccxxvni (a.d. 1290).” I did not see this inscription, and am unable to say, tlierefore, whether it is original ; but I believe there is little doubt of this.^ I should have much more doubt as to the nationality of the architect. The Spanish writers all talk of him as Perez;’’ but as the Latin inscription is the only authority for his name, he may as fairly be called Pierre le Pierre, and so become a Frenchman ; and I cannot help thinking that this is, on the whole, very much more likely than that he shoidd liave been a Spaniard. This, at any rate, is certain: the first rather insignificant, and what thanks Coll. Patrum Ecc. Toletana?, Madrid, would we not have given him for any in- 1 795. formation as to the building of one of the ^ It is preserved in the Chapel of St. grandest churches of the age! — See his Catherine.' — See Bias Ortiz, Summi History — finished in 1243 — in vol. iii. of Templi Toletani graphica Descriptio. Chap. XI. TOLEDO : CATHEDRAL. 235 arcliitect of Toledo, whether lie were French or Spanisli, was thoroughly well acquainted with the best Frencli ciiurches, and could not otherwise have done what he did. In Siiain itself there was, as I have said before, nothing to lead gmdually to the full development of the pointed style. We find, on the contrary, buildings, planned evidently by foreign liands, rising suddenly, without any connexion with other buildings in their own district, and yet with most obvious features of similarity to works in other countries erected just before them. Such, I liave shown, is the case with the cathedrals at Burgos, at Leon, and at Santiago, and such even more decidedly is the case here. Moreover, in Toledo, if anywhere, was such a circumstance as this to be expected. In this part of Spain there was in the thirteenth century no trained school of native artists. Even after the conquest the Moors continued, as has been said before, to act as architects for Christian buildings whether secular or ecclesiastical, and, indeed, to monopolize all the science and art of the country which they no longer ruled. In such a state of things, I can imagine nothing more natural than that, though the Toledans may have been well content to employ Mahomedan art in their ordinary works, yet, when it came to be a question of rebuilding their cathedral on a scale vaster than anything which had as yet been attempted, they would be anxious to adopt some distinctly Christian form of art ; and, lacking entirely any school of their own, would be more likely to secure the services of a Frenchman than of any one else ; whilst the French archbishop, who at the time occupied the see, would be of all men the least likely to sympathise with Moresque wmrk, and the most anxious to emjfioy a French artist. But, however this may have been, the church is thoroughly French in its ground-plan and equally French in all its details ^ for some height from the ground ; and it is not until we reach the triforium of the choir that any other influence is visible ; but ^ I venture to speak with great positive- uess about some features of detail. It is possible enough that architects in various countries may develop from one original — say from a Lombard original — groups of buildings which shall have a general similarity. They may increase this similarity by travel. But in each country certain convention- alities have been introduced in the designing of details which it is most rare to see anywhere out of the country which produced them. Such, e.g., are the delicate differences between the French and English bases of the thir- teenth century, nay even between the bases in various parts of the present French empire. These differences are so delicate that it is all but impossible to explain them ; yet no one who has care- fully studied them will doubt, when he sees a French moulding used throughout a building, that French artists had much to do with its design. 236 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. Chap. XL even here the work is French work, only slightly modified by some acquaintance with Moorish art, and not to such an extent as to be recognized as Moresque anywhere else hut here in the close neighbourhood of so much which suggests the probability of its being so. The whole work is, indeed, a grand protest against Mahomedan architecture, and I doubt whether any city in the middle ages can show anything so distinctly intended and so positive in its opposition to what was being done at the same time by other architects as this. It is just what we see at the present day, and we owe an incidental debt of gratitude to this old architect for showing us that in the thirteenth cen- tury, just as much as in the nineteenth, it was j^ossible for an artist to believe in the fitness and religiousness of one style as contrasted with another, and steadily to ignore the fantastic conceits of the vernacular architecture of the day and place in favour of that which he knew to be purer and truer, more lovely and more symbolical. From A.D. 1290, the date of the death of the first arcliitect, to A.D. 1425, 1 have not met with the name of any architect of this cathedral ; but from that year to the end of the last century the complete list is known and jDublished,^ and contains of course many well-known names. The plan of the cathedral is set out on an enormous scale, as will be seen by the table of comparative dimensions which I give below, as well as by comparison with the other plans in this volume.^ In width it is scarcely exceeded by any church of its ^ Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esp., &c., vol. i. pp. 253-4 ; and Bellas Artes en Espaiia, passim. — Width in clear of Walls. Length in clear. Width of Nave from c to c of Columns. feet. in. feet. feet. in. Toledo* 178 0 395 50 6 Milanf 186 0 475 63 0 Cologne f 130 0 405 44 0 Paris * 110 0 400 48 0 Bourges * 128 0 370 49 0 T royes * 124 0 395 50 0 Chartres § 100 0 430 50 0 Amiens J 100 0 435 49 0 Reims § 95 0 430 48 0 Lincoln § 80 0 468 45 0 York § 106 0 486 52 0 ! Westminster § , . 75 0 505 38 0 * Five aisles, exclusive of chapels l)et\veeii buttresses. f Five aisles. X Three aisles, exclusive of chapels between buttresses. i) Three aisles. Chap. XT. TOLEDO: CATHEDITAL. 237 age, Milan and Seville cathedrals — neither of them possessing any other great claim to respect — being, I think, tlie only larger churches in Christendom ; and the area covered by the cloisters, chapels, and dependencies of Toledo, being on the same large scale, is of course in excess altogether of Milan, which has none. The original plan consisted of a nave with double aisles on either side, seven bays in length ; transepts of the same projection as the aisles ; a choir of one bay ; and the chevet formed by an apse to the choir of five bays, with the double aisles continued round it, and small chapels — alternately square and circiilar in plan — between the buttresses in its outer wall. Two western towers were to have been erected beyond the west ends of the outer aisles ; ^ and there were grand entrances in each transept, and three doorways at the west end. The great cloister on the north side, and all the chapels throaghout (save two or three of the small chapels already mentioned, which still remain in the apse), are later additions. Scarcely a fragment of tlie lower and visible part of the exterior of the cathedral has been left un- touched by the destructive hands of the architects of the last three centuries ; and the consequence is, that it is after all only tlie interior of this noble church that is so magnificent, there being very little indeed tliat is either attractive or interest- ing on the exterior. There is absolutely no good general view to be had of it; for a network of narrow winding lanes encom- passes the building on all sides, leaving no open space anywhere, save at the west end ; and here the exterior has been so much altered as to deprive the view of its value. I had some difficulty in mounting to the roof, the canon in authority sternly and rudely refusing me permission ; but as the sacristan considered that I had done my duty in asking, and that the canon liad 1 The north-west tower only was built, and this long after the original foundation of the church {i.e. circa 1380- 1440). Bias Ortiz, speaking of the foundation of the Mozarabic chapel at the west end of the opposite (south) aisle, says it was placed “in extrema Templi parte, ubi cocptEC turris fundainenta sur- gebant.” The four western bays of the nave are no doubt rather later in date than the rest of the church, but they follow the same general design, and are not distinguishable on the ground-plan. My ground - plan of this enormous cathedral is deficient in some details ; but my readers will pardon any depar- ture from absolute accuracy in every part, when they consider how much useless labour the representation of every detail entails in such a work, and how impossible it would be for any one without a great deal of time at his disposal to do more than I have done. I am not aware that any plan of this cathedral has ever before been published. I omitted to examine a detached chapel — that I believe of the ‘‘Reyes Nuevos” — but with this excep- tion, I think my plan shows tlni whole of the old portion of the work quite accurately. 23tcr XX. fur an account of the curious likeness between this plan and one by tVilars de Jlonecort. Plate XIV . ('hap. XI, TOT.EDO : CATHEDRAL. 2-15 111 the eastern portion of tlie elmrcli a g-ood (h^al of dog-tootli enrichment is introdnced. I liave noticed the same fact in tlie account of Burgos Cathedral, and suggested that it was im ported tliere from Anjou. Here, however, the architect clearly kneiv not ranch, if anything, of Angevine buildings, and probably borrowed the dog-tooth from Burgos, though of the other pecu- liarities of detail in that cliurch I see no trace. The planning of the whole church was uniform throughout. The columns are all circular, surromided by engaged shafts, which, in the great piers in the transept, are trefoiled in section. There do not appear to have been chapels anywhere in the side walls of tlie nave, save on the south side of the soidh aisle, where the 246 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. chapel of Sta. Lucia appears to be of the same age as the church, and is recorded to have been founded by Archbishop Rodrigo, with an endowment for two cliaplains to say masses for the soul of Alonso This chapel has triple groining-shafts in the angles, a good triplet, with dog-tooth and engaged jamb-shafts, in the south wall, and a window of two lancets, with a circle in the head, in the east wall. On the west side of this chapel is an extremely rich recessed arch in stucco, of late Moorish work — a curious contrast to the fine ])ointed work of the chapel. The original scheme of the church is only tt) be seen now in the clioir and its aisles. These are arranged in three gradations of height, — the choir being upwards of a hundred feet, the aisle round it about sixty feet, and the outer aisle about thirty-five feet ^ in height. The outer wall of the aisle is pierced with arches for the small chapels between the buttresses, the design and planning of which are shown clearly in the illustration which I give. The intermediate aisle has in its outer wall a triforium, formed by an arcade of cus[)ed arches ; and above this, quite close to the point of the vault, a rose window in each bay. It is in this triforium that the first evidence of any knowledge on the part of the archi- tect of ]Roorish architecture strikes the eye. The cusping of the arcade is not enclosed within an arch, and takes a distinctly horseshoe outline, the lowest cusp near to the cap spreading inwards at the base. Now, it would be impossible to imagine any circumstance which could afford better evidence of the foreign origin of the first design than this slight concession to the customs of the place in a slightly later portion of the works. An architect who came from France, bent on designing nothing but a French church, would be very likely, alter a few years’ residence in Toledo, somewhat to cliange in his views, and to attempt somethiug in which the ]\roorish work, which he was in the habit of seeing, would have its infiuence. The detail of this triforium is notwithstanding all pure and good ; the foliage of the capitals is partly conventional, and, in part, a stiff imitation of natural foliage, somewhat after the fashion of the work in the Chapter-house at Southwell ; the abaci are all square ; there is a profusion of nail-head used in the labels ; and well-carved heads are placed in each of the spandi-els of the arcade. The circular windows above the triforiimi are filled in with cusping of various 1 Toledo Pintoresca, p. 87. church in Spanish feet as follows : — - I take the height of nave from Bias Length, 401 ; breadth, 202 ; height, 11 G Ortiz. He gives the dimensions of the feet. No. 3] INTFP.ToP. of xopte PISLF, vs r ' W^:' ' -V 1 'i Chap. XI. TOLEDO : CATHEDRAL. 247 patterns. The main arches of the innermost arcade (between the choir and its aisle) are, of course, much higher tlian the others. The space above them is occupied by an arcaded triforium, reaching to the springing of the main vault. This arcade consists of a series of trefoil-headed aivdies on detached shafts, with sculptured figures, more than life-size, standing in each division ; in the spandrels above the arches are heads looking out from moulded circular openings, and above these again, small pointed arches are pierced, which have labels en- riched with the nail-head ornament. The effect of the whole of this upper part of the design is unlike that of northern work, though the detail is all pure and good. The clerestory occupies the height of the vault, and consists of a row of lancets (there are five in the widest bay, and three in each of the five bays of the apse) rising gradually to the centre, with a small circular opening above them. The vaulting-ribs in tlie central division of the apse are chevroned, and, as will be seen on the plan, in- creased in number, this being the only portion of the early work in which any, beyond transverse and diagonal ribs, are introduced. There is a weakness and want of purpose about the treatment of this highest portion of the wall that seems to make it probable that the work, when it reached this height, had passed out of the hands of the original architect. It is strange that, so far as I liave been able to learn, no re(‘ord exists of the date of the consecration of the church ; so that it is quite impossible to give, with certainty, the date at which any part of it had been finislied and covered in. In the nave the original design (if it was ever completed) has been altered. There is now no trace of the original clerestory and triforium nhich are still seen in the choir ; and in their place the outer aisle has fourteenth-century windows of six lights, with geometrical tracery, and the clerestory of the nave and transepts great windows, also of six lights, Avith very elaborate traceries. They have transomes (which in some degree preserve the recollection of the old structural divisions) at the level of the springing of the groining. The gi’oining throughout the greater part of the church seems to be of the original thirteenth-centui-y work, witli ribs finely moulded, and vaulting cells sliglitly domical in section. The capitals of the columns are all set in the direc- tion of the arches and ribs they carry, and their abaci and bases are all square in plan. The great rose-Avindow of the north transept, though later, is not much more so than the Avork I liave been describing. It has 248 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XL an outer ring of twelve ciisped circles, six within these, and one in the centre. The wliole is filled with old glass. The centre circle has the Crucifixion ; the six circles round it St. IMarv, St. John, and four Angels; and the outer circles figures of the twelve greater prophets, pointing towards onr Lord. The ground of the centre circles within the cusps is a light pure blue, and the cusps are filled with conventional foliage. The whole is fastened to rings of iron, in the usual way, and is the best example of stained glass now remaining in the cathedral. The works undertaken here in the fourteenth century were very considerable. Idie north doorway, the doorway of St. Catherine, leading from the cloisters ; the clerestory in the nave and nave-aisles and transepts, and probably the whole of the four western bays of the nave ; the screens round the Coro, the chapel of San Ildefonso, and some other portions, were all of this period ; and the dates of many of them being certain, they give admirable opportunities for the study of the detail of the Spanish middle-pointed style. The north door has three statues in each jamb, and a central figure of the Blessed Virgin and our Lord. The arch has in its three orders different orders of angels, and the tympanum is divided into four spaces by hori- zontal divisions, containing the following subjects : (I) The Annunciation, the Salutation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents ; (2) the Marriage at Cana, the Presentation, the Dispute with the Doctors, the Flight into Egypt ; (3) the Marriage at Cana continued all across ; and (4) the Death of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The whole is good work of the end of the fourteenth century. The doorway of St. Catherine, which opens into the cloister, is mainly remarkal)le for its elaborate mouldings, but has a central figure of the saint and two others standing on capitals, and under canopies, on either side of the doorway. The arch is crocketed and covered with a ])rofusion of small carving, and with coats-of-arms of Castile and Leon. The label is crocketed, and between the doorway and the vault of the cloister a rose window and two windows of tw'o lights each are picturesquely grouped. The other great doorways are almost all modernized and uninteresting. The screen round the Coro is a feature of as great interest as any in the church. It encloses the wliole of tlie two eastern bays of the nave ; and, as far as I could judge by the Avay in which it finishes against the transept column, Avhere the old w’ork ClfAP. XI. TOLEDO: CATHEDRAL. 249 ends abruptly, and is completed with a later carving of lions and castles, it seems possible that it crossed the transepts and com- pletely sliut them out from the choir. There is, hoAvever, no certain evidence of this ; and the main fact proved, is that from the very first the choir-stalls Avere locally in the nave. In a plan such as this, Avith an extremely short choir, founded evidently, like so many of the Spanish churches, on the plan of tlie great Abbey of Citeaux, it must, from the first, have been intended that this should be tlie arrangement ; but, as I have observed before, the present use of the choir and the old use are unlike in the only point in Avhich the Spanish plan is distinctly national. For, in the AA^estern face of this old screen, the doonvay into the choir remains ; and this has since been blocked up, in order to put the archbishop’s throne in the centre of the Avest end of the Coro, the only access to which is noAv from the transept crossing through the eastern Ixeja or screen. The screen-Avork is continued on round the apse, but much mutilated by Berrugiie- tesque and other alterations, the work of Avhich at the east, behind the altar, is the Avorst in the Avorld — el trasparente — where angels, clouds, and rays of light, all painfully executed in marble, are lighted by a big hole, Avickedly pierced right through the old thirteenth-century vault ! The nave-screen consists of an arcade filled Avith rich traceiy, and carried upon marble and jasper shafts (said, but on Avhat authority I knoAv not,^ to have come from the seventh-century Basilica of Sta. Leocadia). The Avail above the capitals is divided by pinnacles ; betAveen each of AAdiich is a niche contain- ing a subject sculptured in high relief under a canopy. The detail of the aaIioIc is of the richest kind of middle-pointed, and altogetlmr very similar in the amount of Avork and delicacy of desiofii to the arcades round some of tlie richest of our own build- O ings, as, for instance, round the Chapter-house at Ely. The sculp- tures are many of them admirable, full of the natural incidents so loved by, and the naivete so characteristic of, the best medimval sculptors of their age. I give a complete list of these subjects in the Appendix, and strongly recommend careful study of them to those Avho visit Toledo. I feel the more bound to do tins, because in all the Spanish Guide-books they aa ill find them spoken of Avitli the utmost contempt, Avhilst all the praise is reserved for a vile gilt creation by Berruguete, Avhich has taken the place of the three central Avesteiai subjects over the choir-door, and for Compendio del Toledo en la Mano, p. 182. 250 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. two statues of Innocence and Sin, which seem to me to be innocent of art, and to sin against nature ! In addition to tlie western doorway there were four others in these screens, two on the north and two on the south ; these opened into small chapels contrived in the space left be- tween the screen just described, outside the columns, and the wooden screen inside the columns and behind the choir-stalls. The screen on the south side of the apse — the remains of what no doubt once went all round it — is even more elaborate than that round the Coro : it is pierced below, so that the altar may be seen, and has large statues of saints above, and an open- gabled parapet, finished with angels everywhere, and truly a most gorgeous work! This is in the south-west arch of the choir only, a late fiamboyant screen having been added after- wards beyond it to the east, whilst on the north side a Berrugue- tesque monument has taken the place of the old screen. The last great middle-pointed feature is the chapel of San Ilde- fonso, at the extreme east end of the church. It is a most ela- borate work, groined witli an eight-sided vault ; its windows and arches full of rich mouldings, and enriched by ball flowers and some of the other devices commonly seen in our own work of the same age. Each side of this chapel had an elaborate tomb with an arched recess in the wall over it, sur- mounted by a gabled canopy between pinnacles, and under which sculptured subjects are introduced.^ These tombs were evidently all erected at the same time, and help to make the tout ensemble of the chapel very rich and striking. A string- course is carried round above them ; and above this tliere are large traceried windows, alternately of three and four lights. The vaulting-ribs are treated in an unusual and rather effective way, being fringed with a series of cusps on their under side, which give great richness to the general effect. There are small ^ The western bay, on the north side, has a monument with a gable, and tlie spandrels between it and the side pin- nacles crowded with tracery mainly composed of cnsped circles. The second bay, counting from the north-west, has in the tympanum over the cnsped arch figures of the twelve apostles ; and over them, our Lord, with angels holding candles and censers on either side. The monument in the third bay has figures of twelve saints, and above them the coro- nation of tlie Blessed Virgin Mary. The fourth or eastern bay lias a modern altar, wljich conceals completely the old work. The fifth bay has a Renais- sance tomb of a bishop. The sixth, the same monument as in the second and third bays, with figures of twelve female saints, and above them the Resurrection, and the Last Judgment. The seventh bay corresponds with the first, which is o[)posite it ; and the eighth bay contains the arch of com- munication witli tlie choir aisle. Chap. XT. TOLEDO: CATHEDRAL. 251 triangular vaulting compartments in the two western angles, which are necessary in order to bring tlie main vault to a true octagon in plan. The works added in the fifteenth century were both numerous and important. 'Jdie cloister and chapel of San Bias, on its north side, are the first i;i importance. They owe their origin, indeed, to the previous century, the first stone having been laid on the 14th of August, A.D. 1389, by xArchbishop Tenorio,^ Bodrigo Alfonso being the master of the works. In the chapel is a fine monu- ment of the Archbishop; and in the cloister walls a door which, in the capricious cusping and crocheting of its ti’aceried work, illustrates the extreme into which the Spanish architects of this aire ran in their elaboration of detail and affectation of novel! v. The traceries of the whole of the windows of the cloister are destroyed, but the groining remains, and the proportions and scale of the whole work are both very fine. The west front was commenced in a.d. 1418, and the north- west tower in a.d. 1425, one Alvar Gomez being the architect employed upon tliein ; and in A.D. 1479 the upper part of the w est front was completed ; but the whole of this was again repaired and altered in a.d. 1777, so that now it presents little if anything really worthy of notice. The circular west window seems to be of the earlier half of the fourteentli century, and the later works were carried out in front of it. Between this window and the gable of the great doorway is an enormous sculpture of the Last Supper : the table extends from buttress to buttress ; and our Lord and the Apostles sit each in a great niche. The steeple is certainly rather imposing in outline : a simple scpiare tower at the base, and for some 170 feet from the ground, it is then changed to an octagon with bold turrets and pinnacles ; and above this is a low spire, chieily to be noticed for the three rows of metal rays wliich project from its sides. The upper part of the steeple was built when Alonso Covarrubias was the master of the works, but rebuilt after a fire in A.D. 1600.2 ^ Arclibisliop Don Pedro Teuorio was one of the most munificent of the areli- bishops of Toledo. In addition to the cloister and chapel of San Bias he is said to have built the castle of San Ser- vando, the bridge of San Martin, and the convent of Merceuarios in Toledo. Besides which, he built castles and forts on the frontier of the kingdom of Granada, and erected the town of Villa- franca with its famous bridge “ del Arzobispo.” 2 There are twelve bells, of which the largest is San Eugenio. There are some old lines which show its fame : — Canipaiia la de Toledo, Jglesia la de Leon, Reloj el de Benavenle. Kollos los de Villalou. 252 GOTHIC ARCHTTECTUHE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. The chapel of Santiago, to the north-east of the chevet, ^^as anotlier great work of this period. It is similar in plan to that of San lldefonso, by the side of which it is bnilt, and has in its centre a grand high tomb, carrying recumbent effigies of the Constable D. Alvaro de Luna and his wife Doha Juana.^ Each of the tombs has life-size kneeling figures, one at each angle, looking towards the tomb, and angels holding coats of arms — that most unangelic of operations, as it always seems to me — in panels on the sides. Here, as in the chapel of San Ildefonso, the sides of the chapel were each provided with a great canopied tomb, whilst on one side ainedimval carved and painted wooden Retablo to an altar conceals tlie original altar arrange- ment. The exterior of this chapel is finished with a battlement and circular overhanging turrets at the angles ; above which is a tiled roof of flat pitch. Don xVlvaro de Imna died in a,d. 1458, and his wife in a.d. 1448; and the chapel bears evidence in the perpendicular” character of its panelling, arcading, and crocketing, of the poverty of the age in the matter of design. At this period, indeed, the designers were sculptors rather than architects, and thought of little but the display of their own manual dexterity, I have already described the external screens of the Coro. Its internal fittings must not be forgotten, being very full of interest, and of much magnificence. The lower range of stalls all round (fifty in number) are the work of Maestro Rodrigo, circa a.d. 1495 ; and the upper range were executed, half by Berrugiiete, and half by Felipe de Borgoha, in a.d. 1543.^ The old stall ends are })icturesque in outline, very large, and covered with tracery, })anels, and carvings, 'with monkeys and other animals sitting on tliem. The upper range of stalls is raised by four ste|)s, so that between the elbows of the lower stalls and the desk above them are spaces which are filled in with a magiiificent series of bas-reliefs illustrating the various incidents of the conquest of Granada. They were executed whilst all the subjects depicted 1 It is said that a number of designs were sent in competition for this monu- ment, and that from among them that of Pablo Ortiz was selected, and a con- tract entered into for its erection on January 7th, 1489. — Bellas Artes en l^lspaiia, iii. -!84. - These later stalls have the following inscription ; — • ‘ Sijiiia, inm niannorca, turn lip;na ca-lavcrc ; I line Cliilippus Hurgnndio Ex adversuin Berruguctus Ilispanus Certaverunt, turn artilicium iiigeuia. Certabuiit semper spertatorum jiidicia.” But for their whole history see Bellas Artes en Espana, v. 230. Borgona carved the stalls on the Gospel side, Berruguete those on the Epistle side of the choir. — Pouz, Yiage de Espana, i. 59. This same Felipe de Borgoiia was architect of the lantern of Burgos cathedral. Chap. XI. TOLEDO: CATHEDRAL. 253 ill them must have been fresh in tlie minds of the people ; and they are full of picturesque vigour and character. The names of the fortresses are often inscribed upon the walls : in some we have the siege, in others the surrender of the keys, and in others the Catholic monarchs, accompanied by Cardinal Ximenes, rid- ing in, in triumph, through the gates. It may be a fair complaint that the subjects are rather too much alike ; but in subjects all of which were so similar in their story, it was, of course, difficult to avoid this. Their effect is in marked contrast to the heavy dull Paganism of the sculptures by Berruguete, whose work took the place, no doubt, of some more ancient stalls. The cano- pies in his work rest on columns of jasper, a material which seems to be very abundant here. In the centre of the Coro stands the great Eagle, a magnificent work in brass. The enormous bird, with outstretched wings, is tighting a dragon which struggles between its feet: its eyes are large red stones, and it stands upon a canopied, buttressed, and pinnacled pedestal, crowded with statues, among which are those of the twelve apostles. Six lions couchant carry the whole on their backs, and serve to complete the family likeness to other brass eagles, of which, however, this is, I think, by far the most grandiose I have ever seen. Here as elsewhere throughout Spain the iron and brass screens are very numerous. The two liejas, east of the Coro and west of the Capilla mayor, were finished in a.d. 1548. There is little to admire in their detail ; but they are massive and bold pieces of metal-work, for the dignified simplicity of wliich there is much, no doubt, to be said, when we think of the terribly over-orna- mented work — semi-renaissance in its feeling — which is so un- fortunately fashionable among some of our own church restorers now-a-days.^ The great iron screen outside the north transept door is an earlier work, and fine in its way. The detail of this is very much like the screens already described at Palencia, Tdiere are also many Betablos, and some of them ancient. That beliind the high altar is a grand work, of so great height that it rises quite from the floor to the roof, being filled with subjects from our Lord’s life, arranged with the most com})lete disregard to their chronology, and, so far as I could see, without any other better system of arrangement. The whole, however, ^ The Reja east of the Coro was de- a model made iu wood by Martinez, a signed by Domingo Cespides, by (mler carpenter. — Toledo Pintoresca, p. 40. of the Chapter, to whom he presented 254: GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. is most effective, the subjects being richly painted and gilded, and the whole of the canopies and niches covered with gold, so that the effect is one of extreme richness and perfect quietness combined, the usual result of the ample use of gold. Many otlier small Eetablos exist elsewhere, and many have been destroyed. ^ The difficulty in the way of seeing to sketch anything inside the cathedral is as great as it usually is in Spain, but not at all in consequence of the absence of windows ; for, as will have been seen from my description, the windows are both many and large : all of them, however, are filled with stained glass, and hence, in addition to the wonderful charm of contrasted lights and shades, which we have here in marvellous perfection, we have also the charm of seeing none but coloured rays of light where any fall through tlie windows on the floor or walls. Most of the glass appeared to me to be of the fifteenth cen- tury, and later. The rose of the north transept, which is earlier, has already been described ; and the glass in the eastern windows of the transept clerestory (single figures under canopies) looked as if it were of the same date, or at any rate earlier than a.d. 1350. The rest of the church is glazed rather uniformly with cinque- cento glass of extreme brilliancy and unusual depth of colour, the upper windows having generally single figures, the others subjects in medallions. I had not time to make out the scheme of their arrangement ; but I observed that the medallions of the clerestory of the intermediate aisle began at the west end, with the Expulsion from Paradise, and went on with subjects from the Old Testament. Of colour on the walls, little, alas ! remains. They have been whitewashed throughout, and in the choir coarsely dia- pered with broad gilt masonry lines, edged with black. The internal tympanum of the south transept door has a tree of Jesse, and close to it is an enormous painting of S. Christopher ; and the cloister walls had remains of paintings which used to be attributed (but without the slightest foundation, I believe) to Giotto, but these have now given way to new wall-paintings of poor design and no value of any kind. The stateliness of the services here answers in some degree to ^ Alonso de Covarrubias, Maestro the names of the men who executed it, Mayor from 1 5r>-4 to 153(5, mentions among see Ponz, Viage de Espana, i. 65. It was his works the removal of most of the designed in 1500. See also the Life of Retablos, which, he says, produced a Juan de Borgofia, in Diccin., &c., de las “ detestable effect.” For an account of Bellas Artes en Espana, vol. i. p. 163. the Retablo of the principal altaiy and Chap. XI. TOLEDO: CATHEDRAL. 255 the gTaiideur of the fabric in which they are celebrated. At eight o’clock every morning there apj^ears to be mass at the high altar, at which the Epistle and Gospel are read from anibons in the screen in front of it, the gospeller having two lighted candles ; whilst the silvery -sounding wheels of bells are rung with all their force at the elevation of the Host, in place of the single tinkling bell to whicli onr ears are so used on the Continent.^ The Kevolntion in Spain, among other odd things, has enabled the clergy here to sing the Lands at about four o’clock in the afternoon instead of at tlie right time. The service at tlie J\[ozarabic Chapel at the west end of the aisle goes on at the same time as that in the Coro, and anytliing more puzzling than the two organs and two choirs singing as it were against each other can scarcely be conceived. There are neither seats nor chairs for the people ; the worshippers, in so vast a place, seem to be few, though no doubt we should count them as many in one of our English cathedrals. I always wish, when I see a church so used, that we could revive the same custom here, and let a fair proportion, at any rate, of the people stand and kneel at large on the floor. Our chairs, benches, and pews are at least as often a nuisance to their occupiers as the contrary ; and for all parts of our services, save the sermon, all but superfluous. Some day, perhaps, when we have discovered that it is not given to every one to be a good preacher, we may separate our sermons from our other services, and may live in hopes of then seeing the floors of our churches restored to the free and common use of the people, whilst some chance will be given, at the same time, to our architects of exhibiting their powers to the greatest advantage. It would be easy to elaborate the account which I have given of this cathedral, to very much greater length ; for there are ^ I find the following interesting account of the colours used during the different seasons of the ecclesiastical year given by Bias Ortiz, Descriptio Templi Toletani, pp. 387, 388 : — • White . — The Nativity and Resurrec- tion of our Lord, and the feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Virgins. Red. — Epiphany, Pentecost, Festivity of Holy Cross, Apostles, Evangelists, and ]Martyrs,bind the Victory of Bena- marin. Green. — In the procession on Palm Sunday, and the Solemnity of S. John Baptist. Saffron, or light Yellow , — On Feasts of Confessors, Doctors, and Abbots. Blue . — Trinity Sunday, and many other Sundays. Ash-colour. — Ash-Wednesday. Violet .' — Advent and Lent, wars, and troubles. Black . — For the Passion of our Lord, and for funerals- And besides these all sorts of colours mixed with gold on the festival of All Saints, on account of their diversity of character, and on the coming of the king or archbishops of Toledo, or of legates from the Pope. 256 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XL other erections in connexion with it besides all tliose that I have noticed, of a grand and costly kind, owing their foundation to the builders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and every- where affording the same exhibition of magnificence and wealth ; but these works are all worthless from the point of view which I have taken for my notes of Spanish architecture, and if I were to chronicle them I should be bound to chronicle all the works of Berrugnete, Herrera, and Churriguera elsewhere, for which sad task I have neither space nor inclination. I cannot, indeed, forgive these men, when I remember that to them it is due that Avhat remained before their time of the original desion of the exterior of this church was completely modernized or concealed everywhere by their additions. The only other great Gotliic work in the city, after the cathe- dral, seems to be the church of San Juan de los Eeyes,^ which was erected by order of Ferdinand and Isabella, in a.d. 1476, to commemorate their victory in the battle of Toro over the lung of Portugal. Notliing can be much more elaborate than iniich of the detail of this church, yet I have seen few buildings less pleasing or harmonious. It was erected in the age of heraldic achievements, and angels with coats of arms are crowded over the walls. There is a nave of four bays, a Cimborio or raised lantern at the Crossing, roofed with an octagonal vault with groined pendentives, qnasi-transepts (they are in fact mere shallow scpiare recesses), and a very short apsidal choir of live unecpaal sides. The western bay of the nave has a deep groined gallery, of the same age as the church, and in Avhich are the stalls and organs, with two small ambons in its western balus- trade : chapels are formed between the nave buttresses. Other ambons are placed at some height from the floor against the north-west and south-west piers of tlie Cimborio. The lantern on the outside is octagonal Avith pinnacles at the angles and a pierced parapet. The bald panelling of the external wall of the south transept is furnished Avith a ghastly kind of adornment in the chains Avith Avhicli Christians are said to have been confined by the Moors in Granada. ^ Heruando del Pulgar, in the ‘ Cronica ‘ Descripcion de la Imperial Ciudad,’ delos muy Altos y Esclarecidos Reyes says that Ferdinand and Isabella in- Catolicos ’ (part ii, cap. 65), records the tended to be buried here. They changed erection of the church in accomplish- their intention in favour of the chapel nieiit of a vow made after the battle of they built at Granada after the con- Toro ; and D. Francisco de Pisa, in his quest. Chap. XE. TOLEDO: S. JUAX DE LOS REYES. 257 Tlie ruling idea of the interior of this church is evidently that which, unfortunately I think, is somewhat hishionahle at the present day — the bringing of the altar forward among the people without reserve or protection. The removal of the Coro to the western gallery, the shallow recess in which the altar is placed, and the broad, unbroken area of the nave, are all evidences of this, and could only have been adopted when all desire to interest the people in any but the altar services had been given up, and with it that wholesome reverence which, in earlier days, had jealously guarded, fenced around, and screened these the holiest parts of holy buildings. A blue velvet canopy still hangs above the altar ; it is a square tester, with hangings at the back and on either side. The velvet is marked with vertical lines of gold lace, and the eagle of St. John — the crest of Ferdinand and Isabella — is introduced in the embroidery. The pulpit was against one of the piers on the south side of the nave ; the door into it is now stopped up, and another pulpit has been erected below the Gospel ambon. Tliere is a gallery corbelled out from the clerestory, in front of one of the south windows, the use of which did not seem to be at all clear, unless, indeed, it was similar in object to such an example as the minstrels’ gallery at Exeter Cathedral. The old cloister, though falling down through neglect and bad usage, is, on the whole, the finest portion of tlie whole work ; it is groined throughout, and covered with rich sculpture of foliage and animals, and saints in niches. It has been much damaged, mainly, I Ijelieve, by French soldiers during the war, and is now used in part as a picture gallery, and in part as a museum of an- tiquities. The pictures, like those in most of the inferior Spanish collections, are very sad, ghastly, and gloomy ; but among the antiquities are many of value, including a good deal of Moorish work of various ages. The cloister is of two stages in height, the lower having traceried openings, the upper large open arches in each bay. The refectory also remains, with ogee lierne ribs on its groining : over the entrance to it is a great cross, recessed within an arch, with a pelican at the top, and statues of St. Mary and St. John’ on either side, but without the figure of our Lord. And now I bid farewell to Toledo. F ew cities that I have ever seen can compete in artistic interest with it ; and none })er]ia|)S 1 Said to be portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella. — Toledo en la Mano, p. 137. S 258 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XI. come up to it in the singular magnificence of its situation, and the endless novelty and picturesqueness of its every corner. It epitomizes the whole strange liistory of Spain in a manner so vivid, that he who visits its old nooks and corners carefully and thoughtfully, can work out, almost unassisted, the strange variety which that history affords. For here, Eomans, Visigoths, Sara- cens, and again Christians, have in turn held sway, and here all have left their mark ; here, moreover, the Christians, since the thirteenth century, have shown two opposite examples, — one of toleration of Jews and Moors, which it would be hard to find a parallel for among ourselves, and the other of intolerance, such as has no parallel out of Spain elsewhere in Europe. I need hardly say that in such a city the post-Gothic builders have also left their mark. They have built many and imposing houses of various kinds, chief among which are the altered Alcazar, now destroyed and ruined, and the Convent of Sta. Cruz. But there was nothing in these works specially appropriate to the locality, and nothing, therefore, which takes them out of the. position which their class holds elsewhere in Spain. I believe that Toledo, in addition to all its other charms, is a good starting-point for visits to several of the best examples of mediaeval Castilian castles. I have not been able to afford the time necessary for this work, and was unluckily obliged, therefore, to neglect it altogether ; but the Spanish castles are so important that they deserve a volume to themselves ; and it is to be hoped that ere long some one will undertake the pleasant task of examining and illustrating them. Publiahei'by- John Murray, Alh'*marl‘; S'^ 1865, rn.\i>. XII. AKANJUEZ — VALEiXClA. 251 ) CHAPTER XII. VALENCIA. From Toledo I took tlie railway to Valencia. But as the junc- tion of tlie Toledo brancli witli the main line is a small station of the meanest description, and as there were three or four lioui’s to dispose of before tlie mail-train passed, I went back as far as Aranjuez, intending to dine there. Tlie station is close to tlie }>alace, a large, bald, and uninteresting pile. The principal inn is kept by an Englishman with a French wife, and as it was not the right season for Aranjuez we liad great difficulty in getting anything. In truth the French wife was a tartar, and advised us to go back again ; but finally, the husband having inter- ceded, she relented so far as to produce some eggs and bacon. Aranjuez seemed to consist mainly of the palace and its stables, and to be afflicted with even more than the usual plague of dust : but in the spring no doubt it is in a more pleasant state, and may, I hope, justify the landlord’s assertion that there is nothiug in the world to compare with it ! Late in the evening we started for Valencia : it was a bri giit moonlight night, so that I was able, when I woke and looked out, to see that the country we traversed was an endless plain of extremely uninteresting character, and that we lost little by not seeing it. I should have preferred leaving the railway altogether, and going by Cuenca on my way to Valencia; but time was altogether wanting for this detour, though I have no doubt that Cueu9a would well repay a visit. At Almanza, where the lines for Alicante and Valencia sepa- rate, there is a very picturesque castle perched upon a rock above the town, and here the dreary, uninteresting country, wliich extends with but short intervals all the way from Vitoria, is changed for the somewhat mountainous Valencian district, which everywhere shows signs of the Inghest luxuriance and cultivation, resulting almost entirely from the extreme care and industry with which the artificial irrigation is managed, ddie villages are numerous, and around them are beautiful vineyards, groves of orange-trees, and rice-fields ; whilst here and there s 2 2()0 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XII. clumps of tall palm-trees give a very Eastern aspect to the landscape. The churches seemed, as far as I could judge, to be all modern and most uninteresting. After passing the hilly country, a broad plain is crossed to Valencia. Here the system of irrigation, said to be an inheritance from the Moors, is evi- dently most complete. Every field has its stream of water running rapidly along, and the main drawback to such a system, so completely carried out, is that the beds of the rivers are generally all but dry, their water being all diverted into other and more useful channels. The Valencian farm-labourers’ dress is quite worth looking at. They wear short, loose, white linen tronsers and jackets, brilliantly coloured mantas — generally scarlet — thrown over their shoulders, coloured handkerchiefs over their heads, and violet scarfs round their waists. They have a quaint way of sitting at work in the fields, with their knees up to their ears, like so many grasshoppers ; and their skin is so well bronzed that one can hardly believe them to be of European blood. They are said to be vindictive and passionate, but tliey are also, so far as I saw them, very lively, merry, and talkative. The farms appear to be very large, and when I passed the farmers were hard at work threshing their rice. This is all done by horses and mules on circular threshing-fioors. In many of the farms eight or ten pair of horses may be seen at work at the same time on as many threshing-fioors, and the effect of such a scene is striking and novel. As we went into Valencia we passed on the right the enor- mous new Plaza de Toros, said to be the finest in Spain. Eail- roads will, I suppose, rather tend to develop the national love for this institution, and this theatre must have been built with some such impression, for otherwise it is difficult to believe that a city of a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants could build a theatre capable of containing about a tenth of the whole j)op>ulation ! The national vehicle of Valencia is the tartana, a covered cart on two wheels, with a slight attempt only at springs, and ren- dered gay by the crimson curtains which are hung across the front. Jumping into one of these, we soon found ourselves at the excellent Eonda del Cid, whose title reminds us that we are on classic ground in this city of Valencia del Cid. The Cid took the city from the Moors after a siege of twenty months, in a.d. 1094, established himself here, and ruled till his death, in a.d. 1099. The Moors then regained j^ossession for a short time, but in a.d. 1238 or 1239 it was finally re-taken from them by the Spaniards. Chap. XU. VALENCIA: CATHEDKAL. 201 It is hardly to be expected that anything would remain of Christian work earlier than a.d. 1095, or, more probably, than A.D. 1239, and this I found to be the case. The cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, is a church of only moderate interest, its interior having been overlaid everywhere with columns, ijilasters, and cornices of plaster, and the greater part of the exterior being surrounded so completely with houses, that no good view can be obtained of it. The ground-plan is, however, still so far untouched as to be perfectly intelligible. It has a nave and aisles of four bays, transepts projecting one bay beyond the aisles, and a lofty lan- tern or Cimborio over the Crossing. The choir is one bay only in length, and has a three-sided apse. An aisle of the same width as that of the nave is continued round the choir, and has the rare arrangement of two polygonal chapels opening in each of its bays. The vaulting compartments in the aisle are there- fore cincopartite, those throughout the rest of the church being quadri23artite. A grand Chapter-house stands detached to the south of the west bay of the nave, and an octagonal stee^^le, called El Micalete,” abuts against the north-west angle of the west front. The ritual arrangements are all modern, and on the usual 2^1 an. The western bay of the church is 023en ; the stalls of the Coro occu23y the second and third bays ; and metal rails across the fourth bay of the nave and the Crossing connect the Coro witli the Capilla mayor. The evidence as to the age of the various portions of the building is sufficient to enable us to date most of the work rather accurately. The foundation of the church is recorded by an inscription over the south-transe23t door to have been laid in 1262 : ^ and some 23ortion of the exterior is, I have no doubt, of this date. The whole south-transe23t front, a 23ortion of the sacristy on the east side, and the exterior of the apse, are all of fine early-23ointed style, and, in the absence of any specific statement of their date, might well have been thought to belong to quite the commencement of tlie century. But I think a careful examination of the detail will show that the work is 230ssibly not so early as it looks : and it has so much 1 Anno Domini m.cc.lxii. x. Kal. Jpl. itit P osiTus Primus lapis in Ecclesia Peatas IMaei.e sedis Valentin.e per yenerabilem Patrem Dominum Fratrem Andrea m Tertiuji Valentinle ciyitatis Episcopum. 262 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XII in common with Italian work of the same age, that we need not be surprised to find in it features which would nevertheless be inconsistent with its execution in the middle of tlie thirteenth century in any work in the North of Europe. The south tran- sept fa(^ade consists of a round-arched doorway, witli a horizontal cornice over it, and a large and fine lancet- window above. The door and window have respectively six and three jamb-shafts, and the abaci tliroughout are square in plan. The archivolt of the doorway is very rich : it includes five orders of enriched dog-tooth moulding, one order of seraphs in niches, one of chevron, one of scalloping, and two of foliage : good thirteenth century mouldings are also freely used. The shafts are de- tached, and there is foliage on the jamb between them. The abaci are very richly carved with animals and foliage, and the capitals are all sculptured with subjects under canopies. The detail of the whole of the work is certainly very exquisite. Undoubtedly in the nortli of France such work would be assumed to have belonged to the twelfth rather than the thir- teenth century ; but the quatrefoil diapering on the capitals, the canopy work over tlie subjects in them, and the pronounced character of the mouldings and dog-tooth enrichment, make it pretty clear that the recorded date applies to this work. Indeed I do not know how we can assume any other date for it without altogether tlirowing over tlie extremely definite old inscription : for as it is evident that the south transept and choir are of the same date, it is difficult to see how it could have been possible to speak of the first stone, if all this important part of the fabric w^ere already in existence.^ Close to the transept on the east, in the wall of what is now a sacristy, is another lancet window, of equally good, though simpler detail. Enough, too, remains of the original work in the exterior of the apse to show that it is of the same age as the south transept. The clerestory windows seem to have been simple broad lancets; there are corbel-tables under the eaves ; and the buttresses are very solid and simple. On the interior nothing but the groining has been left untouched by the pagan plasterers of a later day. I have found no evidence as to tlie date of the next portion of the fabric, wliicli is the more to be regretted as it is altogether very important and interesting in its character. It includes the whole fai^ade of the north transept, a noble lantern at the 1 Tliis doorway oiiglit to be compared so extremely similar to it that it is irn- with the south door of the nave of possible, I think, to doubt that they Lerida cathedral, the detail of which is were the work of the same men. K. S’ iJo. 32. VALENCIA CCAi'HEDRAL, p. XOUTH T.RAlS!SEPl AND CIMBORIO, Chap. XIL VALENCIA : CATPIEDRAL. 263 Crossing', and a small pulpit, and the whole of this is a good example of probably the latter half of the fourteenth century. The north transept elevation is extremely rich in detail. The great doorway in the centre of the lowest stage — De los Aposteles — has figures under canopies in its jambs, and corresponding figures on either side beyond the jambs. The arch is moulded, and sculptured with four rows of figures and canopies, divided by orders of mouldings. The tympanum of the door is adorned with sculptures of the Blessed Virgin with our Lord and angels. Over the arch is a gabled canopy, the spandrels of which are filled with tracery and figures. Above, and set back rather from the face of the doorway, is a rose window, the very rich traceries of which are arranged in intersecting equilateral triangles ; over it is a crocheted pediment, with tracery in the spandrels and on either side, and flanked by pinnacles. Every portion of the wall is panelled or carved. This front affords an admirable example of that class of middle-pointed work which was common in Ger- many and France at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries. The style prevailed for some time, and it was probably about the middle of the fourteenth century tliat this building was executed. The pulpit is placed against the north-east pier of the Cross- ing ; it has evidently been taken to pieces and reconstructed, and it is not certain, I think, that it was originally a pulpit. Many of the members of the base and capital of its stem, and the angles of the octagonal upper stage, are modern, and of bronze ; the rest is mainly of marble. The stem is slender, and the upper part is pierced with richly-moulded geometrical traceries, behind which the panels are filled in with boards, gilt and diapered with extremely good effect. A curious feature in this pulpit is that there is now no entrance to it, and if it is ever used for preaching, the preacher must get into it by climbing over the sides ! The lantern or Cimborio, though in some respects similar to, is no doubt later than the transept ; it is one of the finest examples of its class in Spain. Mr. Ford says that it was built in a.d. 1404, but I have been unable to find his authority for the statement,^ and though he may be right, I shovdd have been inclined to date it somewhat earlier. It is an octagon of two rather similar stages in height above the roof. Crocheted pinnacles are arranged at each angle, and large six-light windows with very rich and ^ Madoz gives the same date. — Dice. Geo. Esp. Histdrico. 264 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE m SPAIN. Chap. XII. varied geometrical tracery fill the whole of each of the sides. The lower Aviiidows have crocheted labels, and the upper crocheted canopies, and the string-courses are enriclied with foliage. From the very transparent character of this lantern, it is clear that it was never intended to be carried higher. It is a lantern and nothing more, and really very noble, in spite of its somewhat too ornate and frittered character.^ The portion of the worh next in date to this seems to have been the tower. This, lihe the lantern, is octagonal in plan, and it is placed at the north- west corner of the aisle, against which one of its angles is set. A more Gothic contempt for re- gularity it would be impossible to imagine, yet the effect is cer- tainly good. The circumference of this steeple is said to be equal to its height, but I had not an opportunity of testing this. Each side is 20 ft. 8 in. from angle to angle of the buttresses, so that the height, if the statement is true, would be about 165 feet. It is of four stages in height; the tliree lower stages quite plain, and the belfry rather rich, with a window in eacli face, panelling all over the wall above, and crocheted pediments over the windows. The buttresses or pilasters — for they are of simi- lar projection throughout their height — are finished at the top with crocheted pinnacles. Tlie parapet has been destroyed, and there is a modern structure on the roof at the top. The evi- dence as to the age of this worh is ample. It is called “ El its bells having been first hung on The Micalete. Micalete ” or “ Miguelete, the feast of 8t. Michael. ^ The illustration which I give of this lantern is borrowed from Mr. FergussoiTs Handbook of Arcliitectui-e.’ Chap. XII. VALENCIA : CATHEDRAL. 205 Some documents referring to it are given by Cean Bermudez/ and are as follows : — I. A deed executed in Valencia before Jay me Eovira, notary, on the 20tli June, 1380, by which it appears that Michael Balomar, citizen, Bernardo Boix and Bartolome Valent, master masons, estimated what they considered necessary for the fabric of the tower or campanile at 853 scudi. II. From the MS. diary of the chaplain of King D. Alonso V. of Aragon, it appears that on the 1st January, a.d. 1381, there was a solemn procession of the bishop, clergy, and regidors of the city to the cburch, to lay the first stone of the Micalete.^ III. By a deed made in Valencia, May 18tli, a.d. 1414, before dayme Pastor, notary or clerk of the chapter, it is settled that Pedro Balaguer, an “able architect,” shall receive 50 florins from the fabric fund of the new campanile or Micalete, “ in payment of his expenses on the journey which he made to Lerida, Narbonne, and other cities, in order to see and examine their towers and campaniles, so as to imitate from them the most elegant and fit form for the cathedral of Valencia.” IV. By another deed, made before the same Jayrne Pastor, September 18th, a.d. 1424, it is agreed that Martin Llobet, stone-cutter, agrees to do the work which is wanting and ought to be done in the Micalete, to wit, to finish the last course with its gurgoyles, to make the “ harhaeano,'' and bench round about, for the sum of 2000 florins of common money of Aragon,^ the administration of the fabric finding the wheels, ropes, baskets, &c. An inscription on the tower itself, referred to by Mr. Ford (but which I did not see), states that it was raised between a.d. 1381 and a.d. 1418, by Juan Franck, and it is said to have been intended to be 350 feet high.^ It is evident, therefore, that several architects were employed upon the work, and I know few facts in the history of mediaeval ^ Noticias de los Arqiiitectos, &c.,vol. i. p. 256. - Viage Lit. a las Iglesias de Espana, vol. i. p. 31. 3 L’an 1238, lorsque Jaques I. Roi d’Arragon assiegoit Valence, qui etait an pouvoir des Mores, il declara que les premiers qui remporteroient auroient riionneur de domier les poids, les mesures, et la monnaye de leur ville a ceux de Valence ; la dessns ceux de Lerida s’y jetterent les premiers, et prirent la ville. C’est pourquoi, lors- qu’on repeupla Valence, ils y envoyerent une colouie, leurs mesures, et leur monnaye, clout on s’y sert encore aujourd’liui ; et la ville de Valence reconnoit celle de Lerida pour sa mere. — Les Delices de I’Espagne, iv. 613. Leyden, a.u. 1715. ^ Ponz, Viage de Espana, iv. 21, 22. 2G6 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XII. art more interesting than the account we have here of the pay- ment of an architect whilst he travelled to find some good work to copy for the city of Valencia. The steeple of Lerida cathedral will be mentioned in its place, and it is sufficient now to say tliat it is also octagonal, of great height, and dates from the commencement of the fourteenth century. I know nothing at Narbonne which could have been suggestive to Pedro Balaguer, but the city was Spanish in those days, and is probably only men- tioned as one of the most important places to which he went. When the Micalete was built the nave of the church seems to have been still unfinished, the choir and transepts and part of the nave only having been built. In 1459, under the direction of an architect named Valdomar, a native of Valencia, the work was continued, and the church was joined to the tower. The authority for this statement is a MS. in the library of the con- vent of San Domingo, Valencia, which says: “In the year of our Lord 1459, on Monday, the 10th of September, they com- menced digging to make the doorway and arcade of the cathedral ; Master Valdomar was the master of the works, a native of the said city of Valencia.”^ Of Valdomar’s work in this part of the church nothing remains, the whole has been altered in the most cruel way, and the most contemptible work erected in its place. Valdomar appears to have died whilst his work was in progress, and to have been succeeded by Pedro Compte, who concluded the work in 1482. The manuscript already quoted from the library of San Domingo is the authority for this statement, and describes Pedro Compte as “ Molt sabut en Part de la pedra.”^ On the south side of the nave there is a Chapter-house, which is said by Ponz^ to be the work of Pedro Compte, and to have been built at the cost of Bishop D. Vidal Blanes, in a.d. 1358. If this statement is correct, it follows that there were two archi- tects of this name, the second having erected the Lonja de la Sedia, to which I shall have presently to refer, in a.d. 1482. The tracery of the windows, and the details generally of the Chapter- house, is so geometrical and good, that it is probable that the date given by Ponz may be depended upon. It is a square room 1 Valdomar also built the chapel “de ^ Pedro Compte is mentioned as los Reyes,'"’ in the convent of San Do- having been invited by the Archbishop niingo, commenced 18th June, 1439, of Zaragoza to a conference with four and completed 24th June, 1476. This other architects as to the rebuilding of convent is now desecrated, and I did the Cimborio of his cathedral, which had not see it, but it is said still to contain fallen down in 1520. a good Gothic cloister. 3 Viage de Esp., vol. iv. pp. 29, 30. Chap. XIL VALENCIA ; CATHEDRAL. 2G7 nearly sixty feet in diameter, and groined in stone. The vault is similar to those which I first saw at Burgos, having arches thrown across the angles to bring it to an octagon, and the tri- angular compartments in the angles haying their vaults below the main vault. It is lighted by small windows very high uj) in the walls on the cardinal sides, and these are circular and spherical triangles in outline, filled with geometrical tracery. On the south side is a very elaborate arcaded reredos and altar, and on the west a pulpit corbelled out from the wall. The design and detail of the whole are extremely fine, and I regret that I was able to make but a very hurried examination of it, and no sketches ; meeting here, almost for the first time in Spain, with a sacristan who refused to allow me to do more than look, the fact being that it was his time for dinner and siesta ! In the old sacristy to the east of this room are still preserved two embroidered altar frontals, said to have been brought from our own old St. Paul’s by two merchants, Andres and Pedro de Medina, just about the time of the Keformation.^ They are therefore of especial interest to an Englishman. They are very large works, strained on frames, and were, I believe, hangings rather than altar frontals, as they are evidently continuations one of the other. The field is of gold, diapered, and upon this a succession of subjects is embroidered. On one cloth are (beginning at the left) (1) our Lord bearing his Cross ; (2) being- nailed to the Cross ; (3) crucified, with the thieves on either side ; (4) descending from the Cross ; (5) entombed. The next cloth has (1) the descent into Hell ; (2) the Maries going to the sepulchre ; (3) the Maries at the tomb, the angel, and (4) the Kesurrection. The effect of the whole work is like that of a brilliant German painting, and the figures are full of action and spirit, and have a great deal of expression in their faces. The diapered ground is made with gold thread, laid down in vertical lines, and then diapered with diagonal lines of fine bullion stitched down over it to form the diaper. The gold is generally manufactured in a double twist, and borders and edmiio^s are all done with a very bold twisted gold cord. The faces are all wrought in silk, and some of the dresses are of silk, lined all over with gold. The old border at the edge exists on one only of the f]-ontals. The size of each is 3 ft. 1 in. by 10 ft. 2 in., and the date, as nearly as I can judge, must be about a.d. 1450. There ^ Spain boasts otlier like treasures, Ynglesa,” because brouglit from St. e.(j . — a figure still preserved at Mou- Paul’s. —See Poiiz, Viage de Espaiia, doiiedo, and which is still called “ la vol. iv. p. 43. 268 GOTHIC ARCHJ.TECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. XII. is also preserved here a missal which once belonged to West- minster Abbey. I could find no other church of any interest. There are several which have some old remains, but they are generally so damaged and decayed, that it is impossible to make anything of them. One I saw desecrated and occupied by the military, and was unable to enter ; and there is another in a street leading out of the Calle de Caballeros, which has a very fine round-arched doorway, with three shafts in the jambs, and good thudeenth-century mould- ings in the arch, and which is evidently of the same age as the south door of the cathedral. The capitals have each two wy verns Puerta de Serranos. Valencia. fighting, and the abaci are well carved. The church, however, was desecrated, and no one knew how I could gain admission to it. 'J'he walls and gates are of more interest. They are lofty, Chap. XII. A^ALENCIA : DOMESTIC REMAINS. 2G9 and generally well preserved. The two finest gates are the Pnerta de Serranos, and that del Cnarte. The former, said by Ford ^ to have been bnilt in a.d. 1349, is a noble erection. Two grand polygonal towers flank the entrance archway, which is recessed in the centre. Above this the wall is (covered with tracery panelling, and then a great projecting gallery or plat- form, supported on enormous corbels, is carried all round the three exposed sides of the gateway. The towers are carried np a considerable height above this gallery, and it is probable that there was originally a wooden construction over it, of the kind which M. Yiollet le Due, in his treatise on military architec- ture, has sliown to have been commonly adopted in fortifications of this age. The Pnerta del Ciiarte is of the same description, and has two circular flanking towers, but is less imposing, and is said to have been built in a.d. 1444. Both gateways are completely open at the back, enormous open arches, one above the other, rendering them useless for attack against the city ; and the cor- belled-out passages at the top are not continued across the back. The domestic remains here are of some importance. One feature of rather frequent occurrence is the window of two or three lights, divided by detached shafts. The earlier examples have simple trefoil heads, and sculptured capitals to the columns. In the later examples there are mouldings round the ensped head, and the abaci and capitals are carved : but it is a very curious fact, that wherever I saw any old towns on the coast of the Mediterranean, there I alv/ays saw some specimens of this later kind of window, with detail and carving so identical in cha- racter, that I was almost driven to the conclusion that they were all executed in the same place, and sent about the country to be fixed ! Nevertheless, they are always very pretty, so that one ought not to grumble if they do occur a little too often. The shafts are generally of marble, and often coupled one behind the other. The Arabs had a name for this class of windows, and as we have not, and want one, it may be as well to mention it. They are called ajimez, literally windows by which the sun enters. The Arabs seem to have supplied many of the architectural terms in use in Spain, and probably we owe them in this case not only the name, but the design also. Among other Arab words still in common use, I may mention Alcazar, Alcala, Tapia, and many more are given in vocabularies. ^ Handbook of Spain, i. 3G7. 270 GOTHIC AECHITECTURK IN SPAIN. Chap. XII, One of the earliest of these ajhnez windows is in a house on the east side of the cathedral ; and a fine example of later date is in an old house in the Calle de Caballeros, the internal court and staircase of which are also picturesque, though hardly ine- dioeval. All the houses here seem to be built on the same plan, with the stables and offices on the ground floor, arranged round an internal court, an open stone staircase to the first floor, Ajimcz Window. Valencia. and the living-rooms above. The fronts towards the streets are generally rather gloomy and forbidding-looking, but the courts are always picturesque. The finest domestic building in the city is the Casa Lonja, or Exchange, which was commenced on the 7th November, 1482, the year in which the works at the cathedral were completed by Pedro Compte. There is no doubt, I believe, that he was the architect; and on March 19, 1498, he was appointed perpetual Alcaide of the Lonja, with a salary of thirty pounds (“libras”) a year. He was also “ Maestro Mayor” of the city, and was employed in several works of engineering on the rivers and streams of the district.^ The main front of the Lonja is still very nearly as he left it, a fine specimen of late ^Spanish pointed work. The detail is of the same kind as, but simpler than, the contemporary works at Valladolid and Burgos, and there is a less determined display of heraldic achievements; though the great doorway, and the v/indow on either side of it which open into the great hall, and which are so curiously grouped together by means of labels and string-courses, have some coats of arms and STq)porters rather irregularly placed in their side panels. The great para})et of the end, and the singu- Cean Uennudez, Arqiia, y Aquos. de Espana, vol. i. p. 139. THE CA3A LONJA. Chap. XU. DESCRIPTION OF VALENCIA. 271 lar finish of the battlements, are very worthy of note, and give great richness to the whole building. The principal doorway leads into a fine groined hall, 130 feet long by 75 feet wide, divided into a quasi nave and aisles of five bays by eight colninns, sculptured and spirally twisted. The portion of the building to the left of the centre is divided into three chambers in height, the upper and lower rooms being low, the central room lofty and well proportioned. The lower rooms have plain square windows ; the next stage, windows of much loftier propor- tions, and with their square heads ornamented with a rich fringe of cusping. There are pointed discharging arches over them. The upper stage of this wing is extremely rich, the window- openings being pierced in a sort of continuous arcading, the pinnacles of whicli run up to and finish in the parapet. This parapet is enriched with circular medallions enclosing heads, a common Italian device, betokening here the hand of a man whose work was verging upon that of the Eenaissance school. At the back is a garden, the windows and archways opening on which are of the same age as the front. Valencia, though not containing any building of remarkable interest, is nevertheless well worth a visit : it is a busy city, full of picturesque colour and people. The manta or rug worn by the peasants throughout Spain is here seen in perfection : it is of rich and very oriental colour, and charms the eye at every turn. I went into a shop and looked at a number of them, and there were none which were not thoroughly good in their colour ; and, worn as they are by the sunburnt peasants, hanging loosely on one shoulder, they contrast splendidly with their white linen jackets and trousers, and swarthy skins. The river is, at any rate in the autumn, the broad dry bed only of a river, with here and there a puddle just deep enough for washerwomen. The water is all carried off to irrigate the fertile country around, and troops of cavalry and artillery, with their guns all drawn by fine mules, were hard at work exercising where it ought to have been. On the side of the river opposite to the city are some rather nice public gardens, with fine walks and drives planted with noble trees. A drive which begins here extends all the way to Grao, the port of Valencia, some two or three miles off. In the after- noon it seems to be always thronged with tartan as, carriages, and equestrians on their way to and from the sea : and each tar- tana is full generally of a lively cargo of priests and peasants, men, women, and children, all laughing, cheerful, and picturesque. I went to Grao to embark on the steamer for Barcelona. Tliere is 272 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XII. nothing to see there save the usual accompaniments of a sea- port, and the provision for a large and fashionable population of bathers from Madrid during the summer months. For their convenience small and very rude huts are put up on the beach, and left there to be destroyed by the winter storms. Not much is sacrificed, as they are of the very rudest description, and evi- dently devised for the use of people who go to Grao to be amused and to bathe, and not merely to show themselves off as fine ladies and gentlemen. At Valencia the national love for the mantilla, which in courtly Iffadrid seems to be now half out of fashion, finds vent in the positive prohibition at one of the churches for any woman to enter who wears a bonnet in place of it ! Chap. Xlll. OLD CITY OF TARRAGONA. 273 C HA PTE 11 XIII. TARRAGONA. No one should go from Valencia to Barcelona without paying a visit to Tarragona. It is even now easy ol’ access, and before long will be still more accessible by means of the railway which is being made between the two towns. I travelled from ]3ar- celona to Tarrag(3iia and back again by diligence, and both journeys, unfortunately, were made for the most part by night, so that I am unable to speak very positively about the scenery upon the road. But both on leaving Barcelona and again before I reached Tarragona the road was very beautiful, and I have no doubt it would reward any one who could contrive to give up more time and daylight to it than I could. There is but one town of any importance on the road — Villafranca de Panades, — and here I caught a glimpse of an old church, which seemed to be of the fourteenth-century Catalan type, and fully to deserve examination. The approach to Tarragona is very lovely. The old city stands on the steep slope of a hill, crowned by the stately mediaeval cathedral, and surrounded on all sides by walls, which are still very perfect and in some parts unusually lofty and imposing. Below and beyond the walls to the left, as you approach, is the mean and modern town which covers a low promontory, and is now the centre of all the trade and business of the city. A broad street, in which are the principal inns, divides the two halves of the city, on the upper side of which the whole archi- tectural interest is centred. The views on all sides are beautiful. Looking back to the east one sees hill after hill, ending in point after point, which jut out into the sea one beyond the other, and, combining with the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean, produce the most charming picture. To the south, looking over the modern town, mole, and harbour, is the sea ; whilst to the west the eye wanders, well content, over a rich green expanse of level land, studded all along its breadth with rich growth of trees, till the view is bounded by the hills which rise beyond the old town of Keus, now an active and enterprising centre of manu- facturing industry. T 274 GOTHIC AllCHlTECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIII. I ought, no doubt, to fill many pages here with an account of the Eoinan antiquities, which are numerous and important, Tar- ragona having been one of the most important Eoinan stations in Spain. But they have been often described, and the time at my disposal allowed only of a hurried glance at them, unless I chose to neglect in their favour the — to me — much more inte- resting Christian remains, which I need hardly say I was not prepared to do. The city walls are, I believe, to a considerable extent Eoinan. There are remains— tliough but slight — of an auiphitheatre ; the magnificent aqueduct, some little distance from the city, is one of the finest in Europe ; and, finally, there is a museum full of Eoinan antiquities, which seem well to deserve due examination. But I was obliged to neglect all these, giving them the most cursory inspection, as I found in the cathedral ample occupation for every minute of my time. This is certainly one of the most noble and interesting churches I have seen in Spain. It is one of a class of which I have seen others upon a somewhat smaller scale (as e.g. the cathedrals at Lerida and Tudela), and which appears to me, after much study of old buildings in most parts of Europe, to afford one of the finest types, from every point of view, that it is pos- sible to find. It produces in a very marked degree an extremely impressive internal effect, without being on an exaggerated scale, and combines in the happiest fashion the greatest solidity of construction with a lavish display of ornament in some parts, to which it is hard to find a parallel. Unfortunately the docu- mentary evidence that I have been able to find as to the age of the various portions of this church is not so complete as I could wish. A very elaborate and painstaking history of the city is in course of publication; but Avhen I Avas there ^ the fi]*st volume only of this had been published, and this Avas confined entirely to the Eoinan antiquities contained in the Museum and other collections. The A^olume of Espana Sagrada, which relates to Tarragona, contains but few documents of any A^alue, and I have been unable to put my hands upon any other Avhich contains any at all. Yet there cannot be much doubt that a see Avhose history is so important, and whose rank is so high,^ must have in 1 111 May, 18G2. liis dignity so far that I noticed a Man- Tarragona is the see of an arch- dainos of the Cardinal Archbishop of bishop, wlio claims to be equal, if not Toledo hung up in the Coro, in which his superior, to the Archbishop of Toledo, title ‘‘^Priinada de las Espafias,’’ and the J’ractically, of course, he is nothing of same word in “ Santa Iglesia Primada,” the kind, yet he carries the assertion of were carefully scratched through in ink. Chap. XIII. TARPtAGONA : CATHEDRAL. 275 its archives a vast store of information, out of which might be gathered all the material facts as to the foundation of, and addi- tions to, the church. A few notices of the building of the cathedral have, however, come under my eye, and of tliese the most ini])ortant are the following : — In a.d. 1089 ^ Pope Urban II. addressed an epistle to the faithful, recommending them to aid in eveiy way in the restoration of the church, which had then just been recovered from the hands of the Moors. Not long after this, in a.d. 1131, Pope Innocent II. issued a Bull, wherein he recommended the suffragan churches to contribute to the cost of rebuilding the cathedral.^ More than a century after this, works were again in j)rogress, for in the necrology of the cathedral, on 11th March, 1256, mention is made of ‘‘Prater Bernardus, magister operis hujus ecclesise;” whilst again, in 1298, Maestro Bartolome is mentioned as the sculptor who wrought nine statues of the apostles for the western hi9ade, the remainder having been executed by Maestro Jay me Castayls in 1375. Comparing this cathedral with that of Lerida, of which the date is tolerably well ascertained, it is difficult to pronounce decidedly which is the oldest, except that the eastern apse here, which is very peculiar in its character, has every appearance of being a work of the middle of the twelfth century, at tlie latest, and earlier by far, therefore, than the foundation of the church of Lerida, wliicli was not commenced until a.d. 1203, and which was finished and consecrated in a.d. 1278. I believe, indeed, that the eastern part of this cathedral may most probably have been commenced about a.d. 1131, in consequence of the Bull of Inno- cent II., though the greater portion of the fabric (including the nave and its aisles and the cloister) seems to me to liave been executed at the end of the twelfth and during the first half of the thirteenth century ; and it is very possible, therefore, that the Brother Bernardus, who died in 1256, may have been the architect of the larger part of the existing fabric, both of the church and its cloister. The original plan of the cathedral was very simple. It had a nave and aisles, transepts, with apsidal chapels to the east of them, a raised lantern or Cimborio over the Crossing, and three parallel apses east of it. On the north-east side of the church — an unusual position, selected probably in obedience to some 1 Espaua Sagrada, vol. xxv. p. 214. Ilisturia de los Coiides de Barceloua, p. 183. T 2 27G GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN STAIN. Chap. XIII. local necessity — is a large cloister of tlie same age as the church, with a Chapter-house on its southern side. The piers throughout are clustered in a very fine and massive style, and of a section which is often repeated in early Spanish Gothic ; each arch being carried on two coupled half-columns, and the groin- ing-shafts being placed in a nook in the angle between each of tliese pairs of columns. The nave piers are no less than 1 1 ft. 9 in. in diameter, the clear width of the nave being about 40 ft. 8 in., and the span of the arches east and west about 20 ft. The bases are finely moulded, and have foliage carved on the angle between their circular and square members. The capitals and abaci are carved generally with a most luxuriant exuberance of conventional foliage, whilst the broad solid unmoulded and unchamfered sections of the arches Avhich rise above them seem to protest gravely against any forgetfulness of solidity and mas- siveness as the greatest elements at the disposal of the architect. The groining of the nave and its aisles is all quadripartite, as also is that of the transepts, save at the extreme end of the northern transept, which is covered with a pointed waggon-roof. The choir has two bays of cross-vaulting on its western portion and a semi-dome over tlie apse — a form of roofing which is re- peated over the otlier early apses ; that of the north transept having been rebuilt in the fourteenth century, and vaulted in the usual manner. It is probable tliat the cross-vaults in the choir were not originally contemplated, as they are carried on small shafts raised on the capitals of the main groining-shafts, which may perhaps have been intended to carry a waggon-vault. The roof of the apse is considerably lower than that of the choir, and a small rose window is pierced in tlie spandrel between the two. The arch in front of the semi-dome of the apse is — like all the other main arches — pointed, though those which open into the smaller apses are semi-circular. The latter, being in the lower part of the wall, were, no doubt, completed at an early date ; whilst the former, being on the level of the groining, would not be finished until much later. The apse is lighted with three windows in the lower part of tlie wall, which are richly shafted inside, and by seven small and perfectly plain round-arched windows, pierced in the lower part of the semi-dome with very singular effect. On the exterior all these windows are remark- able for a very wide splay from the face of the wall to tlie glass — a feature of early work in England, and usually preceding tlie common use of glass. The walls are carried up a considerable height above the springing of the dome, in order to resist its Chap. XIII. TARRAGONA : CATHEDRAL. 277 tlirust, and are finislied at tlie top witli a rich projecting corbel- table, from wliich, at regular intervals, hve divisions are brought still further forward, looking much like machicoulis, and yet evi- dently introduced only for the sake of effect, as there is no access to them. These projections are square in plan, carried on very large corbels, and tlie cornice under the eaves has a course of square stones set diagonally — a kind of enrichment very common in brickwork, and which I saw in the early church of San Pedro at Gerona. The great depth of this cornice is very imposing. Tlie stone roof above it abuts against a gable-wall, carried by the arcli on its western side ; but owing to the destruction of tlie original finish of the staircase turrets, and the erection of a steeple in the angle between the choir and the transept, the general view has to some extent lost its original stern Koman- esque character. The exterior of the other apses on the south has the same 278 OOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIII. appearance of age. The wall of one of them has been raised several feet at a later date, but the other is still altogether in its original state. Both are, of course, very low and insignificant as compared with the choir. The whole detail of the great eastern apse appeared to me to have much more the air of having been the work of an Italian than of a French architect. The masonry is in extremely large square blocks, many of the window-heads being cut out of one block of stone, and in this part of the church I found a large number of masons’ marks on the face of the stones. These tally, like most of those I have seen in Spain, very closely with those which are found in our own buildings, and indeed with those which are used by our own masons at the present day : it is, however, comparatively rare to find them on the outer face of the stones.’ The stones marked in this way are tooled on the face, and I observed that stones worked by the seem to have been intended to form the lower stage of steeples. On the south side the Bomanesque tower seems 1 The Chapter-house at Fountains skilled masons emplo}'ed on this one Abbey has one of the largest collections small building at the same time. At of masons’ marks I have ever seen, and Tarragona I saw nothing like the same in this case they are of much value, as variety of marks, proving how large was the number of Newel Staircase. same man were marked indifferently with perpen- dicular and diagonal tool- ing lines. On the south side of the choir, just at its junction with the principal apse, is a staircase which leads to the roof : this is carried up in a large square turret, and is of remarkable construction. The newel is 1 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and worked in stones, each of about 2 ft. 3 in. in height. Each of these has three corbels, with sockets for the steps, which are thus supported by the newel and yet indepen- dent of it. The aisles on either side of the choir Chap. X[TL TAKRAGONA : CATHEDRAL. 279 to have been built no higher than the height of the side walls of the church; but subsequently — circa a.d. 1300-1350 — it was carried up as an octagonal steeple, with buttresses against the canted sides of the lower stage over the angles of the square base, finished with crocheted pinnacles. Tliis tower occupies the angle between the dioir and transept, and I suppose that traces would be found of a corresponding tower on the opposite side, somewhat in the way so commonly met with in all the Grerman Komanesque churches. Unfortunately the north choir aisle was altered if not rebuilt in the fourteenth century, and I was unable to examine the walls above it, where the evidence of the existence of a second tower would have to be sought. The roof of the apse on the east side of the south transept presents an admirable example of a semi-dome, with tlie masonry arranged in the usual fashion in regular horizontal courses, and the moulding of the abacus of the arch in front of it carried round it as a string-course at its springing. The rest of the church is of rather later date than the east end. It is all just of that transitional period in wliich, whilst the pointed arch was used where great strength was required, the round arch was nevertheless retained for the smaller openings in the walls. But the capitals throughout the church are sculptured so magni- ficently, and in so well-developed a style, that it is impossible to regard the work anywhere, except at the extreme eastern end, as one in which a Romanesque influence was paramount. We have, indeed, here one of those cases in which almost all the character of the work has been stamped on it by the hands of the sculptor rather than of the architect ; for I believe that, had it presented ns with a series of plain Romanesque capitals, we should have felt no difficulty about classing the whole work as essentially Romanesque in style, whereas now the effect is rather that of a glorious Pointed church, the exuberance of whose sculpture is kept in subordination by the stern simplicity of the bold unmoulded arches, the massive section of the piers, and the regularity of the outline and firmness of shadow which the deep square abacus everywhere enforces. Here, then, I thought I saw one of those openings which are now and then almost acci- dentally given us for the infusion of new vigour and greater spirit into our own works. It is no copying of a Spanish work that I should wish to see attempted, but only a deliberate deter- mination on the part of the builder of some one building in England to emulate the grand solidity of this old Spanish church ; and if he feels that this is by itself too rude and uiq^olished for 280 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIII. an overcivilizecl age like ours, then let liim take a lesson from the same old Spanish work, and show the extent of his refine- ment in the subtle delicacy of the sculpture with which he adorns it. We have few if any such churches in England. Our transi- tional examples are neither very numerous nor very fine ; and it is in Germany and in Spain — so far as my experience goes — that we find the finest examples of this noble period. In neither of these countries was the progress of architectural development so rapid as it was in England and in the north of France, and consequently such churches as the cathedrals of Tarragona, Lm’ida, and Tudela were rising in Spain at the same time as the more advanced and scientific, but perhaps less forcible and solemnly grand cathedrals of Salisbury, Lincoln, and Wells were being built in England. I liardly know when I have been much more struck than I was with the view of the interior of the transept, of which I give an engraving. For though the picturesque furniture of later times, the screens and pulpits, tlie organs and other furniture, are in great contrast with tlie glorious solidity of the old work, the combination of this with them makes a singularly beautiful picture. The nave of the cathedral at Tarragona has been a good deal altered by the introduction of large fourteenth-century clerestory windows of three lights. There is not and there never was a triforium, and the clerestory throughout was, I have no doubt, the same in design that it still is in the transepts, lighted by a simple round-headed window in each bay. The groining has transverse arclies or ribs of very large size, diagonal ribs formed with a bold roll moulding only, and no wall ribs. The lantern over the Crossing still remains to be described. It is octagonal in plan, segmental arches being thrown across the angles of the square base to support its diagonal sides. The groining springs from immediately above the apex of the main arches, and the liglit is admitted by windows alternately of three and four lights. Its interior is very fine. The ribs of its eight-celled vault are very bold, and the dog-tooth enrichment is freely used round all the arches and along tlie string-courses. The diagonal or canted sides of the lantern are carried on pointed arches, the space below which is filled in-witli pendentives, with the stones arranged in courses radiating from the centre. Such a form of peudentive is rarely seen in works of this age. The details of this lantern are all rather rude, and its height is not great, as it rises only some twenty-five feet above TAE.T'iAGON A ATHE DEAL, \1EW ACRC'SS TRAXSF.R'rs. ^ ^ ...4 -„|T. . ^ rr’^ ^ , 4* . \S,.<- 'a. I Chap. XIII. ^I’AmiAGONA : CATHEDRAL. 281 the roofs. Tlie outside 1ms at eacli angle a buttress, witli an engaged sliaft in front of it, and tlie windows are all set within simple enclosing arches. Their tracery is tliat of ordinary first-pointed windows, the three-light windows having lancet lights, with the centre light longer than the others, and the four-light windows having the two centre lights longest. The old outside roof is destroyed ; but the finish of the lanterns of Lerida and of the old cathedral of Salamanca seems to make it pretty certain that it was intended to have a pyramidal or domical stone roof. Access is now gained to the top of the lantern by means of a passage boldly carried on an arch which is thrown from the belfry window of the south-east steeple to the side of the lantern. I ought to have mentioned that the upper stage of this steeple is groined, and that the bells are hung in the window openings ; but this is not their original place, the jambs having been cut away to make room for them. Its upper stage seems to have been finished with a pinnacle at each angle, and a gable over each window rising through the parapet — a some- what similar design to that of the great tower at liCrida, and to that of the Micalete at Valencia, both of which ought, therefore, to be compared with this, and with which it is probably contem- porary. The roofs are covered throughout with pantiles ; but these are evidently not the old covering, being put on very carelessly and interfering with tlie design of the stonework. The position of the windows in the central lantern proves that in the beginning of the thirteenth century the roofs must have been very flat, and the probability is, therefore, that they were all covered with flat- pitched stone roofs, similar to those of Toledo and Avila. Few of the original windows remain save those already noticed in the eastern apses. At the west end of the aisles there are circular windows, without tracery and with very bold mouldings enriched with two or three orders of dog-tooth ornament. The windows in the aisles of the nave have all been destroyed by the additiun of chapels against the side-walls, whilst the clerestory lias been filled for the most part with early geometrical tracery windows in place of the lancets, with which it was, no doubt, originally lighted. The doorways are numerous and somewhat remarkable for their position. There are three at the west end, whereof those to tlie aisles are of the date of the earliest part of the fabilc, whilst the great central western doorway, being an addition of tlie fourteenth century, will be described further on. The tym- 282 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIII. pannm of tlie western door of the north aisle is sculptured with the Adoration of tlie Magi, the figures all in niches and carved in small and very delicate style. The door of the south aisle is similar in style, but simpler and without sculpture. The other doors are, as will be seen on reference to the plan, placed in a most unusual position in the north and south choir aisles. It is rare in churches of this plan to find any doorway east of the transept, and where the aisles or chapels are so short this seems to be a very good rule. Here the access to the church is so near the altars of these aisles as to produce a bad effect. The north door was evidently so placed because it was necessary to put the cloisters in a most unusual position, to the north-east of the church, and I suppose we must assume that the south door was put in a corresponding position for no better reason than that it might match the other. The door from the cloister into the church is the finest in the church. It is a round-arched doorway, with four engaged shafts in each jamb, and a central shaft, which is remarkable for the grand depth and size of its sculptured capital and base. All the capitals are very delicately wrought, and with an evident knowledge of Byzantine art ; and that of the centre shaft has a subject sculptured on each face, of which the three which are visible are: (1) The Procession of the Kings ; (2) their Worship of our Lord ; and (3) the Nativity. The fourth side is concealed by the modern door-frame, the doorway not having had a door at all originally. A deep plain lintel forms tlie head of the door, and above this the tympanum is filled with that often-repeated scheme, our Lord in a vesica-shaped aureole, surrounded by the emblems of the Evangelists, each of which has a book, as also has our Lord, who holds His in the left hand, whilst He gives His blessing with the right hand. The small spandrel between the round arch of this door and the pointed arch of the vault above, is filled with a circle containing the monogram, supported by two angels. On the same (south) side of the cloister is the entrance to the Chapter-house, which follows the invariable type of Chapter doorways, having a central doorway with a window on either side of it. One of the groining-ribs is brought boldly down between the doorway and one of the window openings, a peculiarity which should be compared with the similar arrangement of the Chapter-house at Veruela.^ The detail is precisely the same as that of the rest of the cloister, 1 See p. 388. No. 3.5 TAHKAGON/^. p, 28 : INTERIOR OE CLOISTER .L. : . . ■‘Z - ' -i^-r .■ ■ -• . •- i i Chap. XIIT. TARRAGONA: CATHEDRAL. 283 the arches all being semi-circular, and the side openings being of two lights, with coupled shafts in place of monials. In the east wall of the cloister, and close to the Chapter-house, is another fine doorway of the same early style. Its door was painted very richly with angels holding coats-of-arms ; but this delicate work is now almost all defaced. This spacious cloister is one of the most conspicuous of the earlier portions of the cathedral. A public thoroughfare does now, and probably did always, bound the cathedral close to its southern wall, so that there was no room for the cloister in the usual position to the south of the church. But it is very rare, I think, to find the Chapter-house built as it is here, opening out of the southern alley of the cloister, in place of the eastern. Its character is unusually good, even in this country of fine cloisters. Each bay has three round-arched openings divided by coupled shafts, and above these two large circles pierced in the wall. The arches and circular windows are richly moulded, and adorned largely with delicate dog-tooth enrichments. Some of the circular windows above the arcades still retain — what all, I suppose, once had — their filling in, which was of very delicate inter- lacing work, pierced in a thin slab of stone, and evidently Moorish in its origin, though, at the same time, the work pro- bably of Christian hands, as in some of them the figure of the Cross is very beautifully introduced.^ It is so rare to find any such influence as this exerted, that these traceries have an artificial interest. Yet they are in them- selves very charmingly designed, and serve admirably to break the too-powerful rays of the sun. Indeed, nothing in its way can be much prettier than the effect of the shadows of these delicate piercings thrown sharply on the pavement by the bril- liant sunlight. The groining is carried by triple engaged shafts, and its thrust resisted by buttresses, with an engaged shaft on their outer face. The groining is simple quadripartite, and the ribs are well moulded ; many of the capitals are carved with great vigour, and some of their abaci are covered also with stories admirably rendered. Take, for instance, this story of the Cat and the Bats, which I sketched on one of the abaci of the southern walk of the cloister. It is full of a spirit and humour Avhicli are thoroughly foreign to the conventional traditions of our present scliool of workmen. Give one, now-a- ' See illustrations of these on the ground-plan of Tarragona Cathedral, Plate XV. 284 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIII. days, sucH a story to illustrate, and the result would probably be simply absurd, whilst in the hands of this natural Tarragonese artist the whole thing is instinct with life and humour, to as Scnlpturcd Abacus in Cloister. great an extent now as it was when his brother workmen first gathered round him and laughed their approval of the speedy retribution which met the silly rats when they forgot to tie the limbs of tlieir enemy. I ought to have sketched the capitals which were under this abacus, for they were sculptured with cocks fighting, with their wings and heads so ingeniously arranged as to conform to the ordinary outlines of the early thirteenth-century foliage ca})ital. It is rarely that so much fine and original sculpture of various kinds is to be found in one such church as this; and I recommend those who follow my footsteps here to go prepared to devote some little time to the accurate delineation and careful study of it. ]\Iuch of the flooring of the cloister appears to be coeval with it ; ^ and though composed of the very simplest materials, it is most effective. Most of the patterns are formed with red tiles of different sizes, fitted together so as to make very simple diapers, and with the addition here and thei-e of small squares of white marble, which are used with the tiles. Some of these See detail of this pavement on Plate XV. Chap. XIII. TAlll^AGONA : CATHEDPtAL. 285 have an incised pattern on tlieir face, sunk about a quarter of an incli ; and in one case I fonnd that this pattern had been filled in with red marble. The pattern is arranged with a broad sti’ipe down the centre of the cloister, and on either side of this a succession of varying arrangements of tiles is contrived, each pattern being continned for but a short distance. Here, with the simplest materials, very great variety of eftect is obtained, whilst, with the much smarter and very elaborate materials of the present day, we seem to run every day more risk than before of sinking into the tamest monotony. In the west wall of this cloister there is a monumental recess of completely ]\Ioorish character, very delicately adorned ; and on one of the doors I noticed that the wood had been covered with thin iron plates, stamped with a pattern, gilded, and fastened down with copper nails. The Chapter-house, of whose entrance archways I have spoken, is a square room, roofed with a stone waggon-vault of pointed section ; and at the south end of this is a sevem sided apse, which seems to have been added to the original fabric circa a.d. 1350. On the eastern side of it are some large sacristies, but they did not appear to be old. So far the work I have had to describe has been all, Avith the exception of part of the steeple and Cimborio, not later than the end of the thirteentli century. It is evident, however, that con- siderable works were undertaken in various parts of the fabric at a later date. Most of the nave windows were taken out, in order to insert others with very fair geometrical traceries ; the upper part of the steeple was, as Ave have seen, erected ; and finally the Avest front was, in great part, reconstructed. The original Avest front of the aisles still remains, Avith a simple doorway, and richly moulded and carved circular windows, Avithout tracery. Pilaster buttresses are })laced at their north- Avestand south-west angles, and these have shafts at th eir angles, but have lost their old finish at the top. Probably another door and circular AAundow of large size occupied the end of the nave in the original design ; but these have been entirely removed, to make Avay for a Avork Avliich, tliough it seems to have been commenced in a.d. 1278,^ has all the air of com- 1 In 1278 M. Bartolome wrought nine Chapter, and father probably of the figures of the Apostles for the fa 9 ade ; man of the same name who was con- and in 1375 M. Jayme Castayls agreed suited about Gerona cathedral, and who to execute the remainder. His contract executed tbe reredos of the high altar is made under the direction of Bernardo at Tarragona in a.d. 14-26, and died in de 'Vallfogona, acting as architect to the a.d. 1436. 286 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIII. plete middle-pointed work, and was evidently not completed until late in the fourteenth century. The existing central doorway is of grand dimensions, with figures under cano23ies on either side, and round the buttresses which flank it. In the centre is a statue of the Blessed Virgin with our Lord, and above, on the lintel, the Eesurrection ; and the tympanum is pierced with rich geometrical tracery. The pedestal under the statue of the Blessed Virgin has sculiDtured on its several sides — (1) the Creation of Adam; (2) of Eve; (3) the Fall; (4) Adam and Eve hiding themselves ; and (5) the Expulsion from Paradise. These subjects are very fitly placed here, the Fall in the centre coming just under the feet of her who bears our Lord in her arms, and thus restores the balance to the world. The arch is lofty, but only moulded ; and above it is a pediment of extremely flat jiitch. Above this, again, is a large and finely-traceried cir- cular window. The lower ^lart only of the gable remains, and this is of very steej) i^itch, and must always have been intended to be a mere sham. Whenever this sort of thing is done, there is always some ground for susjDicion that the architect may have been a foreigner, unused to the requirements of a southern climate ; and, at any rate, most of the work in this facade might very well have been executed by a German architect, for its character is all that of German, rather than of Spanish art. It recalls, to some extent, the fagade of the north transej)t of Valencia Cathedral, though scarcely so much as to appear to be the work of the same hands. It is to be regretted that the great west- ern gable is incomplete, for, unreal as it is, its outline must have been fine; and even now, seen as it is in its small Plaza from the steej^, narrow, dark and shady street, sur- mounting the flights of stej3s which lead up to it, the effect is very striking. The traceries, both of the tym23anum of the doorway, and of the circular window above, are sharp geome- trical works, very delicately executed. The rq3per part of the western gable above the circular Avindow seems to have had three windows, but these are now ^^^n'tially destroyed. The hinges and knockers of the western doorway are elaborately designed, covered with 23ierced traceries, made with several thicknesses of metal. The doors are dia23ered all over with iron plates, nailed on with copper nails, and with co23|3er ornaments in the centre of each ^flate. The buttresses are bold, but rather clumsily designed. The statues of the door-jamb are carried round their lower parts, and the stage above is occiq3ied with tra- ceried A great crocheted conceals the set- Chap. Xlll. TAKEAGONA : CATHEDRAL. 287 (jff, and forins^ with the flat pediment of the doorway, a group in advance of the real face of the western wall. Other crocketed pinnacles probably finished the angle buttresses on each side of the main gable, but they are now destroyed. The north side of the nave is not easily seen, being enclosed within walls and behind houses ; but the south side is fairly open to view. Here, however, much of the original design is now com- pletely concealed by modern additions. The two western bays have chapels, added in the fifteenth century ; the third bay a domed chapel of the seventeenth century ; and there are two other late Gothic chapels in the two bays nearest the south transept. On the north, side chapels have been added in the same fashion, tliose in the two western bays alone being mediaeval. From the west side of the south transept a fair view is obtained of the best portion of the old exterior. The transept gable is extremely flat in pitch ; the buttresses are all carried up straight to the eaves, and the trefoiled eaves-arcading, which recalls the favourite brick eaves-cornices of the Italian churches, is returned round them at the top, and a deep moulding, covered with billets, is carried along over the eaves-arcading. The original semi-Eomanesque window, with its very broad external splay, still remains in the bay ok the transept next to the Crossing ; but the other windows have been altered ; and there is a rich traceried rose window in the southern fafade. The exterior of the lantern is certainly not very attractive. The entire absence from view of its roof is a fault of the most grievous kind ; though, otherwise, its windows, recalling as they do the traceries of our own first-pointed, are not at all to be condemned. I doubt very much whether this lantern was ever a fine work on the exterior ; but we may well be content to have anything so fine as the interioi-, and may fairly pardon its architect for his failure to achieve a more complete success. The internal arrangements here do not present much subject for notice. The Coro is in the nave, and in the screen on its western side the entrance-doorway still remains. It is of marble, of two well-moulded orders, and the outer order of the arch has voussoirs of grey and white marble counterchanged. The steps are of dark marble, with three shields in low relief on the riser of each, and the bearings which occur here are seen also in the keystone of the tower vaulting — both being works of the fourteenth century. The choir stalls and the panelling behind them are of the very richest and most delicate fifteenth- century Avork ; and the great desk for books, in the centre 288 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIH. of the Coro, is of the same age.^ The stall-ends are covered with delicate tracery, put on in a separate piece against the end, and not carved out of the solid. The divisions between the panelling at the back of the stalls are wrought with foliage and animals of really marvellous execution, and a band of inlaid work with coats-of-arms goes all round just above the stalls. There is a throne on the right hand of the entrance to the choir, and another at the east end of the south side ; but both of these are of Renaissance character. Many of the choir books are mediaeval, with large knops at their angles, and a piece of fringed leather under each knop. At the east end of the Coro, and in a line with the west wall of the transepts, is the iron Reja, and on each side of it a pulpit facing east. These have all the appearance of having been rebuilt. They have the same armorial bearings as the doorway to the Coro; and as the screen in which the latter is now built is not old, it is probable tliat tliey all form part of the same old choir screen, and that the two pid|3its were the ambons. I saw nothing to prove decidedly whether the Coro was in its original place, or whether it has been moved down into the nave as at Burgos. The great organ is on the north side of the Coro ; it is not very old, but its pipes are picturescpiely arranged, and it has enormous painted wings or shutters. ]\ruch of the pavement is old ; that in the choir proper — the Capilla mayor — is of marble in various stripes of patterns extending across the church.^ The nave is also paved with marble, arranged in lines and patterns divided to suit the posi- tion of the columns. The Coro alone is paved Avith tiles, and this seems to some extent to prove that this part of the floor has been altered, Avhich would be the case if the stalls were moved down from their original position. The high altar has a very rich reredos executed for the most part in marble, and rich in sculp- tured subjects. There is a doorway on each side of the altar, opening into the part of the apse shut off by tliis Retablo. Here the ]mvement has a large oblong compartment, which seemed to me to suggest the original position of the altar to have been much nearer the east Avail than it now is. This space is indicated in my ground-plan, and though it is more than usually set back ‘ The stalls of the Coro were executed - See the illustration of this marble between a.d. 1471) and 1493, by Fran- pavement on Plate XV. • cisco Gomar of Zaragoza. Chap. XIII. OTHER INTERESTING CHURCHES. 289 towards tlie wall, it was no doubt a more convenient position in so short a choir than that Avhich the present altar occupies. There is a richly-sculptured monument of a bishop on the southern side of the sacrarium. It will be seen that here, as is the case with so many other Spanish cathedrals, though the scale is not very great, the dignity and grandeur of the whole conception is extreme. The cloister, indeed, yields the palm to few that I have seen, and it is in scale only, and not in real dignity and nobility, that the interior of the church does so. I did not dis(^over any other old church in Tarragona, yet I should suppose there must be some in so large a city. There is a four-light ajimez window, of the type so common on this coast, in the Plaza in front of the cathedral ; and in the Plaza della Pallot is an early round-arched gateway, with a coeval two- light opening above. In the wall of a chapel to the east of the cathedral I found a fairly good example of an early headstone, perfectly plain in outline, and finished with a flat gable, in which is incised a cross under an arch, the inscription being carried across the stone in the common mode, just below the pediment. I had not time to make excursions to any of the other churches in this district, but there are some which appear, from what I have learnt, to be so fine, that it is to be hoped others will contrive to inspect them. The monasteries of Vallbona and Poblet, and the church of Sta. Creus,^ not far from Poblet, seem to be all of great interest. Poblet and Sta. Creus seem both to have cloisters with projecting chapels somewhat similar to that shown on my ground-plan of the monastery at Yeruela. The church at Ileus, too, is interesting, from the fact that the contract for its erection is jDreserved, and has been published by Cean Bermudez. It dates from a.d. 1510. This town is a few miles only from Tarragona, and after seeing Poblet and Yallbona, the ecclesiologist would do well, I think, to make his way across to Ldrida, instead of returning to Barcelona, as I did. But I wished much to examine the Collegiata at Manresa on my way ^ Vallbona has a very fine Roman- age; and Sta. Creus is an early church esque cruciform church with eastern with a fourteenth- century cloister, apses and a low central octagonal which has a projecting chapel with a lantern ; Poblet was an early cross fountain in it on one side similar to church with a fourteenth-century cen- that at Veruela. — Parcerisa, Recuerdos, tral lantern, and a cloister of the same &c. U 290 GOTHIC ARCHITECl^UEE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIII. to Lerida, and for this purpose the line I took was on the whole the best. I bade farewell to Tarragona with a heavy heart, and with a determination to avail myself of the first chance I may have of returning to look once more at its noble and too little known cathedral.^ ^ There is a good ill n here, the Fonda easily by steamboats from Barcelona, del Europa. But beware of the Fonda They go twice a week in five or six de los Cuatro Naciones, which is dirty hours, I believe, and bad. Tarragona may be reached T/fRRffC'OW^ :_(iriiiiiifl- PIhip [if- (htl)i'hral- PuUia^ed by Johtv Mvurriiy. S’; 1865, # r: ‘ . m Chap. XIV. BARCELONA. 21 ) 1 CHAPTEK XIV. BARCELONA The architectural history of Barcelona is inucli more complete, whilst its buildings are more numerous, tlian those of any of our own old cities, of which it is in some sort the rival. The power which tlie Barcelonese wielded in the middle ages was very great. They carried on the greater part of the trade of Spain with Italy, r ranee, and the East ; they were singularly free, power- ful, and warlike ; and, finally, they seem to have devoted no small portion of the wealth they earned in trade to the erection of buildings, which even now testify alike to the prosperity of their city, and to the noble acknowledgment they made for it. The architecture of Cataluiia had many peculiarities, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when most of the great buildings of Barcelona were being erected, they were so marked as to justify me, I think, in calling the style as completely and exclusively national or provincial, as, to take a contemporary English example, was our own Norfolk middle-pointed. The examination of them will, therefore, have much more value and interest than that of even grander buildings erected in a style transplanted from another country, such as we see at Burgos and Toledo ; and beside this, there was one great problem which I may venture to say that the Catalan architects satisfactorily solved — the erection of churches of enormous and almost un- equalled internal width — which is just that which seems to be looming before us as the work which we English architects must ere long grapple with, if we wish to serve the cause of the Church thoroughly in our great towns. For a manufacturing town, this, the Manchester of Spain, is singularly agreeable and unlike its prototype. The mills are for the most part scattered all over the surrounding country, which rises in pleasant undulations to the foot of the hills some four or five miles inland from the sea, and beyond which the country is always beautiful and wild, and sometimes — as in the savage and world-renowned rocks of Montserrat — quite sublime in its character. On my first journey I arrived at Barcelona by a u 2 292 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. steamer from Valencia. The views of the coast Avere generally extremely beautiful, until shortly before our arrival, as we passed the low level land through which the Llobregat finds its way to the sea ; beyond this the great rock and fortress of Monjuic rise boldly in front, and rounding its base into the harbour, the tall octagonal towers and turrets of the cathedral and other churches came in siglit. Little, hoAvever, is seen of the sea from the city, the fortifications of Monjuic on the one side, and the harbour and new colony of Barcelonette wliich occupies a point jutting out beyond it seaward on the other, completely shutting it out. One result of this is that, whilst nothing is seen of the sea, so, too, the seafaring people seem to confine themselves to Barcelonette, and not to show themselves in tlie thronged streets of the city. Another fortress, a little inland on the east, ]3laces Barcelona under a cross fire, and prevents its growth in that direction ; but Avherever possible it seems to be spreading rapidly, and every external sign of extreme prosperity is to be seen. The streets are generally narrow, tortuous, and picturesque, with the one noble exception of the Bambla, a very broad promenade running from the sea quite across tlie city, which has a road on either side, and a broad promenade planted with trees down the centre. Here in the early morning one goes to buy smart nosegays of the Catalan flower-girls from the country, and in the evening to stroll in a dense mob of loungers enjoying the cold air which sweeps doAvn from the hills, and atones for all the sufferings inflicted by the torrid midday sun. It will be best, in describing the buildings here, to begin with those of the earliest date, though they are of comparatively unim- portant character, and in part fragments only of old buildings preserved in the midst of great works undertaken at a later date. Tfiie Benedictine convent of San Pablo del Campo, said to have been founded in the tenth century by Wilfred II., Count of Barcelona,^ was restored by Guiberto Gnitardo and his wife about 1117, and in 1127 was incorporated with the convent of San Cucufate del Valles.^ The church is very inte- ^ He was buried here, and this in- ^ g^n Cucufate del Valles is not far scription was formerly in the church : from Barcelona ; it has a fine early “ Sub hac tribuua jacet corpus condam cloister somewhat like that of Gerona Wilfredi comitis filius Wilfred! , simili Cathedral, an early church with parallel modo condam comitis house memorise, triapsidal east end, octagonal lantern Dimittfit ei Dils. Amen. Qiii obiit, and tower on south side. — See illustra- vi. Xal. Madii sub era dcccglii.” (a.u. tions in Parcerisa, Recuerdos, &c., de ft 14). Esp. Catalufia, ii. 23, &c. Chap. XIV. BARCELONA: S. PABLO. 293 resting. It is small and cruciform, with three })arallel apses, an octagonal vault on pendentives over the Crossing, and a short nave, which, as well as the transepts, is covered with a waggon- vault. The apses are vaulted with semi-domes. The west end is the only perfect part of the exterior, and deserves illustration. The work is all of a very solid and rude description, thougli I am almost afraid to give it credit for being so old as is said. The circular window is, however, an interpolation ; and if this were removed, and another smalt window like the others inserted in its place, the whole design Avould no doubt have an air of ^Vest front of San Pablo. extreme antiquity. The ground-plan is a typal one here, and prevails more or less in all the early churches from Cataluiia to Galicia. One or two others of the same description seem to have a fair amount of evidence of the date of their consecration, and it is at any rate unlikely that a church built in a.d. 914 would require rebuilding in about a hundred years, which must have been the case here, if we assume that we have not still before us the original church. On the south side of the nave there was a cloister added, probably in the course of the eleventh century, and there is some difference in the character of its design and workmanship, and that of the church and its west 204 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. front. This cloister is very small, having on each side four arches, divided by a buttress in the centre of each side. The openings are cusped some with three and some with five lieavy foliations, plain on the outside, but both moulded and carved on the inside face. The cusping is not at all Gothic in its character, being stilted in a very Eastern fashion, nor is it constructed like Gothic work, the stones being laid over each other, and cut out in the form of cusps, but not constructed any- where with stones radiating on the principle of an arch. The shafts between the openings are coupled one behind the other, and have well-carved capitals. A fourteenth-century doorway, with a cross for the finial of its label, opens from the north wall of the cloister into the nave ; and in the east wall is an extremely good entrance to the Chapter-house of the same date, and showing the usual arrangement of a doorway with a two-light traceried opening on either side. There are also some old monumental arches in the walls. This church, which forms so important a feature in the early architectural history of Cataluiia, is near the western end of the city, and its west front and cloister are enclosed within the walls of a small barrack ; but as Spanish officers and soldiers are always glad to lionize a stranger, there is no difficulty in the way of seeing them. A simple early-pointed doorway, under a very flat tympanum, has been added to the north transept, and there is some evidence of the small apse near it having been arcaded on the outside. The pendentive under the dome is similar in its construction to those under the dome of the curious church of Ainay, at Lyons. Above them there is a string-course, and then the vault, which rises to a point in the centre, and is not a complete octagon, the cardinal sides being much wider than the others. The west doorway has in its tympanum our Lord, St. Peter, and St. Paul ; over the arch are the angel of St. Matthew and eagle of St. John, and above, a hand with a cruciform nimbus, giving the benediction. San Pedro de las Puellas, on the other side of the city, was rebuilt in a.d. 980, by Suniario Count of Barcelona, and his wife Bicheldi, and was consecrated with great pomp in a.d. 983.^ This church has been wofully treated, but it is still possible to make out the original scheme. It was a cruciform church of the same general plan as San Ikablo, with a circular dome at the Crossing, and a waggon-vault to the south transept, the nave, and Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Espafia, i. 12. Chap. XTV. BARCELONA: S. PEDRO — S'. ANA. 295 the western part of the chancel. The other parts were altered at a later date. Very bold detached columns with rich capitals carry the arches under the dome, and another remaining against the south wall of the nave suggests that there were probably cross arches or ribs below its waggon-vault. The sculpture of the capitals is very peculiar; it is quite unlike the ordinary Komanesque or Byzantine sculpture, and is very much more like the work sometimes seen in Eastern buildings. It is a type of capital first seen here, but reproduced constantly afterwards all along the southern coast, and not, so far as I know, seen at all in the interior of Spain. There is no mark of a chapel on the east side of the soutli transept, and, as the apse has been rebuilt, it is impossible to say what the original plan of the head of the church was. In the Collegiata of Sta. Ana, we have the next stage in the development of Catalan architecture. This is said to have been built in A.D. 1146 ,^ and is also a cruciform church, with a central raised lantern, barrel vaults in the transepts, and two bays of quadripartite vaulting in the nave. The nave probably dates from about the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century, being lighted with simple lancet- windows, and having bold buttresses. When I visited this church the chancel was boarded up for repairs, and I am unable to say certainly whether the east end is old, but it appeared to me to have been modern- ized. The exterior of the lantern is very peculiar ; above the roof it is square in plan, but with eight buttresses around it, radiating from the centre, and evidently intended to be carried up so as to form the angles of an octagonal central lantern, of which, however, only the lowest stage remains. The present finish of the lantern is a steep tiled roof, which springs from just above the point at which the angles of the square base are cut off ; and on the western slope of this roof a steep flight of stone steps leads to the very summit. The object of this arrangement is quite unintelligible. At the west end of the church, and set curiously askew to it, is a cloister of the fourteenth century. ^ According to Ford it was built by rario a las Iglesias de Espaua, xviii. 139. Guillermo II., Patriarch of Jerusalem, Thenecrology of the monastery contained in imitation of the church of the Holy the obit of a canon who came from Jeru- Sepulchre. — Handbook for Travellers salem, called Carfilio, as follows : ''Obiit in Spain, p. 416. It was one of the Oaifilius frater Sancti Sepulchri, qui edi- churches founded by the Order of the ficavit ecclesiam sanctse Annas. — Viage Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the Lit., xvii. 144. See ground-plan of this year 1141, in which they sent emissaries church on Plate XVII. to Spain for the purpose.— Viage Lite- 296 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. with a Chapter-room on its east side, opening to the cloister with a roiind-arclied doorway, on either side of which is a good early middle-pointed two-light window, making the group so inva- riably found in old Chapter-house entrances. The west doorway of the church is severely simple, with a square opening and plain tympanum under a pointed arch. Along the north side of the cloister is a fine ruin of a hall of the thirteenth century, the construction of which is very characteristic and peculiar. It is of two stages in height. Segmental arches across the lower rooms carry the floor beams, which are placed longitudinally, and over them in the upper room bold pointed arches are thrown to carry the roof. The roof was of very flat pitch, and consisted of a series of purlines resting on corbels built into the wall over the stone arches, upon which were laid the common rafters. I shall have to illustrate a similar roof which still remains in the church of Sta. Agata, so that I need not say more on the subject now than that this type is an exceedingly effective one, and occurs repeatedly in the Barcelonese buildings. The cloister of Sta. Ana is of two stages in height, and very light, graceful, and Spanish in its character. The columns are quatrefoil in section, and the capitals are later works of the same eastern character as those already described in San Pedro, and have square abaci. There is, perhaps, scarcely sufficient appearance of solidity and permanence in such extremely light shafts, seeing that they have to support a double tier of arcades all round the cloister ; but nevertheless the whole effect of the work is very beautiful. The old well with its stone lintel remains, and some fine orange-trees still adorn the cloister court. The other early works here are doorways and fragments now incorporated in other and later works, so that we need no longer delay our inspection of the cathedral, which is, as it ought to be, the pride of the- city. The ground-plan which I give^ will best explain the general arrangements of this remarkable church. Its scale is by no means great, yet the arrangement of the various parts is so good, the skill in the admission of light so subtle, and the height and width of the nave so noble, that an impression is always conveyed to the mind that its size is far greater than it really is. Of course such praise is not intelligible to those who believe with some enthusiasts that the greatest triumph of archi- tectural skill is to make a building look smaller than it really is — a triumph which the admirers of St. Peter’s, at Pome, always Plate XVI. Chap. XIV. BARCELONA : CATHEDRAL. 297 claim loudly for it — but most unsophisticated men will probably prefer with me the opposite achievement, often, indeed, met with in Gothic buildings, but seldom more successfully than here. The history of this church is in part given in two inscrip- tions on the wall on either side of the north transept door- way,^ from which it appears that the cathedral was commenced in A.D. 1298, and was still in progress in a.d. 1329. The latter date no doubt refers to the transept la^ade. But this was not the first church, for one was consecrated here in a.d. 1058, and the doorway from the cloister into the south transept, and another into the chapel of Sta. Lucia, at the south-west angle of tlie cloister, are probably not very much later than this date. But tlie bulk of the work is evidently not earlier than the beginning of the fourteenth century, and its design appears to be owing to one Jay me Fabra or Fabre,^ an architect of whom we first liear at Palma in Mallorca. In the deed which I give in the Appendix, he describes himself as lapiscida,'’ citizen of Mallorca, and says that he is about to go to Barcelona, to undertake a certain work there at the request of the King of Aragon and the bishop. This was in a.d. 1318, and it is clear, I think, from the terms of his contract,^ that Fabre was something more than architect, and really also the builder of this church in Palma. The term used ^ The inscription on the right hand of this door is as follows : — + In : noie : Dni ; nri : Ihu : Xri : ad . honore . + See : Trinitatis ; Pats . et . Filii . et . Sps . Sei . ac . Beate . Virginis : Marie . et See . crucis . See . q . Eulalie . Virginis . et . Martiris . Xrl . ac . civis Barclm . cujus . som . corpus . in ista . requiescit . sede . opus . istius . ecce . fuit . inceptum . K1 . Madii ano . Dili . M.CCXCVIII . regnMe . illustrissimo . Duo . Jacobo . rege . Aragonu . Vain . Sardiuie . Coisice . -|- comite . Q . Barchinone. The other inscription is on the left side of the same door: — In . noie . Dili . nri . Ihu . Xn . Kds . Novebr . anno . Dili . M.ccc.xxix . regnante . Dno . Altoso . rege . Aragonu . Valecie . Sardinie . Corsice . ac . comite . Barchii . opus . hujus . sedis . opeiabatur . ad . ]au(^^. Dei . ac . Bte . M Se^ -f- Sc^q . Eulaie. 2 The inscription which records the depositing of the body of Sta. Eulalia in the crypt below the choir in a.d. 1339, says that “ el Maestro ” Jayme Fabra and the masons and workmen of the church, Juan Berguera, Juan de Puigmolton, Bononato Peregrin, Guillen Ballester, and Salvador Bertran, covered the urn with a tomb and canopy of stone. — Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Espaila, i. p. 63. Diego, Historia de los Condes de Barcelona, pp. 298-301. ^ ‘‘The directors of the work of the new temple,” says S. Furio (Diccionario historico de los Professores de las Bellas Artes en Mallorca, p. 55), “agreed to give to the architect. Master Jayme, eighteen sueldos a week for the whole of his life, as well when he was ill as well ; and during the work, in case he should have to go on matters of business to Mallorca— his country— the Chapter bound themselves to pay him his travel- ling expenses and maintenance as well going as returning. They promised also to give a house rent free for him and his family, and two hundred sueldos annually for clothing for him and his children. 298 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. might indeed lead us to suppose that he was a mere mason, but the request of the king and the bishop proves that he was much more than this, and is useful as showing that these titles literally^ translated are very apt to mislead.^ The crypt of Sta. Eulalia under the choir was completed in a.d. 1339. Jayme Fabre is said to have been master of the works until a.d. 1388, in which year he was succeeded by el Maestro Koque, who had an assistant, Pedro Viader. He received three ‘‘ sueldos” and four ‘‘ dineros” a day, and a hundred sueldos each year for clothing, and in course of time his salary was raised to “two florins or twenty-two sueldos” a week. His assistant received fifty sueldos a year for clothes and three sueldos and six dineros a day for his double office of substitute for the principal architect and workman. Roque no doubt was able to work elsewhere, whilst his assistant, or clerk of the works, was confined to one work ; in this way the apparent strangeness of the similar pay to the two men is explained.^ Roque, who is said to have commenced the cloister, was suc- ceeded by Bartolomd Gual, who was one of the architects sum- moned to advise about the cathedral of Gerona in 1416, and then described himself as master of the works at Barcelona cathedral ; and, finally, Andres Escuder placed the last stone of the vault on September 26, a.d. 1448. Having thus shortly stated the history of the building, let me now attempt to describe its architecture and construction. It will be seen that the plan is cruciform. The transepts do not, how- ever, show much on the exterior, as they form the base of the towers which are erected, as at Exeter cathedral, above them. The plan of the chevet is very good ; it presents the French arrangement of an aisle and chapels round the apse in place of the common Spanish triapsidal plan ; but the detail is all com- pletely Catalan. The arches of the apse are very narrow and 1 Mr. Wyatt Papwortli’s very learned and complete dissertation on this subject in the Transactions of the Royal Insti- tute of British Architects may be re- ferred to as the best paper that has been published on the architects of our old buildings. I shall reserve what I have to say on this subject for the last chapter of this volume. 2 It is rather difficult to ascertain tlie exact value of the sums mentioned in these documents — a sueldo and adinero being both disused. The former is said to have been a piece of eight maravedis, the latter a small copper coin. This at the present day would be only a little over threepence a day. In a.d. 1 350 we find William de Hoton, the master-mason at York Minster, receiving 2s. 6d. a week — as nearly as may be the same wages that Roque received. Hoton had also a premium of 10^. a year and a house, and liberty to undertake other works. Fabric Rolls of York, Surtees Soc., p. 166. At Exeter, in the year 1300, Master Roger, the master-mason, received 30s. a quarter, or about 2s. 4d. a week. Fabric Rolls of Exeter, in Dr. Oliver’s Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, pp. 392-407. No. ro o q R o <) m EAST END OF THE CATHEDRAL. - S'3'Uin '' -'0 :k.v Chap. XIV. BARCELONA : CATHEDRAL. 299 stilted, and the columns throiigliont are composed of a rather confused jumble of thin mouldings awkwardly arranged. Above the main arches is a very small arcaded triforium, and above this a range of circular windows, one in each bay. The groining springs from the capitals of the main columns, so that the tri- forium and clerestory are both enclosed within its arched wall- rib; they are consequently very disproportioned in height as compared with those of northern churches. But here the architect evidently intended to grapple with the difficulties of the climate, and, designing his whole church with the one great object of minimizing the light and heat, he was com- pelled to make his windows small. The clerestory windows were traceried, and filled with rich stained glass, which was well set back from the face of the wall. The result is a perfect success as far as light and shade and the ordinary purposes of a Spanish congregation are concerned, but the difficulty of taking notes, sketches, or measurements, in most parts of the church, even at mid-day, can hardly be imagined. The dark stone of which the whole church is built increases not a little the sombre magnificence of the effect. There is nothing peculiar about the chapels of the chevet ; but under the centre of the choir, and approached by a broad flight of steps between two narrower flights which lead to the high altar, is the small crypt or chapel already mentioned as that in which the remains of Sta. Eulalia are enshrined. An inscription^ records the date of the translation of her remains to this spot in a.d. 1339, but the present state of the chapel is not suggestive of the possession of any architectural treasures, being remaikable only for the ugliness of its altar, and the number of its candlesticks. Behind the altar, however, there still remains the shrine of the saint. This is a steep-roofed ark of alabaster carried upon eight detached columns. The ark is sculptured at the sides and ends with subjects from the life of Sta. Eulalia, whilst the roof has her soul borne aloft by angels. The columns are of marble, spiral, fluted, and chevroned, with capitals of foliage, and one or two of the bases are carved with figures in the mediteval Italian fashion. A long inscrip- tion is carried round the base of the ark, which again records the death of the saint, her burial in Sta. Maria del jMar, and her translation to the cathedral in A,D. 878, and afterwards to the spot where she now rests. The detail of tliis shrine looks very like ^ Given in Espana Sagrada, xxix. 1859, engravings both of the shrine and p. 314, in facsimile. In the edition of of the crypt are given. 300 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. that of Italian Gothic of the same age ; and as it is particularly described in the contemporary memorial of the translation, it is no doubt part of the work on which Jayme Fabre had been engaged. The transepts are groined at the level of the side chapels, and again with an octagonal vault just above the aisle roof, and below where the square base gives place to the octagon on which the upper part of the steeples is planned. It is therefore only on the ground-plan that the transepts show themselves, and here they form porches, that on the south side opening into the cloister. The planning of the nave is very peculiar. It seems as though the main requirement of the founders of this church was a plentiful number of altars ; for, as will be seen on reference to the plan, there are no less than twenty-seven distinct chapels inside the church, and twenty-two more round the cloister. The chapels in the south aisle have a row of other chapels, which open into the cloister, placed back to back with them, and the windows which light the former open into the latter, showing when seen from the nave chapels their glass, and when seen from the cloister chapels the dark piercings of their openings. The arrangement is not only extremely picturesque, but also another evidence of the care with Avhich the sun was kept out of the building. On the north side the chapels are uniform throughout, and their windows are pierced in the long unbroken north wall. The Coro here is in its old position in the two eastern bays of the nave, with the old screens around it and all its old fittings. It is to be observed, however, that here, where the late Spanish arrangement was from the first adopted, the western entrance to the choir was preserved, and so the awkward blank which the wall of the Coro generally presents on entering is not felt. There are no signs of any parclose screens across the transept, and tlie position of the chapel of Sta. Eulalia makes it improbable tliat there ever were any. It seems, indeed, that such a church as this must from the very first have been built for precisely the kind of worshq) still used in it. There was never any proper provision for a crowd of worshippers joining in any one common act of prayer or worship. The capitular body filled the Coro and sang the services of the day unnoticed by the people ; whilst, as they separated to the chapels to which each was attached, the people followed them by twos and threes to the altar services in which only they wished to join. At present not more than about half the altars are commonly used ; yet still each morning mass was generally being said at three, or / . X' ■■■; ' i.hVUfi •d .1 f .'; > . r--- ,->45 ■ i . MuSlkaV No. 37 /\.R( ; K LO M -\ i' \ 1 ii I-: h iv, \ h p 3ui ■ ui' w i':s i i ^ (jh '■ b; Chap. XIV. BAUCELONA ; CATHEDBAL. 301 four, or five of them at the same time, and eaeli altar every day seemed to have a considerable group of worshippers, among whom I noticed a considerable number of men of the upper class. The high altar seems always to have had curtains on either side of it, their rods being supported on columns of jasper in front. These curtains were drawn at the Sanctus, and remained so until the consecration was completed. One sung mass only is celebrated at this altar each day, and an old treatise on the Customs of the Church cites in defence or explanation of tliis rule the words of a very early council, una missa et unum altar e} West of the Coro are two bays of nave, over the western of which rises the lower part of a rich octangular lantern. This is carried on bold piers of square outline, which, from the very simple arrangement of the shafts of which tliey are composed, have the grandeur of effect so characteristic of Komanesque work. The cross arches under the lantern are lower than the groining, and on the east face the spandrel between the two is filled in with rich tracery and arcading. Arches are thrown across the angles to carry the octagonal lantern, of which the lowest stage only — which is well arcaded — is built. The whole of this work is so good of its kind that it is much to be lamented it was never completed ; the design of the octagonal lantern at the west, and the two more slender octagonal steeples at the Crossing, would have been as striking in its effect, doubtless, as it would have been novel in its plan, though it may be doubted whether, in so short a church, it would not have been overpowering. Above the side chapels, on each side of the nave and at the west end, another floor is carried all round. The only difference is that the rooms above the chapels are square-ended, not apsidal, and there seems to be no evidence of their having been intended for altars. I saAV no piscina3 and no Retablos in them, and was tempted to imagine that the present use may, perhaps, have been the old one — that of a grand receptacle for all the machinery in fetes, functions, and the like, of Avhich a Spanish church generally requires no small store.^ There are arches in the wall, affording means of communication all round this upper floor, and the chambers all open to the church Avitli arches, and have traceried windows in their outer walls. The transverse section of the nave is therefore novel, and unlike any other with which I am acquainted, and interested me not a little. ^ Villanueva, Viage a las Iglesias de via Cathedral, given in the Appendix, Espafia, xviii. 157. mentions the provision of rooms for this “ The account of the building of Sego- purpose. 302 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. The exterior is, perhaps, less interesting than the interior. The chevet is fine, but with nothing in any way unusual in its design ; the upper part of the buttresses is destroyed, and the walls finish without parapet or roof, so as to make the church look somewhat like a roofless ruin. The steeples are quite plain below their belfry stage, under which are arcaded string-courses ; tlie belfry stages themselves are richly panelled and pierced, and surmounted by pierced parapets. They are not perfectly octa- gonal in plan, the cardinal sides being the widest, and their height from the floor of the church is as nearly as I could measure 179 ft. 6 in., whilst their external diameter is about 30 feet. It is on ascending these towers that one of the greatest peculiarities of the Barcelonese churches is seen ; they are all roofless, and you look down on to the top of their vaulting, which is all covered with tiles or stone neatly and evenly laid on the vault, in such a way as effectually to keep out the weather. The water all finds its way out by the pockets of the vaults, and by pipes through the buttresses with gurgoyles in front of them. Everything seemed to prove that this was not the old arrangement, for it is pretty clear that the walls had parapets throughout, and that there were timber roofs, though I saw no evidence as to what their pitch had been. The present scheme, ugly and ruinous as it looks — giving the impression that all the church roofs have been destroyed by the fire of the fortresses above and at the side of the city — seems nevertheless to have solved one of those pro^ blems which so often puzzle us — the erection of buildings which as far as possible shall be indestructible. There is now abso- lutely no timber in any part of the work ; but it is of course questionable whether a roof which endures the test of a Spanish climate, with its occasional deluge of rain succeeded by a warm drying sun, would endure the constant damp of a climate like ours. But at any rate the makeshift arrangement which is uni- versal here is very suggestive. The flying buttresses are insig- nificant, owing to the small height of the clerestory. Descending from the roof, the only other old portion of the church to be mentioned is the north transept. It is here that the tvvo inscriptions given at p. 297 are built into the Avail on either side of the lofty doorway. The doorway is finely moulded, and has a single figure under a canopy in its tympanum ; above it the whole face of the wall is covered with very rich arrange- ment of niches, making an arcade over its Avhole surface, but there are no figures left in them. Over this again is a rose window under an arch, and then the octagonal toAver. To the Chap. XIV. BARCELONA : CATHEDRAL. 303 east of the transept are some round-headed windows, but my impression is that they are not of earlier date than tlie rest of the work. The outer wall of the north aisle of the nave has a row of very richly moulded windows lighting the chapels, and other windows over them which light the galleries over the aisle chapels. The eaves here have a simple round-arched corbel- tabling. The west front is all modern and squalid ; the original design for its completion is said to exist among the archives of the cathedral, and ought to be examined ; I was not aware of this until long after I had been at Barcelona. Don F. J. Parcerisa^ gives a view of this proposed front — an extremely florid Gothic work — but the drawing is so obviously not the least like an old one, that I hardly know how far to trust the statements about it which he makes. He describes it as being on parchment, sixteen palms long, and much defaced. The print is drawn in perspective, and elaborately shaded. It is a double door, with a steep gable above filled with extremely rich flamboyant tracery, and there are large pinnacles on either side and a great number of statues. The cloisters are not good in their detail, but yet are very pleasant ; they are full of orange-trees, flowers, and fountains. One of these is in a projecting bay at the north-east internal angle, and is old ; another by its side has a little St. George and the Dragon, with the horse’s tail formed by a jet of water; and a third, and more modern, plays in the centre among the flowers. In addition, there are some geese cooped up in one corner, who look as if their livers were being sacrificed in order to provide pates for the canons ; and finally a troop of hungry, melancholy cats, who are always howling and prowling about the cloisters and church, and who often contrive to get into the choii*-stalls just before service, whence they are forthwith chased about by the choristers and such of the clergy as are in their places in good time ! These cloisters are said to have been completed in a.d. 1448,^ and I have no doubt this date is correct. On the exterior they are bounded on three sides by streets, and the apsidal ends of the chapels do not show, the wall being straight and unbroken. The cloister is lofty and has panelled buttresses between the windows, of which latter the arches only remain, the traceries having been entirely destroyed. The view from hence of the ^ Parceiisa, Recuerclos, &c., de Espafia. Catalufia, i. 57, - Viage Lit., xviii. 145. 801 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. church is one of the best that can be obtained, the octagonal transept towers being the most marked features. The floor is full of gravestones, on which the calling of the person comme- morated is indicated by a slight carving in relief of the imple- ments of his trade. The chapel of Sta. Lucia, at the south-west angle of the cloister, is probably a relic of the first church ; it has a very fine round-headed doorway with its arch-mouldings covered with deli- cate architectural carving, and a lancet window under its very flat-pitched gable. The roof inside is a pointed waggon-vault. The door from the cloister into the south transept is of about the same date ; it lias three shafts in the jamb (one of them fluted), very deep capitals and abaci covered with carving of foliage, and an archivolt covered with chevron patterns of a flat and very unusual character. The label is large and carved with very stifl' foliage. The foliage here is to a slight extent copied from the acantlius, but much of it is derived from some other leaf— I believe from the prickly pear. When the fabric has been passed in review much still remains to be seen within its walls. A large number of the altars, par- ticularly those of the cloister chapels, were furnished in the fifteenth century with Eetablos of wood richly carved, and then painted with subjects : these are always placed across the apse, leaving a space behind the altar, to which access Avas obtained by doors on either side of it. Perhaps then as noAv the priest attached to the altar kept his vestments in the chapel in which he ministered, and these spaces may thus have been utilized. Usually, noA\-a-days, in Spanish churches, for some ten or twenty minutes before the offices are sung in the choir, priests may be seen unlocking the gates of their chapels, vesting themselves, and then going one by one to their stalls in the choir, and there waiting till, on the clock striking the hour, the service commences. The paintings in the old Eetablos are sadly defaced and damaged ; but many of them have evidently had much value and interest. They are usually rather of Flemish than of Italian character, generally Avell and quaintly draAvn, and with those striking contrasts of colour on gold grounds, of wdiicli this early school was so fond. The doors on either side of the altar have generally a whole-length figure of a saint painted on them. Across the outer archway of all these chapels is an iron grille ; very many of these are media3\^al ; and in the cloister in parti- cular there is a very considerable variety in their treatment, and often great delicacy of execution. I have before noticed the Vq, 38 BARCEL(3NA CATHEDRAL. P O' '4 VIKW OF 'J'HE ri'J/FEPLES P'KOM THE CLOISTEK. •■ 4 , I •H ! Chap. XIV. BARCELONA : CATHEDRAL. 305 excellence of the smiths’ work in the Spanish churches. Yet thouah their Avork is of the latest a<2fe of Gothic, it is never marked by that nauseous redundance of ornament in which so many of the most active metal-workers of the present day seem to revel. Hence it is always \Awthy of study. The doors in these screens are generally double, and shut behind some sort of ogee-arched crocheted head, and sometimes there are crocketed pinnacles and buttresses on either side. The locks are often, of course, specially elaborate; and the illustration which I give of one of them aauII serve to show their general character. In all the screens here the lower part is very simple, consisting generally of no- thing but vertical bars, through which one can see witliout difficulty to the altars which they guard. The ornament is reserved for open traceried crestings, with bent and sharply -cut crockets, for traceried rails, and for the locks and fastenings. The woodAvork of the choir-fittings is of very late date,^ but good of its kind. The stall - divisions are richly traceried under the elboAv, and the misereres carved Avith foliage. Be- hind the stalls, and under the old canopies, is a series of Benaissance panels, covered Avith paintings of the arms of the Knights of the Golden Fleece.^ The canopies above are very delicate, and of the same character ^ The lower range of stalls was made ill 1457, by Matias Bonife, for fifteen florins for labour for each. In his con- tract with the Chapter he agrees to carve all the seats, but ‘‘in no wise any beasts or subjects.” In 1483 Miguel Loquer made the pinnacles of the upper stalls. The Chapter disputed the good- ness of his work, and he died — partly of disgust, apparently — during the lengthy dispute. The Chapter then named arbiters, who, after a formal examination, pronounced them to con- tain grave defects. — Parcerisa, Recu- erdos, &c., Cataluiia, i. p. 59. " Here, in 1519, Charles V. celebrated an installation of the Golden Fleece — the only one ever held in Spain. — Ford’s Handbook, p. 413. X GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. 30 () as the stalls. The carved oak pulpit is corbelled out at the east end of the north range of stalls, and is approached by a stair- case outside the arcaded stone parclose, which still remains north and south of the choir. This staircase, with its arched doorway between pinnacles at the bottom, its traceried handrail fringed at the top with fantastic ironwork, and its door cunningly and beau- tifully made of open ironwork, is quite worth notice. The Bishop’s throne, second only in height and elaboration to that of Exeter, occupies its proper place at the east end of the southern side of the choir, with one stall for a chaplain beyond it. It will be remembered that in most Spanish cathedrals it is placed where the door from the nave into the choir ought to be : here, however, the old arrangement has never been altered. The principal altar has a very Gothic Eetablo, covered with gilding till it looks like gingerbread. I imagine it to be modern. It has curtains on either side, with angels standing on the columns which carry the rods. The iron screen across, in front of the altar, and round the apse, is none of it old. Near the door to the sacristies a hexagonal box for the wheel of bells is fixed against the wall ; and just below it a fine large square box arcaded at the sides, and painted, appears to contain a couple of larger bells. The sculpture here is not very remarkable. Over the east door of the cloister is a Pieta in the tympanum, whilst the finial of the canopy is a crucifix. The bosses at the intersection of the ribs in the nave are of enormous size, and each has a figure or subject. The boss in the chapel over the font in the north side of west door has the Baptism of our Lord, and another in the large chapel in the north-west of the cloister has the Descent of the Holy Ghost, and the eight bosses around it the Evangelists and Doctors. Some of the monuments are peculiar. The effigy is generally laid on a sloping stone, so as to suggest the greatest possible insecurity. There are sculptures on the tombs and inside the enclosing arch ; a favourite and odious device in this last feature is to make the radius of the label much longer than that of the arch below it ; and the space between the two is then filled with tracery. The nave groining was once painted. There seems to have been cinquecento foliage extending from the centre, about half-way across each vaulting cell ; and the ribs were painted to the same extent. In the aisles there seems to have been no painting anywhere but on the ribs. The old organ occnpies the north tower, and is corbelled Published by John Murray. Albemarle S* 1865 Chap. XIV. BARCELONA: S. MARIA DEL MAR. 307 out boldly from tlie wall. Below it is a pendant, the finish of wliieh is a Saracen’s liead, which, for some reason unknown to me, is held by Catalans to be appropriate to the })osition. Tliere are enormous painted shutters, and a projecting row of trumpet-pipes. The organ was first of all built in the fourteenth century; Martin Ferrandis, organ-builder of Toledo, having bound himself, by a contract dated July 25, 1345, to construct it for 80 libras^ (pounds). The sacristies are old and vaulted. The sacristan knew of no old vestments or vessels to be seen there ; and as they were always occupied by clergy I had to satisfy myself with his ignorance. The bishop’s palace is on the soutli side of the cloister : its quadrangle still retains some remains of good late Bomanesque arcading, ornamented with dog-tooth, nail-head, and billet mould ; and probably there is more to be seen if access were gained to the inside. On the opposite side of the (‘athedral is a vast barrack, dating from the fifteenth century, and which, first of all a palace, was given in a.d. 1487 by Ferdinand to the Inquisi- tion. It seems now to be a mixture of school, convent, and prison, and is apparently without any architectural interest. The grandest church, after the cathedral, is that of Sta. Maria del Mar, a vast building, of very simple plan, and exceedingly characteristic of the work of Catalan architects.^ An inscription written in Limosin (Catalan) on one side, and in Latin on the other, ^ gives the date of the commencement of the work as A.D. 1328 ; and it is said by Cean Bermudez not to have been finished until a.d. 1483 but Parcerisa^ says that the last stone was placed on November 9th, 1383, and the first mass said on August 15th, 1384 ; and I am inclined to think that the latter dates are the more likely to be correct. I have found no evidence as to the architect of this church : he was one of a school who built many and exceedingly similar churches throughout this district. My impression is that he was most probably Jayme Fabre, the first architect of the cathedral. Fabre had constructed a church for the Dominicans at Palma, in Mallorca, between the years 1296 and 1339. Of this church I can only learn the dimensions ; but these point to a church of the same class as those in Bar- ^ Viage Lit., xviii. p. 142. ejusdem, viii. Kal. Aprilis Anno Domini “ Plate XVII. Mcccxxviii. ^ In nomine Dai nostii Jesu Cliristi Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Espana, ad honorem sanctm Marise fuit in- i. p. 61. ceptum opus fabriem ecclesim Beatfe ® Recuerdos, &c., Cataluua, i. p. 66, Marise de Mari die Annuntiationis X 2 308 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. celona. It had no aisles, and was 280 palms long by 138 broad. The cathedral in the same city is figured in Parcerisa, and is similar in plan to Sta. Maria del Mar, but of far larger dimensions, the width from centre to centre of the nave columns being 71 feet, and tlie whole church 140 feet wide in the clear, and with the chapels 190 feet. There are north and south doors, and octagonal pinnacles at the west end, and, as will be noticed, its dimensions are proportioned just as at Sta. Maria del Mar. I do not think that Fabre’s name occurs in connexion with the cathedral at Palma ; but his fame must have been great, as he was specially summoned to Barcelona by tlie king and bishop ; and nothing is more lil^ely than that he would then have been consulted about this other great work going on at the same time, and in which, thoiigli the general design is different, there are so many points of similarity. The church at Manresa is said to have been com- menced in the same year, 1328 ; and it is extremely similar in all respects to Sta. Maria del Mar, as I shall have further on to show when I have to describe it. But whether these churches are to be attributed to the influ- ence of one man suddenly inventing an innovation, or of a school of architects working on the same old traditions — and I have been unable to find any kind of evidence of this — it is certain that they are very similar. They are marked by extreme sim- plicity, great width, and great height. Usually they have no ar- cades and consist of broad unbroken naves, always groined in stone, and sparely lighted from small windows high up in the walls. The two examples, so far as I know, which surpass all others, are the single nave of Uerona, seventy-three feet wide in the clear, and the nave and aisles of the Collegiata at Manresa, sixty feet wide from centre to centre of the columns, and a hundred and ten between the walls of the aisles. The Barcelonese examples do not equal the extraordinary dimensions of these two churches, but they are still on a fine scale. Sta. Maria del Mar is the only Barcelonese example with aisles. It has — as will be seen by the plan^ — an aisle round the apse, and small chapels between the buttresses. These apses are all internal only, so that the side elevation of the church shows a plain straight wall pierced with windows. This is a very favourite device of this school, and has been already noticed in the north wall of the cathedral, and in the wall all round the cloisters. The interior of Sta. Maria del Mar is very simple. Enormous octagonal columns carry the main 1 PLate XVII. pTm No. 30, STA. MARTA DEL MAR, BARCELONA SOUTH-WEST VIEW. . ..-f Chap. XIV. BARCELONA: 8. MARIA DEL MAR. 309 arches and the groining ribs, which all spring from their cajn’tals. The wall rib towards the nave is carried up higher than the main arches so as to allow space between them for a small circular and traceried clerestory window in each bay. The arches of the apse are very narrow, and enormously stilted. There are small windows above them, but they are modernized. The aisles are groined on the same level as the main arches, a few feet, there- fore, below the vault of the nave, and they are lighted by a four- light traceried window in each bay, the sill of which is above a string-course formed by continuing the abacus of the capitals of the groining shafts. Below this there are three arclies in each bay, opening into side chapels between the main buttresses. Each of these chapels is lighted by a traceried window of two lights ; and the outer wall presents, as will be seen, a long un- broken line, until above the chapels, when the buttresses rise boldly up to support the great vaults of the nave and aisles. The Barcelonese architects of this period were extremely fond of these long unbroken lines of wall ; and there is a simplicity and dignity about their work which is especially commendable. Long rows of little sheds for shops wliich have managed to gain a footing all along the base of the walls rather disturb the effect, though they and their occupants, and the busy dealers in fruit who ply their trade all about Sta. Maria del Mar, make it a good spot for the study of the people. The altar is a horrible erection of about a.d. 1730, and all the internal fittings are modern and in the worst possible taste. The view which I give of the west front will explain the whole design of the exterior. Unquestionably it is a grand work of its kind, with good detail throughout. The great octagonal pin- nacles at the angles are, however, awkwardly designed, and quite insufficient in scale for the vast mass of building to which they are attached. They are reproduced in all the churches of the same class in Barcelona ; and indeed most of the features of one of these churches are common to the others. The tracery in the circular window at the west end certainly looks later in date than that of the others in this church, and than that in the west front of Sta. Maria del Pi, which was commenced in A.D. 1329, but not completed until much later. It is worth mention that tlie western doors of this church are covered with iron, cut out into the form of cusped circles, with rather good effect. The church of SS. Just y Pastor is of the same class as Sta. Maria del Mar, but its foundation is slightly later, as it seems to have been commenced circa a.d. 1315. It consists of a nave 310 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. without aisles, but with chapels between the buttresses — one chapel in each bay. There are five bays, and an apse of five sides. The altar stands forward from the wall, and stalls are ranged round the apse. The nave is 43 feet 6 inches in width in the clear by about 130 feet in length. The vaulting is quadripartite throughout, with large bosses at the intersection of the ribs, on which are carved — 1, the Annunciation ; 2, the Nativity ; 3, the Presentation ; 4, the Adoration of the Magi ; 5, the Kesurrection ; 6, the Coronation of the B.Y.M. The whole church has lately been covered with painting and gilding, in the most approved French style, and to the destruction of all appearance of age. The light is admitted by three-light windows with good geometrical traceries, very high up above the arches, into tlie side chapels, and by two-light windows in the chapels themselves. At the west end are remains of the usual octagonal flanking turrets ; but the whole front is modernized. The side elevation is a repetition of those already described, presenting a long unbroken wall below, out of which the buttresses for the clerestory rise. Santa Maria del Pino is a still grander church, but on the same plan, with the addition of a lofty octagonal tower detached at the north-east of the church.^ This is four stages in height, and the belfry-stage has windows on each face. The traceried corbel-table under the parapet remains, but the parapet and roof are destroyed. The nave here consists of seven bays, is fifty-four feet wide in the clear, and has an eastern apse of seven sides. The chapels between the buttresses are not carried round the apse, but an overhanging passage-way is formed all round outside, upon arches between, and corresponding openings through, the buttresses just below the windows. The north door here is a very fine early work of just the same character as those already described in the earliest portions of the cathedral. It a})pears to be a work of the end of the twelfth century, and much older than any other portion of the church. The west front has a doorway with a figure in a niche in the tympanum, and a system of niches round and above it, enclosing it within a sort of square projecting from the face of the wall. The whole scheme is so exceedingly similar both in design and detail to that of the north transept door of the cathedral, that we may fairly conclude them to be the works of the same man. Above the door is a large circidar window filled with good and veiy ‘ Plate XVII. MMftLONHJ-Giiounti Plumi of S!? Mar, la M Mai>;_Sft Mania llrf P|;_ aiiil Hit Gollsniata of S!? Hlia; Plau- XVII ■f Chap. XIV. BARCELONA : S. JAYME. 311 rich geometrical tracery. A cliurcli existed here as early as 1070;^ and Cean Bermudez says that the first stone of tlie present church was laid in 1380, and that it was concluded in 1414.^ I\ircerisa,^ on the other hand, says that materials were granted for the work in 1329, that it was nearly finished in 1413, and consecrated in 1453 whilst in a.d. 1416 we have Guillermo Abiell describing himself as master of the works of Sta. Maria del Pi, and of St. Jay me, in Barcelona, when he was called as one of the Junta of architects to advise about the build- ing of the nave of Gerona cathedral.'^ St. Jayme, of which Abiell was the architect, is a small church in the principal sti’eet of the city, with an ogee-headed door with a crocheted label between two pinnacles. Above are some small windows ; and the whole detail is poor in character, and exactly consistent with what might be expected from an architect at AbielFs time. I believe, therefore, that either xibiell was only the surveyor to an already existing fabric, who wished to make the most of his official position among his brethren at Gerona, or that if he really executed any works at Sta. Maria del Pi they were confined to the steeple, which is of later character than the church. I believe that the real meaning of the dates given by the authorities just quoted is as follows : — In a.d. 1329 stone was granted for the work which was then no doubt just commenced at the same time as the similar work in tlie transept of the cathedral ; and the consecration probably took place in a.d. J353, a date which occurs in an inscription in the clmrch, and has been, I suspect, read by Parcerisa by mistake, 1453 ; and the work commenced in a.d. 1380 was probably the steeple, which was com- pleted in a.d. 1414. To decide otherwise would be to ignore alto- gether all the information to be derived from the character of the architectural detail, which, after all, is to a practised eye a safer guide than any documentary evidence. I should assume, too, from the identity of the character of the two works, tliat Jayme Pabre was the architect who designed the church, and that Guillermo Abiell probably built the tower some time after his death. I must now take my readers back somewhat to an earlier church, which is full of interest, but very different from those 1 Viage Literario a las Iglesias de iiueva, Viage Literario, xviii. 1G2, said to Espaua, xviii. 161. be cut on the jamb of the side doorway, 2 Arq. de Espaua. which records the cousecration of this 3 Recuerdos, &c., deEspaiia, Catalufia, church on June 17th, 1453. vol. i. ® See Appendix. An inscription is given by Villa- 312 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. which I have been describing, and of different style. This is the church of Sta. Agata, situated just to the north of the cathedral. I have been unable to learn anything as to its history. It has a nave of four bays, spanned by pointed arches, which carry the wooden roof, and a groined apse of five sides. East of the apse is a waggon-vaulted chamber, whose axis is at right angles to that of the church, and out of it rises a delicate octa- Interior of Siinta Agata. gonal steeple, the l)elfry-stage of which has two-liglit windows on four sides, and gables on each face. These gables run back till they intersect the base of a low stone spire, which is now nearly destroyed, but the lower part of wliicli can be clearly made out from the neighbouring steejde of the cathedi-al. A Chap. XIV. BARCELONA : S. AGATA— N. S. DEL CARMEN. 313 staircase, ingeniously constrncted in the thickness of the south wall, leads up from the nave to the pulpit (now destroyed), and thence on again to a western gallery. Some of the windows are like domestic windows in design, having a slender shaft-monial with the capital of foliage so often re23eated in all the towns from Perpinan to Valencia. The great height of the windows from the door — about twenty-six feet — secures an admirable effect of light, and their detail is thoroughly good early middle- pointed. The southern faqade has a great deal of that pictur- esque irregularity which is always so charming when it is natural. The door is in the western angle of the south front, partly built under a great overlianging arch, which carries the wall of a building which abuts on the west end of Sta. Agata. The lower half of the walls has small windows irregularly placed, lighting the eastern chapel, the pulpit, and the passage to the gallery ; and then above them the wall is set back a couple of feet between buttresses, and each bay has an extremely well designed and moulded window of two lights, with geometrical tracery. The dnish of the walls at the top is modernized. The construction of the roof is very effective, and at the same time of a most unusual character ; it consists of a series of purlines resting on corbels in the walls over the arches across the nave ; and though it is of flat pitch, this is but little noticed, owing to the good proportions of these arches, which are so marked a feature in the design. The same kind of roof exists still in the great hall of the Casa Consistorial, and evidently once existed also in the churcli which I shall presently mention in the Calle del Carmen. In England we have somewhat parallel examples at Mayfield and the Mote House, Ightham ; but these Barcelonese examples are useful, as showing how, when a flat-pitched roof is of neces- sity adopted, a very good internal effect may nevertheless be secured. This church is now desecrated, and used as a sculjAor’s workshop. Another church, of which only the ruins now remain, in the Calle del Carmen, must, I presume, be Nuestra Senora del Carmen, founded in 1287.’ This building was evidently greatly altered in the fourteenth century. It was first of all roofed with a flat roof, carried on arches across the nave, as at Sta. Agata, and subsequently the walls were raised and the church 1 Ceaii Bermudez, Arq. de Espana, i. 55. But Diego, ‘ Historia de ios Coudes de Barcelona,’ p. olG, puis the foundation in a.d. 1295. 314 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. was groined. The groining is now destroyed, and behind it are seen the corbels in tlie cross wall marking the rake of the first roof. Tlie aisles had roofs gabled north and south, and their windows good fourteenth-century tracery. Tin's church of seven bays in length is 43 feet wide between the columns of the nave, and nearly 80 feet wide from north to south. Compared with Sta. Agata, it seems to prove that this class of timber-roofed church was introduced here between the early waggon-vaulting of the chapel of Sta. Lucia and of Sta. Ana, and the great quadri- partite vaults of the cathedral and the other clmrches of its class. The other churches here are not of much interest. The front of San Jayme has already been incidentally mentioned: its in- terior is modernized. San Miguel is probably a very early church, having a Eoman mosaic pavement preserved in the floor. It has a pointed waggon-vault, and a sixteenth-century stone gallery at the west end. The western front has a rich west door, half Gothic and half Eenaissance, with St. Michael and the dragon in the tympanum, and the Annunciation in the jambs. The flat gable has its old crocketed coping and cross, and two very small windows. The best feature is the tower, a simple structure, square in plan, from within the parapet of which, over the centre, rises a small square turret, open at the sides and roofed with four intersecting gables. It is a pretty arrangement for carrying a fifth bell, the other bells hanging in the belfry windows, in the Italian fashion. The church of San Anton has a groined narthex or porch all across the west front, with three open arches in front. The nave cannot be wide, and has chapels between the buttresses, but I did not see the interior. Another church, that of San Geronimo, is on the same plan, but of later date.^ The churches of the Eenaissance class are numerous and ugly ; but Berruguete and his followers hardly perpetrated so many freaks in art here as they did in the centre of Spain ; had they been more popular, there had been much less for me to describe. But in truth, rich as this old city still is, it was much richer, two or three noble churches having disappeared at a comparatively late period, either during tlie war or in subseqnent popular disturbances. The civic buildings are quite worthy of the ancient dignity of the city. The Casa Consistorial, and the Casa de la Disputacion, face each other on opposite sides of the principal square, not far from the cathedral. The former has a modern Pagan front, but ^ Villanueva, Viage Literario, xviii. 165, mentions the convent of San Francisco as still existing (in 1851). No. 40. U, JEWlTT.se. BARCELONA. p. 314. OASA CONSISTORIAL. ■ i j Chap. XIV. BARCELONA : CASA CONSISTORIAL. 815 on the north side the old work remains. This building is said to have been commenced in a.d. 1369, and finished in a.d. 1378 and inside the great hall I noticed an inscription (which unfor- tunately I neglected to copy) with the date of 1373. The old front to the north of this building seems worthy of illustration. The enormous arch-stones of the principal doorway are very common throughout Cataluna, and are seen indeed as far east even as Perpinan. The figure of St. Michael has metal wings ; and as the little church dedicated in honour of the same archangel is just on the other side of the Casa, it seems as if there was some special connection between the two buildings. T\\q patio or quadrangle is oblong in plan, and on the first-floor the passage is open to the air, with delicate arches all round. On the east side of this passage a door opens into a noble hall, with ^ Parcerisa, Recuerdos, &e., Cataluua, i. p. 107. 316 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIV. a dais for tlie throne at the upper end, and doorways on each side of the dais. This hall is spanned by four moulded semi- circular arches rising from corbels formed of a cluster of shafts. These arches support a flat ceiling of rafters, with boarding between them, resting on corbels in the cross walls. The light is admitted by large cusped circles high up in the side walls, and by good ajimez windows of three lights at the dais end. The rafters of the roof are all painted with coats of arms enclosed within quatrefoils, with a very rich effect. The dimensions of this room are about 40 feet wide by 90 feet long, and 45 feet in height. In a passage near it is an admirable ajimez window, which, as it illustrates this common type very well, is worth preserving a record of. The marble shafts here are only three inches in diameter.^ The Casa de la Disputacion was still more interesting ; but on my last visit the delicate arcades of its beautiful patio were all being walled up with common brick, leaving narrow slits of windows, which I suppose are to be glazed, to save the degenerate lawyers for the future from any of the chance squalls of wind or rain which their predecessors have endured since the fifteenth century, when Master Pedro Blay, the architect, superintended its erection. This patio is of three stages in height, with a pic- turesque external staircase to the first floor. The lofty corridor round the first floor leads to the various courts and offices, and in one angle of it is the entrance to the chapel, consisting of three small arches, forming a door and two windows, witli the wall above them covered with an elaborate reticulation of tracery. The arches have ogee crocheted canopies, and the side arches iron grilles. This chapel is dedicated to St. George, the tutelar saint of Cataluiia, and a figure of the saint rivals that of St. Michael in the Sala Consistorial. There are here some extremely well-managed overhanging passage-Avays corbelled out from the walls, and various excellent features of detail. The parapets generally to the various passages are of plain stone slabs, pierced here and there oidy with a richly traceried circle. Another old building — the Lonja or Exchange — was built near the sea in a.d. 1383.^ But everything old has been completely destroyed, with the one exception of its grand hall, which still does service as of old. This consists of three naves, divided by lofty and slender columns, which carry stilted semi-circular arches. ^ See previous page. ‘ Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esp., i. 70. Chap. XTV. BARCELONA : OT.D BUILDINGS. 817 The ceiling is flat, of the same description as tliat of tlie Sala Consistorial. The dimensions are about 100 feet in length by 75 feet in width. Another great building, founded soon after, circa 1444, whs intended for a cloth-hall:^ in 1514 it was converted into an armoury, and subsequently into a residence for the Captains- General of Catalnha ; it has been completely modernized throughout the exterior, and I did not see the interior. Cean Bermudez mentions an interesting fact about the con- struction of the old Mole. It was built, he says, by Estacio, a famous hydraulic architect of Alexandria, in a.d. 1177 ; and the city authorities took counsel about it with the most learned pro- fessors of Syracuse, Khodes, and Candia. 318 GOTHIC ATCHTTECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XY. CHAPTEE XV. GERONA — PERPINAN — S. ELNE. There are few Spanish towns wliidi are altogether more interesting than the now insignificant and little-known city of Gerona. It not only contains several buildings of rare architec- tural interest, but it has, moreover, the advantage of being picturesquely placed on tlie banks of the rapid river Ona, and on the steep slope of the hills which bound it. The Cathedral is the first object of attraction, and its history is so curious, that I need make no apology for proceeding without further preface to say the substance of what I have been able to learn about it. There was a cathediul here at a very early period ; and when Gerona was taken by the Moors, they converted it into a mosque, but, with their usual liberality, allowed the services of the Cliurch still to be carried on in the neighbouring church of San Eeliu, which for a time, accordingly, was the cathedral church. In A.D. 1015 this state of affairs liad ceased, owing to the expulsion of the Moors, and the cathedral was again recovered to the use. of the Church. Considerable works were at this time executed,^ if, indeed, the cathedral was not entirely rebuilt, as the old docu- ments declare, and the altered church was re-consecrated in A.D. 1 038,^ by the Archbishop of Narbonne, assisted by the Bishops of Yique, Urgel, Elne, Barcelona, Carcassonne, and others. In A.D. 1310 w^orks seem to have been again in progress,^ and in A.D. 1312 a Chapter was held, at whidi it was resolved to rebuild the head or die vet of the church with nine chapels,^ for 1 See Espana Sagrada, xlv. pp. 2-3. See also the deed executed by Bishop Roger ill 1015. “Nostra necessitate coacti causa ledificationis praedictfe eccle- siiB, quoe satis cognitum cunctis est esse destructa, &c.” — Esp. Sag., xliii. p. 423. 2 See the act of consecration, Espana Sagrada, xliii. pp. 432-437, which de- clares the church to have been rebuilt “ a fundamentis.” 3 Esp, Sag., vol. xliv. p. 43. “ Capitulum Gerundense in cerca nova ecclesia) Gerundensis more solito congregatuin, statuit, voluit et ordinavit, quod caput ipsius ecclesise de novo con- strueretur et edificaretur, et circumcirca ipsum no vein cappellse fierent, et in dormitorio veteri fieret sacristia. Et cura ipsius operis fuit commissa per dictum capitulum, venerabilibns Rai- mundo de Vilarico, archidiacono, et Amaldo de Monterotundo, canonico.” — Espana Sagrada, xlv. p. 3. Chap. XV. GEUONA : CATHEDRAL. 819 whieli, in a.d. 1292, Guillermo Gaufredo, the treasurer, made a bequest in hivour of the work2 In a.d. 1325 I find that an indulgence was granted by the Bisliop Petrus de Urrea in favour of donors to the work of the cathedral p and the work, so far westward as the end of the choir, was probably complete before A.D. 1345, inasmuch as in this year the silver altar, witli its Ketablo and baldachin, were placed where they now stand.^ We know something of the architects employed during tlie fourteenth century upon the works just mentioned. In 1312 the Chapter appointed the Archdeacon Pamon de Vilarico and tlie Canon Arnaldo de Montredon to be the obreros or general clerical superintendents of the progress of the works. In a.d. 1316, or, according to some authorities, in February, 1320, an architect — Enrique of Narbonne — is first mentioned ; and soon after this, on his death, another architect of the same city, Jacobo de Favariis by name, was appointed with a salary of two hundred and fifty libras a quarter, and upon the condition that he should come from Narbonne six times a year^ to examine the progress of tlie works. In a.d. 1325 Bart. Argenta was the master of the works, and he probably carried them on until the coinj^letion of the choir in 1346.® ^ Dimitto etiam ad caput prsedictsB ecclesise, vel ad cimborium argenteum faciendum desuper altare Beatse Marise ilia decern millia solidorum Barchinon: qufB ad illud dare promisseram jam est diu.” — Will of Guillermo Gaufredo, Viage Lit. a las Iglesias de Espana, vol. xii. p. 184. 2 Esp. Sag., vol. xliv. pp. 51, 320, 322. ^ “ Pateat universis,” quod die LuufE 4 Idas Marti iiititulata anno Domini 1346. Beverendus in Christo Pater” “ S. Tarraclionensis ecclesia3 archiepis- copus, altare maj\is Beatissimse Virginis Mariae cathedralis Gerundensis ecclesiae a loco antiquo ipsius ecclesise in quo construtum erat in capite novo operis ejusdem ut decuit translatum est,” &c. “ De quibus omnibus ad perpetuam rei memoriam venerabilis vir Doniinus Petrus Stephani Presbiter de capitulo et operarius memoratac ecclesise mandavit unum et plura fieri instrumenta per me Notarium infrascriptum pra^sentibus ad hoc vocatis testibus,” &c. 8cg. — Espana Sagrada, xlv. pp. 373, 374. Or ‘'sueldos,” Parcerisa. “Sous,” V. le Due. = 1500 francs at the present day. ^ Register entitled Curia riel Vicariato de Gerona, Ifiber notulorum ab anno 1320, ad 1322, fol. 48, quoted in Esp. Sag. xlv. p. 373. See also Viollet le Due, Dictionnaire Raisonne, i. p. 112. F. J. Parcerisa, ‘ Recuerdos y Bellezas de Espana,’ Cataluna, i. 146, says that the work was commenced in 1316, and that Enrique of Narbonne died in 132(). ® The list of architects given by D. J. Villanueva (Viage Lit. a las Iglesias de Espana, xii. p. 172 et seq.) does not agree with this. The first he mentions is Jayme de Taverant, a Frenchman from Narbonne (and no doubt identical with Jaques de Favariis), in 1320. Fran- cisco de Plana, a Catalan, held the post after him, and was removed in 1368 in favour of Pedro Coma (de Cumba'), who was employed also at San Feliu, Gerona; and in 1397 Pedro de San Juan, “ de natione Picardioe,” was employed. Guil- lermo Boffiy succeeded him ; in 1427 Rollinus Vautier, “ diocesi Biterrensis,” was master of the works, and in 1430 Pedro Cipres succeeded him. 320 GOTHIC AECEIITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XV. In A.D. 1395 it was proposed to erect a Chapter-house, and the canons in charge of the fabric ('‘canonigos fabriqueros ”) presented in writing their reasons for not erecting it where pro- posed by the Chapter — at the south end of the refectory. They said that the works of the church itself ought first of all to be gone on with, and that the proposed work would destroy a good and convenient refectory, and make it obscure and ridiculous : and it seems that their report had the effect of staying the work. In A.D. 1416 Guillermo Bofifiy, master of the works of the cathedral, proposed a plan for its completion by the erection of a nave ; and though the chevet had an aisle and chapels round it, he proposed to build his nave of the same width as the choir and its aisles, but as a single nave without aisles. This pro- position was deemed so hazardous, and created so great a discus- sion, that the Chapter, before deciding what plan should be adopted, called together a Junta of architects, and propounded to each of them separately certain questions, to each of which they all returned their answers upon oath. In the September fol- lowing, these answers were read before the Chapter by a notary, and it may be supposed carefully digested, for it was not until March 8th, 1417, that Guillermo Bofiiy, the master of the works, was called in and in his turn interrogated with the same questions. Immediately after this, on the 15th of the same month, at a Chapter-meeting presided over by the Bishop, it was decided to carry on the work as proposed, with a single nave. The story is so well worth telling in full, that I have given in the Appendix a translation of the entire document, which equals in interest any with which I am acquainted, bearing on the profession of architect in the middle ages.^ It is valuable also, incidentally, as giving us the names of the architects of several otlier buildings, most of those who were examined having described themselves in a formal style as masters of the works of some particular church or churches. It is difficult to say exactly when the nave was completed, but the great south door was not executed until a.d. 1458, and the key-stone of the last division of the vault seems to have been placed in the time of Bishop Benito, so late as circa 1579.^ In a.d. 1581 the same bishop laid the first 1 The original is in the Liber Notu- appendix to vol. xii. of the Viage Lit. a larum. It is reprinted in Espafia Sa- las Iglesias de Espaua, prints it in the grada, vol. xlv., appendix, pp. 227 to original Catalan dialect. 244. Cean Bermudez has again reprinted ^ This key- stone has a sculpture of it in Arq. de Espafia, vol. i. pp. 261 San Benito. — Espaua Sagrada, vol. xliv. to 27.5 ; and D. J. Villanueva in the p. 420. Chap. XV. GERONA; CATHEDRAL. 321 stone of the bell-tower, and in 1607 the west front and tlie great flight of steps leading up to it seem to have been commenced. We have thus the story of the periods at which the church was founded, altered, and enlarged very fully told, and it now only remains to apply it to Avhat is still to be seen in the existing building. A reference to my ground-plan ^ Avill show that the church remains very much in the state which the documentary evidence describes. The choir has nine chapels round its chevet, as described, and has lofty arches, a series of very small openings in lieu of triforium, and a clerestory of two-light windows, of decidedly late but still good Middle-pointed character. The columns, in the usual Catalan fashion of tins age, are clusters of rather reedy mouldings, with no proper division or subordination of parts, and consequently of poor effect, and there is no division by way of stringcourses above or below the triforium. On the exterior the east end is not seen to much advantage, as it is built into and against a steep hill, so that at a distance of a few feet only the eye is on a level with the top of the walls of the chapels round the apse. The roofs, too, have all been mo- dernized and lowered. The only peculiarities here are a series of trefoiled openings, just under the eaves of the roof, into the space over the vaulting, and perhaps devised for the purpose of ventilation : and the gurgoyles projecting from the buttresses, which are carved and moulded stones finished at the end with an octagonal capital, through the bottom of which the water falls, and which almost looks as if it were meant for the stone head of a metal down-pipe. When the choir was built, some considerable portions of the church consecrated in a.d. 1038 were left standing. The nave was probably entirely of this age ; and a portion of what was no doubt one of the original towers still remains on the north side, between the cloister and the nave. This tower has pilasters at the angles and in the centre, and is divided into equal stages in height by horizontal corbel-tables. An apse of the same age remains on the east side of what seems to have been the soutli transept of the early church : and from its position we may, I think, assume with safety that the church was then finished with three or five apses at the east, very much as in the church of San Pedro, close by, which I shall have presently to describe. In addition to these early remains there is also a magnificent and all but unaltered 1 Plate XVm. V 322 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XV. cloister. I cannot find any certain evidence of its exact date, though it seems to have existed inA.D. 1117, when an act of the Bishop Raymond Berenger was issued in the cloister of the cathedral.” ^ The character of the work confirms, I think, this date. The plan is very peculiar, forming a very irregular trapezium, no two of the sides being equal in length. It has on all four sides severely simple round arches carried on coupled shafts : these are of marble, and set as much as 20 inches apart, so as to enable tliem to carry a wall 3 feet 1 J inches thick. This thickness of wall was quite necessary, as tlie cloister is all roofed with stone, the section of the vaults on the east, west, and south sides being half of a barrel, and on the north a complete barrel vault. The detail of the capitals is of the extremely elaborate and delicate imitation of classical carving, so frequently seen tliroughout the south of France. The abaci are in one stone, but the bases of the shafts are separate and rest upon a low dwarf- wall, and square piers are carried up at intervals to strengthen the arcade. The columns have a very slight entasis. This cloister deserves careful study, as it seems to show one of the main branches of the stream by which Romanesque art was introduced into Spain. It is imiDossible not to recognize the extreme similarity between such work as we see here, and that which we see in the cloister at Fine, near Perpiiian, and, to go still farther afield, at S. Trophime at Arles. And if any Spanish readers of these pages object to my assumption that the stream flowed from France westward, they must prove the exact converse, and assume that this Romanesque work was developed from Roman work in Spain, and thence spread to Fine and Arles, a position which none, I suppose, will be bold enough to take. The nave remains to be described ; and to do this well and adequately, it is necessary to use, not indeed many, but certainly strong, words. Guillermo Bofiiy, master of the works, might well cling fondly to his grand scheme, for his proposal was not less, I believe, than the erection of the widest pointed vault in Christendom. Such a scheme might be expected to meet then in Spain, as it most certainly would now in this country,^ a good deal of criticism, and many objections, on the score of its imprac- EspaFia Sagrada, xliii. p. 200, and eight feet in dear span, and this was Appendix, p. 4-53. objected to by a really accomplished “ In my first design for the Crimean critic as too bold and hazardous an ex- Memorial church which I am building periment ! What would have been at Constantinople, I had a vault thirty- said then of a vault twice as wide ? GERONA CATHEDRAL INTERIOR, LOOKIXG EAST Chap. XV. GEKONA ; CATIlEDliAL. 323 ticability ; and it is to tlie lionour of the Chapter that they liad the good sense to consult ex])erts and not amateurs as to the steps to be taken, and then, having satisfied themselves that their architect was competent to his work, that they left it entirely in his hands. The clear width of this nave is 73 feet, and its height is admirably proportioned to this vast dimension.^ It is only four bays in length ; each bay has chapels opening into it on either side, and filling up the space between the enormous buttresses, whose depth from the front of the groining shaft to their face is no less than 20 feet. Above the arches which open into the side chapels is a row of small cusped openings, corresponding with those which form the triforium of the choir ; and above these are lofty traceried clerestory windows. The groining-ribs are very large and well moulded. At the east end of the nave three arch es open into the choir and its aisles ; and above these are three circular windows, the largest of which has lost its tracery. And here it is that the magnificence of the scheme is most fully realized, A single nave and choir, all of the same enormous size, would liave been immeasurable by the eye, and would have been, to a great extent, thrown away ; here, however, the lofty choir and aisles, with their many subdivisions, give an extraordinary impression of size to the vast vault of the nave, and make it look even larger than it really is. In short, had this nave been longer by one bay, I believe that scarcely any interior in Europe could have surpassed it in effect. Unfortunately, as is so often the case among those who possess the most precious works of art, there is now but little feeling in Gerona for the treasure it possesses in this wondrous nave, for the stalls and Coro have been moved down from their proper place into the middle of its length, where they are shut in and surrounded by a high blank screen, painted in the vulgarest ^ I subjoin the dimensions of some of the largest French and other churches, in order that the dimensions of the nave of Gerona may be really appreciated. Albi 58 feet between the walls. Toulouse Cathedral .. .. 63 do. S. Jean Perpinan .. .. 60 do. Amiens 49 centre to centre of column of nave. Paris 48 do. Bourges 49 do. Chartres 50 do. Cologne 44 do. Karbonne 54 do. Canterbury 43 do, do. of choii’. York 52 do. do. of nave. Westminster Abbey .. .. 38 do. Y 2 324 GOTHIC AUCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. XV. imitation of Gothic traceries, to the utter ruin, of course, of the whole internal perspective. It would be a grand and simple work of restoration to give up here, for once, the Spanish usage, and to restore tlie stalls to the proper choir. I say restore,” because it is pretty clear that they could not have been in the nave when the^/ were first made, inasmuch as this was in A.D. 1351, sixty-six years before its commencement. A deed still remains in the archives of the cathedral, by which we ascer- tain this fact, for by it a sculptor from Barcelona agreed, on June 7th, 1351, to make the stalls at the rate of 45 libras of Barcelona for each.^ The detail of some parts of the woodwork is exceedingly good, and evidently of the middle of the fourteenth century, so that it is clear tliey are the very stalls referred to in the agreement. There is ample length in the proper choir for them, and they must have been moved into the nave in unwise obedience to the common modern Spanish arrangement, which was certainly never more entirely unfortunate and destructive of effect than it is here. It will be seen, by reference to the Appendix, that though the architects consulted were fairly unanimous as to the possibility of building the single nave, they were by no means so in their recommendation of it as the best plan. The general feeling seems to have been decidedly adverse to it ; and we may assume that the Chapter decided on it partly because it was already commenced, and partly because it promised to be a cheaper plan than the other. There seems also to have been great dread on the part of the Chapter of interfering in any way with the wall which now forms the east end of the nave, for fear lest, when it was cut into for the introduction of the respond of the nave arcade, the whole should give way. Paschasius de Xulbe, one of the architects questioned, gives the valuable answer, that if the nave is of triple division in width, the groining of tlie choir must be raised in order that it may correspond in its measurements to its third ; from which it is pretty clear that he spoke of a then recognized system of pro})ortioniug the height to the width of a building. Guillermo Sagrera, master of the works at St. John Per- pinan, tells us, in his answer, that the choir was originally built with the intention of having a single nave; and this will account for the otherwise unintelligible finish of its western wall, whicli it is clear, from the tenour of all the answers, was ^ Liber Notularuin, fol, bl. Chap. XV. GEROxNA : CATHEDRAL. 253 not prepared for any arclies in the nave. I am not certain indeed wliether we are not to assume, in reading the questions asked by the Chapter, tliat the Eomanesque nave was itself of the same plan and dimensions ; and the vast width of the old nave of Toulouse Cathedral — sixty-three feet — affords an example, at no great distance from Gerona, of the fact that architects, even so early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, were not afraid to propose and execute works on so unusual a scale. I will not quote farther from the answers of the architects, because they well deserve to be read in detail ; but it is a satis- faction to be able to say that their conviction of the practica- bility of the work has been amply justified, inasmuch as, even to the present day, there is scarcely a sign of a settlement or crack throughout the entire building. It is difficult to express a positive opinion as to the original intention of the architect in regard to the design and finish of the exterior of this part of the church. The gable walls have been altered, the roofs renewed, and the original termination of the buttresses destroyed. At no time however, I think, can it have looked well. The position is charming, on the edge of a steep, rocky hill falling down to the river, and girt on its north side by the old many-towered city wall ; yet with all these advantages it is now a decidedly ugly work, and the nave looks bald, and large out of all proportion to the subdivided, lower, and over-delicately-treated choir. On the west side the whole character of the church is Pagan ; ^ and I well remember the astonishment with which, when I had climbed the long flight of broad steps which leads to the western door, I looked down the stupendous interior, for which I had been so little prepared ! The effect is not a little enhanced by the dark colour of the stone, which has never been polluted by whitewash ; but there are some defects. The want of length has already been noticed ; the entire absence of stringcourses inside is not pleasant ; and the lowering of the arches into the chapels in the second bay from the west wall, where there are three in place of the two in each of the other bays, breaks the main lines of the design very awk- wardly. The mouldings too, as might be expected in work of so late a date, are nowhere very first-rate, though they certainly retain generally the character of late fourteenth-century worlv. The doorway on the south side of the nave is remarkable in ^ The church was originally intended west tower has been built up in Pagan to have octagonal towers at the angles style, and the north-west has never of the west front. Of these the south- been built. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XV. 32G one respect. It lias in its jambs a series of statues of the Apostles, executed in terra-cotta ; and the agreement for their execution, made, in a.d. 1458, with the artist Berenguer Cervia, binds him to execute tliem for six hundred florins, and “ of the same earth as the statue of 8ta. Eulalia and the cross of tlie new doorway at Barcelona.” ^ This doorway is very large, but bald and poor in detail ; the statues to which the contract refers still remain, and are in good preseiwation. There is nothing more specially worth noticing in the fabric ; but fortunately the choir still retains precious relics in the Ee- tablo behind, and the baldachin above, the high-altar. There are also said to be some frontals of the altar still preserved, which are of silver, and Avhich were originally adorned Avith precious stones, and AAuth an inscription Avhich proves them to have been made before the consecration of the church, in a.d. 1038. Un- fortunately they Avere not in their place Avhen I Avas at Gerona, and so I missed seeing them.^ The Eetablo is of Avood entirely covered Avith silver plates, and divided vertically into three series of niches and canopies ; each division has a subject, and a good deal of enamelling is introduced in various parts of the canopies and grounds of the panels. Each panel has a cinquefoiled arch Avith a crocheted gablet and pinnacles on either side. The straight line of the top is broken by three niches, Avhich rise in the centre and at either end. In the centre is the Blessed Virgin AAuth our Lord ; on the right, San Narcisso ; and on the left, San Feliu. The three tiers of subjects contain (a) figures of saints, (b) subjects from the life of the Blessed Virgin, and (c) subjects from tlie life of our Lord. A monument in one of the chapels gives some account of this precious Avork ; for though it is called a ciborium, it is also s]Aoken of as being of silver, Avhich, I believe, the actual ciborium is not.^ The date of this monu- 1 Espaua Sagrada, vol. xlv. p. 8. Vil- lanueva, Viage Lit., xii. 175, gives the name of this artist as Antonio Claperos “ obrer de ymagens.” 2 See the description of this silver frontal in Espaua Sagrada, vol. xlv. p. 8. The Historia de S. Narciso y de Gerona, by P. M. Roig y Yalpi, is quoted as authority for the statements given. See also the act of consecration of the cathe- dral in A.D. 1038 (Espaua Sagrada, xliii. p. 437), in which among the list of signatures at the end occurs the following passage: — S. Errnessendis comitissae quae eadem die ad honorem Dei et Matris Ecclesiae trescentas auri contulit uncias ad auream construendam tabulam;” and in a necrologium, from 1102 to 1313, occur the following entries: ‘^1254. Pridie Kalendas Feb- ruarii obiit Guillelmus de Terradis, sacrista major, qui tabulam argenteam altari Beatee Mariae Cathedralis fieri fecit.” “ 1229. Kalendis Martii obiit Ermesendis Comitissa quae hanc sedem ditavit et tabulam auream ac crucem Deo et Beatao Mariae obtulit, et eccle- siani multis ornamentis ornavit.” ^ “Ilic jacet Amaldus de Solerio, Archi- diaconus Bisalduenensis qui etiam suis Chap. XV. GERONA : CATHEDRAL. 827 ment is 1362; but in the ‘Liber Notularum’ for a.d. 1320, 21, and 22, it seems that the Chapter devoted 3000 libras for the Altar, Gerona. reparation of the Retablo, though it was not till a.d. 1346 that the work was finished, and the altar finally fixed in its present position.^ The whole of the work is tlierefore before this date ; and probably the Ketablo and the baldachin date from the period between the two dates last given, viz. a.d. 1320 and a.d. 1348. The baldachin is, like the Eetablo, of wood covered with thin plates of metal. It stands upon four shafts, the lower portions of which are of dark marble resting on the moulded footpace round the altar. These four shafts have capitals and bands, the latter being set round with enamelled coats-of-arms. The canopy is a sort of very fiat quadripartite vault covered with small figures ; but on both my visits to Gerona it has been so dark in the choir as to render it impossible to make out the subjects. The central subject seems to be the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, and in the eastern division is a sitting figure of expensis propriis fecit fieri cimborium autem anno Dni. M.CCCXX. sexto, viii. sen coopertam argenteam super altaro Kal. August!.” major! ecclesise Gerundeusis. Obiit ^ See note p. 319. 328 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XV. our Lord with saints on either side. In order to show the figures on the roof of the baldachin as much as possible, the two eastern columns are much lower than the western, the whole roof having thus a slope up towards the west. A singular arrangement was contrived behind tlie altar — a white marble seat for the bishop raised by several steps on either side to the level of the altar, and placed under the central arch of the apse. Here, when the bishop celebrated pontifically, he sat till the oblation, and returned to it again to give the benediction to the people.^ The church is full of otiier objects of interest. Against the north wall is a very pretty example of a wheel of bells : this is all of wood, corbelled out from the wall, and is rung with a noisy jingle of silver bells at the elevation of the Host. Near it is a doorway leading into the sacristy, I think, which is very inge- niously converted into a mo- nument. It has a square lintel and a pointed arch above : bold corbels on either side carry a high tomb, the base of which is just over the lintel ; this is arcaded at the side and ends, and on its sloping top is a figure of a knight. The favourite type of monument in this part of Spain is gene- rally a coped tomb carried on corbels, which are usually lions or other beasts : there are good examples of this kind both in the church and cloister ; and in the latter there is also preserved a great wooden cross, which looks as though it had originally decorated a rood-loft. The windows have a good deal of very late stained-glass, which consists generally of single figures under canopies. I have already mentioned the fine early wood-work in the Coro. In the fifteenth century tins was altered and added to : and a seat was then made for the bishop in the centre of the western side of the Coro, which has enormous pieces of carved open- work on either side executed with uncommon vigour and skill. These, again, Avere added to afterwards by a Kenaissance artist. See Marfcene de Antiq. Eccl, Rit., lib. i. cap. iv. art. 3. Chap. XV. GERONA : SAN PEDRO. 329 so that it is now necessary to discriminate carefully between the work of various ages. If, when the cathedral has been thoroughly studied, one goes out through the cloister, an external door at its north-western angle leads out to the top of a steep path from Avhich an extremely picturesque view is obtained. The old town Avails girt tlie cathedral on the north side ; but in the eleventh century it Avas thought Avell to add to them, and a second wall descends, crosses the valley beloAV, and rises against the opposite hill in a very picturesque fashion. This Avail has the passage-Avay perfect all round, and occasional circular toAvers project from it. The eye is at once caught in looking at this vicAV by a fine Roman- esque church Avith a half-ruined cloister and lofty octagonal steeple, Avhicli seems to be absolutely built across and through the Avails. This is the Benedictine church of San Pedro de los Galligans ; ^ and a closer inspection sIioavs that what at first looks like the round-tower of the toAvn Avails, against Avhich the church has been built, is really the very apse of the church, Avhich Avhen the new Avails were built Avas raised and converted above into a purely military Avork. The earliest reference to this church that I have found is a statement that it existed in the tenth century, and that, in A.D. 1117, the Count Ramon of Barcelona gave it to the Benedictine convent of Sta. Maria de la Crassa, in the bishopric of Carcassonne, of Avhich his brother Avas Abbat ; and I think Ave may safely assume that the whole of the existing church Avas built Avithin a short time of its transfer from the hands of the Secular to those of the Regular Clergy. The church^ consists of a nave and aisles of four bays, the arches being very rude, and the j)iers plain and square. There are north and south transepts, the former having one, and the latter tAVO eastern apsidal chapels ; and the choir is also finished AAdth an apse. There is another apse at the north end of the north transept. The nave is roofed Avith a round Avaggon-Amult Avith plain cross-ribs carried on engaged shafts ; and there is a clerestory of single-light Avindows Avhich, on the inside, break up partly into the vault of the roof. The aisles are roofed Avith half- waggon or quadrant vaults, and the apses Avith semi-domes. The octagonal steeple is built above the north transept, and has in the eastern Avail of its first stage tAvo apsidal recesses, Avhich seem to have been intended for altars, and are roofed Avith semi- ^ ^‘Galligans; in the old Latin, Galli into the Qua.” — Don J. Villanueva, Cantio. The name is taken from a little Viage Lit., &c., xiv. 14G. stream which washes its walls and falls - See ground-plan on Plate XVIII. 3.30 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XV. domes. The detail ot some of the work at the east end is of an nnusiial kind : it is huilt in stone and black volcanic scoriae, and its rude character is evidence of its early date. Any one who is acquainted with the noble church at Elne, near Perpinan, will re- member the similar use of volcanic scoriae there, and will be led to class the two monuments together as works of the same hand and period. The view of the exterior of the church from the north- west is very striking. There is a fine western door with a good deal of carving very delicately and elaborately wrought, one of the capitals having a very careful imitation of a fern-leaf on it ; above the doorway a horizontal cornice is carried all across the front, and over this is a fine rose window. The side walls are finished with dentil-courses ; and the clerestory — which is carried up very high above the springing of the vault inside — is finished with an eaves-arcading also. There were no windows in the side walls of the aisle ; and the clerestory windows, and a window at the west end of the north aisle, have bold splays on the outside as well as inside. Tdie steeple has been much altered ; but the original design of the two upper (and octagonal) stages seems to have had a two-light window with a bold central shaft, angle-pilasters, and stringcourses, with shallow arcading below them. On the south side are the cloisters. They are locked up and in ruins ; and though I tried two or three times, I was never able to gain admission to them ; but I saw them from the hill above, and they looked at this distance as if they were designed very much after the pattern of those attached to the cathedral. The arches are round, and carried on coupled detached shafts, with piers in the centre of each side of the cloister. The roof seems to have been a barrel- vault, but great part of it has now fallen in. All this havoc and ruin is owing, like so much that one sees in Spain, to the action of the Fi encli troops during the Peninsular war.^ The whole character of this church is very interesting. The west front reminded me much of the best Italian Pomanesque ; and the rude simplicity of the interior — so similar in its mode of construction to the great church at Santiago in the opposite corner of the Peninsula — suggests the probability of its being one of the earliest examples of which Spain can boast. ^ Don J. Villanueva, Viage Literario, tury, though I notice that some of the xiv. p. 150, asserts that these cloisters inscriptions which he gives from them are not earlier than the fourteenth cen- are of earlier date. EXTERIOR FROM THE NORTH-WEST Chap. XV. GEKONA : CIIUKCHES. Close to San Pedro, to the north-west, stands another church, which, though it is very small, is fully as curious. Tliis is now desecrated and converted into workshops and dwelling-liouses. It is transverse tilapsal in plan (i. e., the transepts and the chancel are all finished with apses). The Crossing is surmounted by a low tower or lantern, square below, but octagonal above, and with some remains of an apparently old tiled roof. Tiie transepts are ceiled with semi-domes, and tlie chancel was simi- larly covered, but its vault has now been removed in order to facilitate access to the steeple, in which a peasant and his family live. Tlie nave is roofed with a waggon-vault, at the springing of which from the wall is a small moulding ; and its walls are supported by buttresses, which do not seem to be earlier than the thirteenth century, though the rest of the church must date no doubt from the early part of the twelfth. The exterior is very plain ; but the chancel apse is divided by pilasters which run up to and finish in a corbel-table at the eaves ; and the tower has also an eaves’ corbel-table. All the dimensions of this church are very small, but it is interesting, as being almost the only example I have seen in Spain of a transverse triapsal plan ; and the central lantern is one of tlie earliest examples of what became in later days one of the most common features of Spanish buildings.’ We came down the hill north of the cathedral to see this church and San Pedro ; and if we retrace our steps, and go out by the western door on to the platform at the top of the vast flight of steps wliich leads up to the cathedral, we shall be at once struck by the beautiful, though truncated, spire of San Peliu, which stands below, and to the west of the cathedral. Indeed, in nearly all views of the old city, this steeple claims the first place in our regard ; and perhaps it is seen best of all in crossing the ^ Parcerisa describes this little church as that of S. Daniel, but I was unable on the spot to learn its dedication. I believe, however, that its dedication is to S. Xicolas, and that S, Daniel is a larger church of later date. In Espafia Sagrada, xlv. p. 185 et seq., some account is given of the foundation of S. Daniel. This took place in 1017, Bishop Roger having sold the church to Count Ramon, and Ermesendis his wife, for 100 ounces of gold, which were to be spent on the fabric of the cathedral. The Countess, after the death of the Count, endowed the church, and the deed still preserved recounts how that “ Ego Ermesendis inchoavi praedictam ecclesiam edificare et Deo auxiliante volo perficere.” An ai'chitectural descrip- tion of the present church is given by Villanueva, ViageLiterario, xiv. 158, from which it seems that it is a Greek cross in plan, and mainly of tlie fourteenth century, with an altar in a crypt below the high altar, constructed in 1343 : and if this account is correct, this small twelfth-century church cannot be S. Daniel. 382 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE TH SPAIN. Chap. XY. river at the other end of the town, where it stands at the end of the vista np the stream, which is edged on either side by the backs of tlie tall, picturesque, and crowded lionses. San Feliu^ is one of the oldest collegiate foundations in the diocese of Gerona ; and when, in the eighth century, the Moors converted the cathedral into a mosque, here it was that the Christian rites were celebrated. No doubt, therefore, a church stood here long before the first recorded notices of the fabric, for these do not occur before the early part of the fourteenth century, save such indications of work in progress as the be- quest of ten solidos to the work by Bishop William in a.d. 1245, and such evidence of its damage or destruction as is the fact that the French, attackingthe city in a.d. 1285, obtained posses- sion of the church and did it much damage. In a.d. 1313, when the Chapter of the cathedral were obtaining royal concessions towards the work of their own church, they granted an exemption to San Feliu, giving to its clergy the first-fruits of their benefices to spend on the work of their own church.^ In a.d. 1318 there is evidence that the choir was completed, but other works were going on during the rest of the century. In a.d. 1340 the Chapter determined to erect cloisters, under the direction of an architect named Sancii, and bought a site for them to the north of the church; and the operarius or canon in charge of the work seems to have raised alms for them even so far off as at Valencia and in the Balearic Isles. The work was begun in a.d. 1357 and finished in 1308, in which year the Chapter entered into a contract^ with 1 S. Felix. 2 Espana Sagrada, xlv. p. 41. 3 Extract from the book entitled “ Obra = Recepte et Expense, ab anno 1365:” It.: Solvi disc®. R. Egidii Not. Gerunde v die Septembris, anno M.ccc.nx.viii., pro instrumento facto inter Capitulnm hujus Eccle. et P. Za- coma magistrum operis Cloquerii noviter incepti et est certum quod in isto in- strumento continentur in efectu ista. — P®. Quod ille proficue procuret ipsum opus dictum evitando expensas inor- dinatas quantum in ipso fuerit, et hoc juravit. It.: Quod aliud opus accipere non valeat sine licencia operarii. It. : Quod quotiescumque fuerit in ipso opere factus apparatus oi^erandi quod vocatus quocumque opere diniisso operetur in nostro opere : in premissis fuit exceptum opus Pontis majoris in quo jam prius extitit obligatus et convenit quando ipso fuerit in ipso opere Pontis vel in alio quod una hora diei sine lexiare — videat illos qui operabuntur vel parabunt lapides desbrocar in ijDso oj)ere. Et est sibi concessum dare pro qualibet die faoner quod fuerit in opere predicto hit SS. et uni ejus famulo i vel ii secundum ministeria ipsorum.— It. : Ulterius am- matim dare sibi de gratia cxl SS. {suel- dos), segons lo temps empero que ob- raran. Car perlo temps que no obraran en lo Cloquer ne en padrera no deu res pendrer mes deu esser dedecet dels dets CXL SS. pro rata temporis, et quanti- tatis.” — Espana Sagrada, App., xlv. p. 248. See Spanish translation do,. Chap. XV. GERONA: CHURCH OF S. FELIU. yoo Ooo an architect, one Pedro Zacoma, for the erection of the campa- nile. In A.D. 13G3, however, it was deemed necessary, on account of the position of the church just outside the old walls, and on the north of the town, that it should be fortified ; and to ac- complish this work, and others of the same kind ordered in A.D. 1374 and 1385, the cloisters so recently built were destroyed. The steeple is said to have been finished in 1392,^ Pedro Zacoma having acted as architect as late as a.d. 1376. The church bears evident marks of many alterations and additions. It consists of nave and aisles, transepts, central apse, and two apsidal chapels on the east side of the south, and one on the east of the north transept. The piers are plain square masses of masonry, and the main arches are semi-circular, unmoulded, and springing from a very plain abacus. There is a kind of triforium, an arcade of three divisions in each bay, and a fair pointed vault of ten bays — two to each bay of the nave arcade — carried on groining-shafts corbelled out from the wall. The north transept retains a waggon-vault, the axis of which is north and south, whilst the south transept has two bays of cross vaulting. The eastern apse is circular in plan, but divided into seven groining bays, and lighted by three windows of three lights. The apses of the south tran- sept are also circular, lighted by lancets, and groined with semi-domes, though the arches into the transept are pointed. The general character of the later part of this church is, I should say, that of late first-pointed work; yet it is pretty clear that it is almost all a work of the fourteenth century. There is a fine fourteenth-century south porch, with some good arcading in its side walls, in which the tracery is all executed with soffeit-cusping. Of the western steeple I need not say very much, as my sketch shows the nature of its design, and the evidence as to its date is evidently very accurate. The cliaracter of the architec- p. 73. In an old Kalendar, of Ge- rona, printed in Espaiia Sagrada, xliv. p. 399, is the following paragraph, which refers to the works of Pedro Zacoma: — ‘An. 1368 fuit inceptus lo Pont non de meiise Madii; a 9 Aug. ejusdem anni fuit inceptus lo Cloquer de Sant Feliu. 1 A memorandum in the book of the ‘Ohm,' under date 1385, describes the various works in the fortification then in progress, and mentions “P. Comas, maestro mayor,” Espaua Sagrada, xlv. p. 45. Parcerisa, Recuerdos y Bellezas de Espaha, Cataluua, says that the spire was finished in 1581. But I think he has been misled by some rejiairs of the steeple rendered necessai’y after the destruction of the upper part of the spire in this year by lightning, and mentioned in the Actas Capitulares. 334 GOTHIC AHCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XY. tural detail is quite that of flamboyant-work, and tlie outline is bold, original, and good. It is seldom indeed that the junction of the tower and spire is more happily managed than it is here ; and before the destruc- tion of the upper part of the spire, the whole effect must have been singularly graceful. This is the more remarkable in a country where a genuine spire is so rare a feature ; but the architect was fortunate in following the customs of the country when he made his steeple octagonal in plan, for it is extremely difficult — one may almost say impossible — to put a spire upon an octagonal tower the outline of which shall not be graceful. In an arch against the wall of this tower is a tomb resting on lions jutting out from the wall, and with the date 1387 in the inscription. It is a good example of the late date to which this early- looking type of monument con- tinued to be used in Spain. This church has a rather elaborate wooden Eetablo, carved and gilt with subjects painted on its panels. The pulpit is also old, and has rich, late flamboyant tracery panels : it is placed against a pier on the south side of the nave, and a second modern pulpit faces it on the north. The old metal screen also remains : it is rather rude, and has prickets for candles along it, each of which has a sort of frame which looks as though it were meant to hold a glass. There are also a few remains of old domestic buildings. A house near the cathedral has the usual Catalan features of trefoiled ajimez windows, and a doorway with a prodigiously deep archivolt. Another house near San Feliu has a broad window with a square-headed opening ; the head is an ogee arch, with tracery in the tympanum, and over all is a square-headed label- moulding. It is not an elegant window, yet it has some value Chap. XV. CHURCH AT GRANOLLEPtS. 335 as ail example of an opening as large as we usually adopt now-a~ clays, and with a square head. The most interesting house, however, is the Fonda de la Estrella, the principal inn in the town. The windows here are capital examples of shafted win- dows of the end of the twelfth century. The shafts are very delicate (4j inches by 6 ft. 1 inch) ; the capitals are well carved with men and animals, and the carved abacus is carried from window to window. The windows are of three lights, and with only a narrow space of wall between them. The back of this house is less altered than the front : on the ground it has an arcade of four round arches, on the first floor five windows of the same sort as these just described, but simpler, and above this a series of pilasters, which now carry the roof. There must have been arclies I think to this open upper stage. There is another house in the same street, and just opposite the inn, of rather later date, but also with early ajimez win- dows, and this had also an open stage below the roof. The whole city looks picturesque and old, and I daresay a more careful search than I had time for would be rewarded with further discoveries of old remains. Most of the houses are arcaded below, and their lower stories are groined, the cells of the vaults being filled in with bricks laid in herring-bone patterns. From Gerona to Barcelona there are two railways branching from the station at Empalme. That which follows the coast passes by several small towns facing the sea, in which there are many remains of old walls and castles, and not a few ajimez windows. It is, in short, a charming ride in every way. The other line going inland also passes a very striking country, and some old towns. Hostalrich is a very picturesque old walled town, with its walls and towers all fairly perfect. Fornelles has a good church, with a low crocheted spire on an octagonal steeple, brought to a square just below the belfry-stage. Granollers has a rather good fourteenth-century church, of the same general character as the Barcelona churches of the same date. It has a nave of five bays, and an apse of seven sides, with a tower at the north-west angle. Some trace of an earlier church remains in a round-arched western door. The Avestern bay is occupied by a late fifteenth-century groined gallery carried on an elliptic arch, with a parapet pierced with richly-cusped circles. The staircase to this gallery is in a sort of aisle or side chapel, and has an extremely well managed iron hand-railing, supported by occasional uprights, and quite worthy of imitation. The towei- 336 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XV. has a delicate newel staircase in its angle : the newel has a spiral moulding, and the under side of the steps is very care- fully wrouglit. The upper part of the steeple is like those of Barcelona cathedral — an irregular octagon, and has a traceried parapet and low spire. There is a very rich late wooden pulpit, corbelled out from the wall, through which a door is pierced, and some rich woodwork is placed at the head of the steps lead- ing to it. The apse has two-light and single-light windows in the alternate sides, and the nave the latter only. Small chapels are formed between the buttresses, and these are also lighted with small windows. On the whole this church has a good many features of interest, and its very considerable height gives it greater dignity than our own churches of the same class have. On the road from Gerona into France I have seen only one or two churches. At Figueras the cathedral has a steeple extremely similar to that just described at Granollers, and evi- dently of the same date. The sides of the octagon are not equal, and bells are hung in the windows, and one in an arched frame at the top. This tower is on the north side of the nave, which has four bays, transe]3ts, and a Eenaissance central dome covered witli glazed tiles. The fabric of the nave seems to be of the thirteenth century, having lancet windows and buttresses of great projection rather well designed, chapels occupying the space between them. The west door label runs up to, and is terminated by, a long cross. At la Junquera, between Figueras and the frontier, the little Parroquia has the date of a.d. 1413 on the door. Its only feature of interest is the tower, which has a staircase carried on arches thrown from side to side of the tower, and having a square opening or well-hole in the centre. The same kind of staircase has been described in the church of San Eoman at Toledo. From hence a pleasant road among the mountains, beauti- fully clothed here with cork-trees, and disclosing charming views at every turn, leads by the frontier fortress of Bellegarde, over the Col de Pertiis, and so on down the eastern side of the Pyrenees to Perpinan. Here, if we look only at the map of modern France, my notes ought to stop. But Perpinan was of old a Spanish city, and its buildings are so thoroughly Spanish in their character that I may venture to say a very few words about them.^ 1 Roussillon belonged to the Kings by Louis XI. in 1474, restored to Spain, of Aragon from a.u. 1178. Perpinan and finally taken by the French in a.d. was taken, after a vigorous resistance, 1842. Chap. XV. PEKPINAN — ELNE. 837 The church of San Juan is of very remarkable dimensions. The clear width of the nave is sixty feet, but in the easternmost bay this is gathered in to fifty-four feet, which is the diameter of the seven-sided apse. Guillermo Sagrera, master of the works of this cathedral, was one of the architects summoned to advise about the erection of the nave at Gerona, and I think there can be but little doubt that the plan of this church was his handiwork, and that it was erected, therefore, at the beginning of the fifteenth century. It will be seen that he was one of the architects who spoke most strongly in favour of the erection of a broad un- broken nave. The vault he erected here is of brick with stone ribs, and the brickwork is rather rough, with very wide mortar joints, and looks as if from the first it were intended to plaster and paint it. The roofs of the chapels which are built between the large buttresses have flat gables north and south, and the same arrangement is carried round the apse. The most striking feature in this cathedral is that very rare thing — a very fine media3val organ. It is corbelled out from the north wall of the nave, and is of great size and height. The pipes are arranged in traceried compartments at five different levels. This compli- cates the machinery for the supply of wind, but adds greatly to the picturesque character of the instrument. Originally this organ had great painted shutters, which are now nailed up against the wall close to the south porch. The width of its front is about twenty-five feet, its projection from the wall three feet six inches, and the organist sits in a gallery at its base.^ There are several good old houses here : but I must content myself with the mention of one only in the Kue de la Barre. Here we have the peculiarities of the Spanish houses, as they are seen along the coast from Gerona to Valencia, very decidedly developed : the windows are all ajimez, with the usual delicate trefoiled head to the lights, and slender shafts between them, and the arch-stones of the doorway are more than usually enormous, being little less than six feet in length. A drive of a few miles from Perpihan leads to the extremely interesting church at Elne, consecrated in a.d. 1058.“^ Here, as in San Pedro, Gerona, and to the east of it in the cathedral at Agde, there are occasional lines of black volcanic scoriae used in the Bomanesque steeple and west front, and with good effect. The nave of the church has a pointed barrel vault, and the aisles ^ An illustration of this organ is ^ Viage Literario a las Iglesias cle given in M. Viollet le Due’s Dictionary Espana, vol. xiv. p. 106 . of French Architecture. Z 338 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN kSPAIN. Chap. XV. lialf-barrel vaults, but all the cross arches are semi-circular. At the west end is a sort of thirteenth-century narthex, and the three apses at the east have semi-domes. On the north side of the cliurch is a noble cloister, planned just like that in the cathedral at Gerona with the most complete disregard to sym- metry. It is extremely similar to it also in general design : but it is very remarkable as having its east and north sides erected about the end of the thirteenth century in evident and very close imitation of the earlier work on the other two sides. The vault- ing throughout the cloister is of the later date, and raised con- siderably above the level of the old vault. The whole of this cloister is wrought in a veined white marble, and a door from it into the church is built in alternated courses of red and ^Yhite marble. On the whole S. Elne well deserves a visit, not only on ac- count of the extreme interest of its church and cloister, but, to the student of Spanish architecture, on account of the very important link which it supplies in the chain which connects the early Spanish with the early French buildings of the middle ages. The history of Cataluna shows how intimate was the con- nection of the people and towns on both sides of the moun- tains, and it is here and elsewhere in the south of France that we see the germ of almost all the medieeval Spanish art. .... ; Chap. XVT. MANRESA : RAIIA\'AY. 339 CHAPTER XYL MANRESA — tA]RTDA. The railway which connects Barcelona with Zaragoza enables the ecclesiologist to see some of the best buildings in this part of Spain Avith great ease. As far as Manresa its course is extremely picturesque, as it Avincls about among the Catalan hills, in sight, for a considerable part of the way, of that wonderful jagged mountain-range of Montserrat, Avhich, after much experi- ence of mountains, strikes me more each time that I see it as among the very noblest of rocks. I know not its height above the sea, but its vast precipitous mass, rising suddenly from among the ordinary features of a landscape, and entirely uncon- nected Avith any other mountain range, produces an impression of size which may j)ossibly be vastly in excess of the reality. Its sky-line is everyAvhere formed by grand pointed pinnacles, or aiguilles of rock, and the whole mass is of a pale grey colour which adds very much to its effect. The convent is a con- siderable distance beloAv the summit ; but as there appears, so far as I can learn, to be nothing left of any of its medimval buildings, I was obliged to deny myself the pleasure of the climb to the summit of the rock, Avhich a visit to the monastery Avould have excused, and in j:>art, indeed, entailed. To the north of the line of the raihvay the hills rise gradually almost to the dignity of mountains, and suggest a beautiful situation for that old episcopal city — Vique — Avhose fine cathedral seems to have been destroyed and rebuilt, but AAdiere there is still to be seen a very rich late middle-pointed cloister. Everywhere the richly- coloured soil teems with produce ; here Auneyards and there corn-fields, all of them divided by long parallel lines of olives and standard peaches ; Avhilst the deep river dells, clothed Avith cork-trees, stone pines, or underwood, add immensely to the interest of the road, Avhich constantly crosses them. Beyond Manresa the character of the country changes com- pletely ; and Avhen he has once reached the frontier of Aragon, the traveller has his only pleasure in the fine distant vieAA^s of the Pyrenees ; and if his journey be made in the spring — in the sight of a vast extent of corn-fields, stretching on all sides z 2 310 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XYI. far as the eye can see. In the summer nothing can be more saddening than the change which comes over this country ; the corn is all cut before the end of May, and then the universal light-brown colour of the soil makes the landscape all but in- tolerably tame and uninteresting. Two or three old buildings are seen from the railway. Be- tween Sardanola and Sabadell is a house with a tower, in which is a very good round-arched ajimez window. At Tarrasa the churches evidently deserve examination. There is one with a lofty central lantern, and of transverse triapsal plan, which seems to be entirely Bomanesque in character; and there another of the usual later Catalan type, seven bays in length, with an apse of five sides, a tower on the south side of the choir, and a large rose-window at the west end. Near the same town, to the north, is a Bomanesque village church with a lofty belfry, which, like that of the early church in the town itself, has belfry- windows of two lights, with a dividing shaft, and a low square spire-roof. A church of the same type is seen near Monistrol — the station for Montserrat, — and from this point there is nothing to be noticed until Manresa is reached, picturesquely situated on the steep hill above the river Gardener, with two or three churches and convents, and a great Collegiata — or colle- giate church — towering up imposingly above everything else. But if the situation of this church is noble, the building itself is even more so ; and having passed it in my first journey, I was so much struck by its size and character that I made a point of going again to the same district, in order to examine it at my leisure. The town is poor and decayed ; but I was there on a festa, and have seldom had a better opportunity of seeing the Catalan peasantry, who thronged the streets, the Plazas, and the churches, and made them lively with bright colours and noisy tongues. There was a church consecrated on the same site ill A.D. 1020, and it is of this probably that a fragment still remains on the north side. The rest has been destroyed, and Fr. J. Villanueva ^ says that the existing church was commenced in A.D. 1328, — a date which accords very well witli the detail of the earlier portion of the work, — but he does not give his authority for the statement. I have not been able to find any other evi- dence which would fix the date of the dedication or completion of the building; but as Arnaldo de Valleras, one of the archi- tects consulted in 1416 as to the design for Gerona cathedral, Viage Lit. a las Iglcsias de Espaua, vii. 179. J ,L Piftilis}ied loy Jolm M-urray ATbemarle S^'- 1865 Chap. XVI. MANRESA: THE COLLEGIATA. 341 speaks of himself as then engaged on the construction of the church of Manresa, there can be but little doubt that at this time the Collegiata was still unfinished, liaving, as the detail of the design suggests, been a long time in progress. It is of the common Catalan type of the fourteenth century, and tliough it is one of the most important examples of its class, it presents so few new or unusual features that it hardly seems to require a very lengthy description. Its design is in nearly all I’espects of the same kind as those of the Barcelonese churches of the same age ; but its plan ^ is very remarkable, as giving, perhaps, the widest span of nave anywhere to be seen in a church with aisles and a clerestory. Or perhaps I ouglit to limit myself to examples on the mainland, for at Palma in Mallorca the width of the nave of the cathedral seems to be even greater, and the plan is almost exactly the same. The scheme is very similar to that of Sta. IMariadel Mar, Barcelona, but the width of the nave here is con- siderably greater, and the general effect of the interior is even finer. The buttresses are necessarily of vast size, and are formed partly inside and partly outside the church. A lofty tower is erected over one of the bays of the north aisle, and the two nave columns which carry it are in consequence built of larger dimensions than any of the others. A fine Komanesque door- way still remains in the wall, just outside this tower, and leads now into the modern cloister court ; but the principal entrances to the church are by grand doorways of the same age as the church, whose jambs and arches have rich continuous mouldings. These doorways are opposite each other, and just to the west of the apse, a position of much importance in regard to the ritual arrangements of the church. There is also a western doorway, but this, together with the rest of the west front, has all been modernized, whilst the cloister and its chapels appear to be entirely modern. 4'he magnificent scale of the plan is perhaps hardly supported as it should be by the beauty of the design in detail. In its present state it is hardly fair to judge of the original effect of the exterior, but inside one is struck by the enormous width and height, and not at all by the beauty of the details. The columns are of vast height and size : but plain piers, with poor bases and capitals, and poverty-stricken arches, seem out of place in such a church, and, owing to the enormous size of the vault, the clerestory windows are bnt little seen in the general view of the interior. 1 See Plate XIX. 342 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. The columns are simple octagons in plan, and of great size : they have poor, shallow, carved capitals, which support the very thin-looking main arches, and the large moulded piers which carry the groining. This is quadripartite throughout, and has very bold ribs, with carved bosses at the meeting of the diagonal ribs. The window traceries throughout are of rich geometrical cha- racter, and savour rather of German influence than of French. Those in the aisles are generally of two lights, and in the cleres- tory of three and four lights — tlie window in the eastern bay of the apse being of four lights, wliilst those in the other bays are only of three. The whole roof of the aisles is paved with stone laid on the back of the vault, as at Toledo cathedral, with gutters fol- lowing the lines of the vaulting ribs, and the water is carried down into the pockets of the vaults, and thence through the but- tresses into gurgoyles. Over tliis roof — which seemed to me to be undoubtedly the old one — a modern wooden roof covered with pantiles has been erected, which blocks up all the lower part of the clerestory windows, and is carried in a very clumsy fashion on arches thrown across between the flying buttresses. The nave roof is now all covered with pantiles laid on the vault itself, so that from below the church has the effect, already noticed at Barcelona, of being roofless. This is certainly not the old arrangement, but whether of old there was any visible roof to any of these late Catalan churches I am wholly unable to say. The flying buttresses are double in height, the lower arches abutting against the wall a few feet above the sills of the cleres- tory windows, and the upper somewhat above their springing. It is possible that this upper flying buttress is an addition to the oi’iginal design, provided to meet some settlement in the fabric, for many of the buttresses have only the lower arch, which would hardly be the case if they had all been executed at the same time. The buttresses generally are finished with crocheted pediments, but there are now no traces to be seen of their pin- nacles, or of the 2;)arapets between them. A lofty octagonal staircase turret is carried up to the height of the clerestory against one of the outer angles of the aisle wall, and a passage- way from it to the clerestory roof is boldly carried upon an arch, which takes the place of a flying buttress. The stee[)le is lofty : it is entered by old doorways opening on to the paved roof of the aisles, and is groined both under and above the bells. An old newel staircase in one angle has been (lesti’oyed, and steps projecting from the side walls have been No. 4.3. Chap. XVf. MAXKESA: THE COLLEGIATA. 34P> ingeniously introduced instead. On the top of the tower a large bell is suspended from the intersection of four arched stone ribs ; these ribs rise about twenty-five feet from the roof, are about one foot six inches thick, and abut against piers or dwarf pin- nacles at the base, about four feet deep by one foot eleven inches thick. Two architects, said to be French — though their names seem to me to be those of Catalans — Juan Font and Giralt Can- tarell, are said to have worked at this steeple from 1572 to 1590,^ and no doubt it was this upper portion on which they wrought. Tlie sacristies on the south-east side of the apse are old, but not interesting. The only antiquities I saw in them were four fine processional staves, with tops of silver richl}^ wrought with tracery in the sides, and croeketed gables over the traceries. Behind the openings of tracery the plate is gilt, the rest being all silver. The arrangement of the interior of the church for service follows that usually seen in these enormously wide buildings. Within the apse the choir is formed by means of iron grilles^ leaving a passage some ten feet wide all round it, and under the choir is a crypt as at Barcelona cathedral, aj^proached in the same way, by a flight of steps from the nave. The Coro is placed, according to the common fashion, in the nave, occupying about two of its bays in length, and there is an equal space to the west of it, between its eastern screen and the steps to the Capilla mayor. The width of the Coro is much less than that of the nave, and its enclosing walls are mainly old. At first sight, therefore, it seems to be a good example of an early introduction of this common Spanish arrangement : but on closer view it appears to have been taken down and rebuilt, and may not, possibly, retain its old position. But, on the other hand, the two great doors in the side walls would never have been placed where they are if the Coro had occupied its usual English position to the west of the altar enclosure. The plan of Barcelona cathedral has just the same arrangement of great doorways north and south between the Coro and the altar, and there, beyond any doubt, the Coro is in its old place ; and seeing how close the points of similarity are in both churches, it must, I tliiid^, be assumed that even if this screen at Manresa has been rebuilt it still occupies its old place. It is a work of the fifteenth century, of stone, arcaded on either side of a central western door- way. The divisions of the arcade have figures painted within ^ Viage Lit. a las Iglesias de Espaua, vii. ISO. 344 GOTHIC AllCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XYI. them of the apostles and other saints. The stalls and fittings of the Coro are all of Eenaissance character. On either side of the altar there still remain three octagonal shafts with carved capitals, to which, no doubt, were originally hung the curtains or veils which protected the altar. They are of the same date as the church, and about ten feet six inches in lieight. The footpace is also old, and placed exactly in the centre of the apse. The richest treasure here is, however, still to be described. Among a number of altar-frontals, neither better nor worse than are usually seen, there is still preserved one which, after much study of embroidery in all parts of Europe, I may, I believe, safely pronounce to be the most beautiful work of its age. It is 10 feet long, by 2 feet lOf inches in height, divided into three compartments in width, the centre division having the Crucifixion, and the sides being- each subdivided into nine divisions, each containing a subject from the life of our Lord.^ An inscription at the lower edge of the frontal preserves the name of the artist to whom this great work is owing. It is in Lombardic capitals, and as follows : — GEKI: LAPi: eachamatore: mepecit: inflorentia. The work is all done on fine linen doubled. The faces, hands, and many other parts — as, e.g., the masonry of a wall — are drawn with brown ink on the linen, and very delicately shaded with a brush. The use of ink for the faces is very common in early embroidery, but I have never before seen work so elabo- rately finished with all the art of the painter. The faces are full of beauty and expression, and have much of the tender religious sentiment one sees in the work of Era Angelico. The drawing is extremely good, the horses like those Benozzo Gozzoli painted, and the men dressed in Florentine dresses of the early part of the fifteenth century. The subjects are full of intricacy. ^ The subjects are as follows: — 1 . The Marriage of the Blessed V irgin. 2. The Auuunciatioii. 3. The Salutation. 4. The Nativity. 5. The Adoration of the Magi. 6. The Flight into Egypt. 7. The Presentation in the Temple. 8. The Dispute with the Doctors. 9. The Money-changers driven out of the Temple. 10. The Crucifixion. 1 1. The Entry into Jerusalem. 1 2. The Last Supper. 13. The Agony in the Garden. 14. The Betrayal. 15. Our Lord before Pilate. 16. The Scourging. 17. Our Lord bearing His Cross. 18. The Resurrection. 19. The Descent into Hell. The subjects begin at the upper left- hand corner, and are continued from left to right, the subjects 1 to 9 being on tlie left, and 11 to 1 9 on the right of the Crucifixion. Chap. XVI. MANRESA : THE COLLEGIATA. 345 the Crucifixion having the wliole subject, with the crucifixion of the thieves, and all the crowd of figures so often rej)resented. The work is marvellously delicate — so much so that, passing the hand over it, it is difficult to tell exactly when it ends and the painting begins. The colours are generally very fresh and beautiful ; but the gold backgrounds being very lightly stitched down are a good deal frayed. There are borders be- tween and around all the subjects. Such a piece of embroidery makes one almost despair. English ladies who devotedly apply themselves to this kind of work have as yet no conception of the delicacy of the earlier works, and reproduce only too often the coarse patterns of the latest English school.^ In the choir-aisle is a wheel of bells in its old case, and under the organ is the favourite Catalan device of a Saracen’s head. A picturesque efiect was produced in the church here by the large white flannel hoods which all the women wore at mass. The church was crowded with people, and these white hoods contrasted well witli the many-coloured bags or sacks — red and violet predominating — which the men always wear on their heads. I saw two other old churches here, the same age as the Collegiata, with a nave of six bays and an apse of seven sides. It is forty-seven feet wide in the clear, with- out aisles, has chapels between the buttresses, and is lighted by large clerestory-windows. Here, as at the cathedral, almost all the windows are blocked, and sufficient light seems to be obtained for the whole church by some ten or twelve holes about two feet square pierced here and there. The other church is of the same description, but less important. Wheel of Bells. That del Carmen ” is of ^ To those who know them I need understand at all the way in which the hardly say that the remains of the Anglo- work has been done. This Florentine Saxon vestments found in S. Cuthbert’s work, of a later age, quite makes up in tomb, and preserved at Durham, are art for what it lacks in minute delicacy perhaps the most exquisitely delicate of execution when compared with S. works in existence — so delicate that a Cuthbert’s vestments, magnifying glass is necessary in order to 340 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. Between Manresa and Lerida, the only town of any import- ance is Ceiwera. Here there is a vast and hideous university building going to ruin ; and two churches, one of which, with a square steeple, seems to be early in date, and the other — that of Sta. Maria, I believe — of the usual Catalan fourteenth-century type. This steeple was completed, in a.d. 1431 , by an architect of Cervera, Pedro de Vall-llebrera ; but it must have been long in progress, inasmuch as the principal bell — which was never to be tolled save for the funeral of a peer, a royal officer, or a bishop — was put in its place in a.d. 1377.^ This bell has disappeared. On another, however, is this inscription : — I.H.S. . Mateus . de . Ulmo . magister . cimbalorum . ville . Cervarim . me . fecit . anno . a . nativitate . Domini . millesimo . quadringentesimo . vigesimo . quarto . Si . ergo . me . queritis . sinite . os . habire.” And on another — “ -f- Barbara . nos . serva . Christi . sanctis- sima . serva.” Between Cervera and Lerida the country is very uninte- resting until near the end of the journey, when a good view of Lerida, and the cliff above the river, is obtained. I have twice visited this interesting old city. In the autumn of 1861 I passed a day there, when the greater part of my time was sj^ent in endeavouring to get admission into the cathedral, so that I only saw enough to make me wish to repeat my visit ; and this I was fortunately able to accomplish in the spring of 1862. ]\[y readers will agree with me, when they have realized to them- selves what is to be seen, that such a cathedral as that of Lerida is in itself worth the journey from England. Unfortunately its examination will always be beset with difficulties — if indeed it is allowed at all when visitors become more numerous than they have been hitherto. The town consists mainly of one very long, tortuous street parallel with the river Segre, a broad, rapid stream, carrying the waters of a large part of the southern slopes of the Pyrenees into the Ebro at Mequinenza. There is an Alameda all along the river-bank, and at about midway in its length a large stone bridge across the river. Behind the town a hill rises rapidly — in some parts abruptly — to an elevation of, I sup- pose, about three liundred feet above the river; and on the summit of this stand the old cathedral, and some remains of other coeval buildings, now the centre of a formidable-looking, though really neglected, system of fortifications. Two other ^ Viage Lit. a las Iglesias de Espaua, ix. }>. 17. Chap. XVI. LEIUDA : CATHEDRAL. 347 old elmrcbes — San Lorenzo and San Jnan — remain, one in the upper part of the city, and tlie other on the Plaza, near tlie brido-e. A modern cathedral, of the baldest and coldest Paaan type, but of great size, Avas built in the main street, near the river, when the old cathedral was converted into a fortress ; and I cannot do better than quote Mr. Ford’s rather ironical statement of its history : — The ruin,” he says, “of the old cathedral dates from 1707, Avhen the French made it a fortress : nor has it ever been restored to pious uses ; for in the piping times of peace the steep Avalk proved too much for the pursy canons, Avho, aban- doning their lofty church, employed General Sabatani ! to build them a neAv cathedral beloAv, in the convenient and Corinthian style.” From the date of its desecration nothing Avhatever has been cared for ; and it goes to one’s heart to see so noble a Avork, and one so sacred, put to such vile uses, and to so little purpose : for even noAV Avlien Spain bristles with soldiers, and the Avhole nation is bitten Avith the love of military sights and sounds, the desecration of a sacred building is all that has been accomplished ; for I believe that the Spaniards have seldom managed to hold possession of it against the French, and in its present dilapi- dated state are less than ever likely to do so.^ The position is, hoAvever, a very strong one ; and another hill to the west of the city is crowned Avith a second fort connected AAuth it. Admission is only to be obtained by an order from the commandant of the district, Avho resides in the city beloAv ; and he very kindly sent a sub-officer to remain Avith me Avhilst I Avas in the fort, and with true Spanish courtesy came up himself to see that I gained admission to every part, and took great trouble to open doors some of Avhich seemed hardly to have been opened since the Peninsular Avar ! The buildings noAv remaining consist of a church Avith an enormous cloister on its Avestern side, and a lofty steeple at the south-west angle of the cloister. On the north side of the cloister is a large stone-roofed hall, and north of this again, and detached from the cathedral, are considerable fragments of Avhat is called a castle, and these include another noble groined hall. My ground-plan of the cathedral and its dependences Avill shoAV at a glance hoAv unusual and remarkable the Avhole scheme is. The south side of the church is built on the very edge of the precipitous cliff above the town and river, and the lofty toAver 1 I do uot forget the successful de- one of which the people may well be fence of Lchida, in the sixteenth cen- proud: but this was before the desecra- tury, against the Prince de Conde ; it is tion of the cathedral. 348 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. is daringly balanced as it were on the most dangerous point of the whole ground. The mass of the whole group seen from below, and the vast height of the tower, are therefore singularly imposing, Avhilst the view obtained from the summit is one of rare magnificence. It is true that here the immediate neighbour- hood is not lovely, but still the river does much towards con- verting to fruitfulness the usually arid-looking Aragonese soil of tlie district by clothing it with trees and verdure, and when last I saw it not only was the Segre a torrent of rushing waters, but on all sides the hills were covered with a wide expanse of vineyards and corn-fields ; and beyond these were to be seen towering up in the far distance the grand range of the Pyrenees, touched here and there — on the Maladetta and some of the other high peaks — with lines of snow ; whilst on the other side the loAver mountain ranges of Aragon completed one of the most beautiful panoramas I have ever seen from church tower. The site of the cathedral has long been occupied. It was an important stronghold in the time of the Komans, and the first cathedral was erected as early as in the sixth century. The Moors in course of time gained possession of the city, and it was not until a.d. 1149 that the Christians, under Ramon Berenguer, finally drove them out and regained possession. The documentary evidence as to the age of the existing build- ings is fairly clear, and may as well be given at once. I derive all my facts from the papers printed in ‘Espana Sagrada ^ and besides those which more particularly interest me as an archi- tect, there are in the volume which relates to Lerida some most interesting extracts from the proceedings of councils held there from A.D. 1175 to 1418, and of diocesan synods from the year 1240. These are full of information as to the customs of the church, and the rules affecting the clergy.^ The first stone of the new cathedral was laid in the time of the third bishop after tlie restoration, and in the presence of the ^ Vol. xlvii. De la Santa Iglesia their god-parents of baptism or con- cle Lerida en su estado moderno. Su firmation. Mendicants are forbidden to an tor el Doctor Don Pedro Sainz de celebrate on portable altars (sniper arc/ias). Baranda. Clergy are ordered to have a piscina near 2 I give a few notes from the rules of the altar, where, after receiving, they this church as agreed on at the Synods, may wash their hands and the chalice. In 1240: No priest to say mass more In a Synod held in 1318, it is ordered than once in a day, save in case of great that, as many corpses are interred in necessity. Priests to administer the churches which ought not to be, for the sacrament of penance in the sight of all future none shall be so save that of the in the church. Godchildren are pro- patron, or of some one who has built a liibited from marrying the children of chapel or endowed a chaplain. Chap. XVT. LERIDA : CATHEDRAL. 349 king Don Pedro IT. An inscription on a stone on the Gospel side of the choir, which I did not see, gives the date ^ as the 22nd July, 1203 ; and in a.d. 1215 tlie cloister was, in part at any rate, built, one Kaymundo de Segarra having desired tliat he might be buried within its walls.^ From this time to the conse- cration we have no notice of the building, if I except the follow- ing inscription still remaining on the eastern jamb of the south transept doorway, which proves the existence of that part of the church at the time mentioned: — “Anno Domini m:cc'':xv xi: Kal : Madii : obiit Gulielmus de Eocas : cuj : ale : sit : ” and there is a mention in ‘ Espana Sagrada ’ of the burial of Bishop Ber- enguer, in a.d. 1256, by one of the doors, called thenceforward after him. On the last day of October, a.d. 1278, the church was consecrated by Bishop Guillen de Moncada, and the record of this on the west wall is now concealed, but I give a copy of it.^ In 1286 Pedro de Pefiafrey ta, who had been master of the works, died;^ he had probably been employed on the central lantern and the cloister, for which latter work, on the 21st of August, 1310, the king Don Jayme II. gave the stone circa a.d. 1320 Bishop Guillen founded a chapel; in 1323 the work of the “cloister and tower ” was still going on ; ® and in 1327 alms were asked for the completion of the same work;^ and again in 1335 the vicar-general, in the absence of the bishop, appealed for alms, “ pro maximo et sumptuoso opere claustri ecclesise catedralis.” In A.D. 1391 Guillermo (^olivella contracted to execute the statues for the doorway at the price of 240 sueldos each ; and in A.D. 1490 Francisco Gomar contracted for the erection of a grand porch for 1600 sueldos. The steeple at the angle of the cloister seems to have been commenced about the end of the fourteenth 1 ‘^Anno Domini mcciii. et xi. Cal. Ang. sub Innocentio Papa III. venera- bili, Gombaldo buic ecclesite presidente inclitus Rex Petrus II. et Ermengandus Comes Urgullen. primaiium istius fa- bricse lapidem posuerunt, Berengario Obicionis operario existente. Petrus Percumba Magister et fabricator.” — ■ Esp. Sag. xlvii. p. 17. - Viage Lit., yoI. xvi. p. 81. 2 ^‘Anno Dili mcclxxviii. ii Cal. Novembris Dominus G. de Montecatlieno ix Herd. Eps. consecravit banc Eccm. et concessit xl dies indulgencie per omnes octavas et constituit ut festum dedicationis celebraretur semper in Dominica prima post festum S. Luce.”— Espaua Sagrada, xlvii. p. 33. 4 Viage Lit., vol. xvi. p. 83. ^ “ Cum nos concesserimus dari operi claustri Ecclesie Sedis civitatis Illerde sex mille pedras somadals de petraria domus predicte de Gardenio : ideo vobis dicimus et mandamus quatenus dictas sex mille pedras de dicta petraria operario dicte Ecclesie recipere libere permitatis convertendas seu imponendas in opere supradicto. Datum Illerde duodecimo calendas Septembris anno Domini m.ccc.x. — Ex. Arch. reg. Bare, grat. 9 Jacob. II. fob 145’\ '> Esp. Sag., xlvii. p. 46. 7 Ibid., p. 47. 350 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. century. The fabric-rolls for 1397 contain an item of 350 feet of stone from the river Daspe “ for the work of the tower.” Other similar notices occur, and among them the names of two masters of the works, Griiillelmo Colivella and CMos Galtes de Kuan. It was probably completed before 1416 ; for in this year Juan Adam, de burgo SanctoB Marim, Turlensis diocesis, regni rrancise,” contracted for the making of the great bell, which was finished in 1418, and commended by the chapter in these words — “Cnjus sonitu et mentis vulnera sanari, et divinitatis singularis gratia possit conquiri.”^ There are no other notices of the main portion of the fabric ; but w'e know that, in a.d. 1414, Pedro Balaguer was sent from Valencia to examine the tower at Lerida before he built the tower called the Micalete in his own city ; and we may conclude therefore that before this date the work at Lerida had been completely finished. It is easy to distinguish the works referred to in these notices. The church, of which the first stone was laid in a.d. 1203, and wliich was consecrated in a.d. 1278, still remains almost as it was built ; and there can be but little doubt that the greater part of the cloister is of the same date. The works for which stone was given, in a.d. 1310, were probably those in its western half, and possibly the lower part of the steeple; and the chapel, founded in a.d. 1320, must be one of tliose added on either side of the great south door, or on the east side of the south transept. It is impossible not to feel greatly more interest in a church whose scheme is unusual, than in one of a common type, even when its detail is not of so high a value, or its scale less im- posing. Here, however, we have both extreme novelty in the general scheme,^ and extreme merit in all the detail. As one climbs the steep street which leads to the cathedral, where the open space around the fortifications is reached, the first general view of the buildings is most puzzling. The low outer wall of the cloister, with an enormous western door- way, the point of whose archway reaches to the top of the wall, the steeple on the extreme right, and the central lantern appearing to rise only just above the cloister wall, make a most unintelligible group. Making my way to the great doorway, I was astonished to find it to be the entrance, not of the 1 The inscription on this beU was as magistrum. Joannem. Adam. anno. Diii. follows Christus. Rex, venit. in, 1418 in rnense. Aprili, — Viage Lit. a las pace, et. Dens. homo, foetus, est. Chtus. Iglesias de Espana, xvi. 89. vincit. Chtus. regnat. Chtus. ab. omn. " See plan, Plate XX. mal. nos. defendat. Fuit. factum, per Chap. XVI. LERIDA : CATHEDRAL. 351 clmrcli, as I at first assumed it to be, but only of the cloister ; and not less disgusted to find that three sides of this cloister had been turned into barracks, a floor having been inserted all round at the level of the springing of the vault, so as to afford ample accommodation for some hundreds of soldiers, who sleej), cook, and live within its walls ; Avhilst the eastern side is now a store- house for arms and accoutrements, similarly divided by a floor, and without any visible trace of the doors of communication between church and cloister, which are said to be on this side. Yet this cloister is certainly, even in its present desecrated state, the grandest I have ever seen. Its scale is enormous, and much of its detail very fine. I have no doubt that it was a long time in progress, and this would account to some extent for the extreme irregularity of some of its parts. The bays, for instance, vary in width : the buttresses are Amriously treated ; and the sculpture, which on the eastern side seems to be coeval with the earliest ^^ortion of the church, is evidently on the other sides of much later date — probably not earlier than a.d. 1300. The buttresses on the eastern side are carried on bold engaged columns with sculptured capitals, whilst most of the others are square in outline, with small engaged shafts in recesses at their angles. The arches are now all built up and plastered ; but in two of those on the eastern side it is just possible to detect the commencement of traceries, from which it would seem that each arch had tracery above an arcade of three or four divisions. In its present state it is impossible to say more than this, or whether these traceries were original, though they seem to liave been geo- metrical in style, and therefore probably later in date than the enclosing arches. The eastern half of the cloister has the outer arches richly adorned with complicated chevron and cable orna- ment, and the remainder of the arches are finely moulded. The interior is more uniform in character, the vault being quadri- partite throughout, with very boldly moulded ribs ; and the main piers, and the piers at the angles, being very exquisitely planned, with a number of detached shafts with well moulded bases, bands, and capitals, the latter carved with foliage and heads. The capitals and bases are square throughout the cloister. On the south side this cloister has openings in the outer wall cor- responding with those opening into the inner court ; and these, I think, also had traceries. Owing to the fall of the ground towards the edge of the clifi*, these windows are high above the terrace outside, and very bold buttresses are placed between each of them. The efiect of the cloister on the south side is tliat of 352 GOTHIC AEOHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. an enormous hall : and this, in truth, is what it is. Its clear internal width varies from 26 ft. 6 in. to 27 ft. 6 in., and the height is quite in proportion. Occupied as it now is by hundreds of soldiers, one is tempted to ask, whether a building so far larger than could be required for a mere cloister may not have been built in the first instance to serve some double purpose ; being, for instance, not only an ambulatory, but a refectory, and dormitory also. The way in which some of our own old build- ings Avere fitted, Avith a chapel at the end of a series of cubicles on either side under the open roof of a great hall (as, e.g., St. Mary’s Hospital at Chichester, Chichele’s College Higham Ferrers, and a hospital at Leicester), seems to point to the possi- bility of some such utilizing of the vast space which these cloisters afford ; and the more as it seemed to me that there were not the evidences that might have been expected of the existence at any time of the other dependent buildings required by a cathedral body in all cases, and more than usually here where the church Avas so far above and aAvay from the city. I men- tioned the Avestern entrance of the cloister as being very large : it is a double doorway Avith niches for six statues in either jamb, and the orders of the archivolt are alternately of mouldings and niches for figures. The outer arch is crocheted between tAA^o great pinnacles. The carving has mostly been destroyed ; but there is a poor sculpture of the Last Judgment in the tym- panum. The doorway has evidently been added between two of the earlier buttresses of the cloister at about the end of the fourteenth century ; its detail is extremely delicate and rich, and someAvhat similar to that of the AA^est doorAA^ay of Tarra- gona cathedral; and both are quite like very good French fourteenth-century work. Unfortunately the doorAvays from the cloister to the church are now quite invisible, the Avail being completely hidden by military packing-cases and arms.^ This is the more to be regretted as the grandeur of the other doors leads me to sup- pose that the Avestern doorway would be very fine. It will be seen by reference to the plan that there is a steeple abutting against the south-Avest angle of the cloister; it is set against it in the most irregular fashion; and it is Avorth mention that the architect of the Micalete, at Valencia, Avho Avas directed to study this tower, imitated it even in this 1 There are said to be three doorways from the cloister to the church. — Viage Lit., xvi. 8G. <• ?: j ), i ' No. 44 VIEW FROM STEEPLE. Chap. XVr. LERIDA : CATHEDRAL. pecMiliarity. Here there seems, so far as I can see, to be no reason for the irregularity ; and I can only conjecture that it may have been the consequence of some variation in the rock on which it stands. The entrance is by a staircase through a house, and thence by a newel staircase in the thickness of the wall. The steeple is octagonal in plan, and of five stages in height; the two lowest lighted by windows of one light ; the third with windows of two ; and the fourth with others of three lights, one in each face of the octagon. There is a rich parapet of oq)en tracery, supported on corbels, to this stage, and a great pinnacle at each angle. The pinnacles are carried up from the ground, and are at present partly destroyed, and made to carry iron beacons instead of their old finish. The fifth stage stands entirely Avithin the other ; and its plan, as being the most interesting, is shown on my ground- plan of the Avhole building. Here each face of the octagon had a bold opening with a crocheted and traceried gable over it, and pinnacles at the angles, and probably a traceried parapet which no longer exists. The various stages are groined Avith stone vaults, and the whole construction is of the most dignified and solid description. The height from the terrace on the Avest side of tlie cloister to the top of the parapet is about 170 feet. The steeple looks much higher than this : but this is no doubt in great part OAving to the enormous height above the city of the cliff on the edge of which it stands. The vieAV of the clmrch from the summit is so striking, and gives so clear an idea of its whole scheme, that I have engraved it. My drawing shows the cloister in the foreground, and the south-west view of the church beyond it. Here almost every part that is seen is of the earliest portion of the fabric, Avhich seems to have been -carried out on a regular plan from first to last. The church is cruciform, Avith a nave and aisles only three bays in length, and an octagonal lantern over the crossing. The choir and its aisles had three parallel apses east of the transept, and a fourth chapel aa as added in the fourteenth century, as Avere also tAVO chapels on the south side of the nave, dhvo staircase-turrets on the west sides of the transepts (a favourite position for them in early Spanish churches) added much to the picturesqueness of the outline ; but the upper part of one of these has unfortunately been destroyed, and the other Avas either carried up or altered at a later date — probably in the fourteenth century. It Avill be seen that most of the Avindows are round-headed. EveryAvhere, however, the main arches are pointed ; and this is, 2 A 354 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. as 1 need hardly say, always characteristic of transitional build- ings. The strange thing is, that in a church which was in building between a.d. 1203 and 1278 we should find such strong evidences of knowledge of nothing but twelfth-century art ; and assuming the dates to be correct — as I think we must — it affords good evidence of the slow progress in this part of Spain of the developments which had at this time produced so great a change in the north of Europe. Either the whole building Avas built on the plan at first laid down, or else, having been commenced vigorously, and in great part finished, some delay must have been caused in its completion for consecration. The latter is no doubt the more probable supposition, because, AAdiilst the Avhole of the walls up to the top of the clerestory seem to be of perfectly uniform character inside and out, the central lantern is evidently a Avork of circa a.d. 1260-1278, and one Avhich could not have been designed so early as 1203. The sculpture of all the capitals throughout the interior, as Avell as that of the door- ways, must also be set down to the commencement of the century ; and the date of a.d. 1215, Avhich occurs on the south transept front, seems to make it probable that at that time the Avork in this part of the church was well advanced. Here I may notice one of the remarkable features of this building — that the external roofs are all of stone. Most of them indeed are modern ; but those of the choir and lantern are undoubtedly original, and there can be little doubt that the Avhole church Avas covered in the same Avay. They are formed entirely of stones chamfered and weathered to a flat pitch, and lapping slightly over each other. Their effect is good, and they Avere evidently built by men who hoped their work Avould last for ever : yet this has not quite been the result of Avhat they did ; for, as I have said, most of the roofs have been relaid with slabs of stone carefully fitted together like pavement, and less likely therefore to Avithstand the Aveather than the old roofs were. The entrances to the cathedral are at present three in number, — a door in each transept and one in the south wall — in addition to the western doorAvay, which, if it exists, is now blocked up. These doors are all fine. That in the north transept is simple but effective : it has a simply-moulded semi- circular arch, above which is a pointed arch Avith a stone in the enclosed space carved Avith A and H ; and above it a very finely-sculptured horizontal cornice. The doorway is set forward a few inches from the Avail, in the Lombard fashion. In the gable of the transept over it is a large moulded but untraceried riiAP. XYi. LERIDA : CATHEDRAL. 355 circular window, and enough of an original stepped corbel-table under the eaves to show that the old pitch of the roofs was very flat, though somewhat steeper than at present. The south transept doorway is much finer : it has a richly- sculptured round arch ; and on each side of the arch are niches — one con- taining a statue of St. Gabriel, and the otlier one of the Blessed Virgin. Under the exquisitely sculptured cornice which sur- mounts the door is inscribed, in large incised letters, the angelic salutation ; whilst on the right jamb of the door is the inscrip- tion of the year 1215, given at p. 349. Above the doorway is, as in the other gables, a circular window ; and here the fine early tracery with which it was filled in still remains. The whole detail of this front is of the finest kind, and must have been executed by men who knew something of the best Italian Komanesque work. Nothing can exceed the delicacy and care with which the whole was executed. The wheel is divided by eight octa- gonal shafts radiating from the centre, and these carry an order of sixteen semi-circular cusps, two to each division. These cusps are covered with the billet ornament, and their spandrels have sunk carved circles. The mouldings which enclose the window are rich and delicate in character ; and though it is unfortunately now walled up, it is well preserved, and still extremely effective. The last and grandest of the doors — the ‘^Puerta dels Fillols” 2 A 2. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. 35 () or of the Infantes — is in the centre bay of the south aisle. This is an example of singularly rich transitional work, with an archi- volt enriched with mouldings, chevrons, dog-tooth, intersecting arches, and elaborate foliage. There is the usual horizontal cornice over the arch, and above this a fourteenth-century statue of the Blessed Virgin JMary and our Lord. The hori- zontal cornice is carried on moulded corbels, between which and the Avail are carvings of wyA^erns and other animals : whilst the soffeit of the cornice in each compartment is carved with delicate tracery panels, in some of which I thought I detected some trace of Moorish influence. The cornice has a delicate, trailing branch of foliage ; and the label and two or three orders of the arch, in which sculpture of foliage is intro- duced, are remarkable for the singular delicacy and refinement of the lines of the foliage, and for the exceeding skill with which they have been AATOUght. There is none of that reckless dash Avliich marks our carvers noAv-a-days, but in its place a patient elaboration of lovely forms, Avliich cannot too much be praised. The mouldings here are all decidedly characteristic of the thirteenth century. The Avhole is noAV protected by a later — jAi’obably fifteenth century — vaulted porch, Avhich occupies the space between tAvo added chapels.^ The effect is very good and picturesque, as Avill be seen by the illustration which I give ; but as this porch is the storehouse for rockets and shells, I fear its beauties are likely to be a sealed book to most travellers, though, oAving to the extreme courtesy of the commandant, I Avas so fortunate as to be allowed to see and sketch it at my leisure. The original Avindows are all simple round-arched, Avith moulded arches, and shafts, Avith caps and bases in the jambs ; those in the lantern and at the Avest ends of the aisles are of later date, and pointed. The Avest AvindoAV is circular and A^ery large, but Avithout tracery ; and there is a small lancet beloAv it Avhich is noAV blocked up by the roof of the cloister. No doubt this roof Avas originally a gabled stone roof Avith a gutter against the Avail, so as to leave this Avindow open. The lantern is octagonal above the roof, Avith a AvindoAV in each side, pilasters at the angles, and an arcaded corbel-table at the eaves. The staircase-turret on its north-Avest side is al so octagonal, and rises above the eaves. The roof is original, and of stone. The chapels Avhich haA^e been added seem all to have been built in the fourteenth century, and are much mutilated : they are good Avorks of their age, but rather mar the general effect 1 See reference to this porch at p. 849. No -iO. ^ p. 3.0(3. LERTD./V OLD CATHEDR.AI.. SOUTH PORCH. "c I Chap. XV L LERIDA: CATHEDRAL. 857 of the church, and do not cal] for inucli notice ; two of them were closed, and I was unable to obtain admission to them,. Tlie interior of the church has been as completely encumbered with arrangements for soldiers’ convenience as has that of the cloister. A floor has been erected all over the nave at mid- height of the columns, and in tlie south transept at the level of their capitals. The choir is hoarded off, and not actively dese- crated. dTie real floor of the church is now an artillery store- house ; on the raised floor of the nave a regiment of soldiers sleep and live ; and in the south transept the bandsmen spend all their time making the most hideous and deafening discord. It is indeed a shameful use for a church, and there is only one small crumb of consolation in the fact that, soldiers notwith- standing, there has hitherto been no great amount of wilful damage done to any of the old work. The capitals throughout are extremely rich in sculpture, and are still perfect though obscured by whitewash, and the groin- iug has nowhere been damaged. I know no style more full of vigour and true majesty than the earliest pointed, of which this interior is so fine an example. The lavish enrichment of the capitals, the fine section of the great clustered columns, the severe simplicity of the unmoulded arches, and the extreme boldness of the groining-ribs, all combine to produce this result. Almost all the principal shafts are coupled, and the groining- bays are kept very distinct from one an other by very bold transverse arches ; these, and indeed all the main arches, are pointed. There is no triforium, and but a small space between the arches into the aisles and the clerestory windows. The canted sides of the central lantern are supported on pendentives similar to those which occur under the angles of some of the early French domes.^ Above these is an arcaded string-course, and then ^ As, c.g., at S. Etienne, Nevers. 358 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. the windows : these are all double, and of varied tracery. There are menials and traceries nearly flush with both the internal and external face of the wall: this was a necessary arrangement for a work which was to be seen so entirely from below, where the external traceries would all have been lost to the view. There are groining-shafts in the angles of the octagon, and an octagonal dome or vault, with ribs at the angles. The choir is not used at all : it has a quadripartite vault over its western half, and a pointed arch in front of the apse, which is covered with a semi-dome. The western bay is lighted by clerestory windows like those in the nave, and the apse by three windows, which on the outside have flat buttresses between them. None of tlie old ritual arrangements remain ; but there is nothing here to suggest anything at all different from what might be met with in a similar church elsewhere.^ The lantern does not prove anything more than our own lanterns do as to the arrangement of the choir for Avorship : in short, here as else- Avhere the central lantern Avas introduced partly because it Avas a custom of the Lombard churches, from Avhich this class of Spanish church borroAved so much, and in the next place because it AA^as especially suitable for a climate like that of Spain, Avhere it afforded the chance not only of lighting the church in the most agreeable Avay, but also of ventilating it most eflicaciously. No doubt the external effect of this church Avas improved much by the addition of the great Avestern steeple, thougli at the same time it is plain that its someAvhat eccentric position has removed it so far from the main fabric of the church as to render the Avhole group of buildings less compact in its outline than it would haA^e been had it been attached, like most of our oAvn steeples, to the body of the church itself. On the other hand, nothing is more difll- cult, usually, than to build a steeple to a church Avhich already has a central lantern, without entirely destroying the importance of this, Avhich ought always, Avhere it exists, to be a main feature ; and here, as is generally the case in examples derived in any Avay from Italian examples, the central lantern is not very im- portant in its dimensions, and required therefore more than usual caution on the part of the artist Avho ventured to add to it. Here, as happens often Avith detached campaniles, the group- ing of the steeple Avith the church from various points of vieAV ^ “ During the episcopate of Romeo eluded, and it was forbidden to say mass de Cescomes, 13G1-80, the work of the there from All Saints’ day till the fol- principal altar was ordered to be con- lowing month of May, 137G.” PablifiKed Ijy Joint Mxtrray. Alientai'le Street 1865 • — GimunS Plan of daffiftinaf ^ + Z ^ K ^ ^ -i? CX-t^ , A ^ V % A '=2''^, e| ^ a -> S P CCV^4AiXV§[X““«»uto.VViUl»t01oi.la.,13‘‘C<.nhiEy j| txik IX X -X: Chap. XVI. LERIDA: CATHEDRAL — S. I.ORENZO. 359 is very diversified, and often very striking. From its great height above the valley, it is seen on all sides, and generally at some distance. From the south, the grand size of the cloister, which connects the steeple with the church, gives it somewhat the effect of being in fact at the west end of an enormous building, of which the cloister may be the nave ; whilst from the west, as the ground falls considerably, nothing of the church is seen but the central lantern rising slightly over the cloisters, whilst the steeple rears its whole height boldly to the right, and makes the whole scheme of the work utterly unintelli- gible until after a thorough investigation. Again, in the views of the cathedral from the east side the steeple has the effect of being, like that of Ely, at the west end of the nave, and here it groups finely with the central lantern. The same results will be found in some of our English examples, and the parish church of West Walton, near Wisbeach, illustrates, as well as any that I know, the extraordinary variety of effect which a detached tower, at some distance from the main building, produces. The only portion of the building not yet described is a long hall on the north side of the cloister: this is vaulted with a pointed stone barrel- vault, and is gloomy-looking in the extreme, being lighted entirely from one end. A newel staircase has been taken away from the other end. Near the north side of the cathedral, on slightly higher ground, is another fine fragment of a building of the same age, which looks as if it had always been built as a defensive work. It contains a magnificent hall, groined in four bays of quadri- partite vaulting, and measuring about 21 feet by 96 feet. A smaller room next to this has a waggon-vault. The north and east walls of this hall, and of a building at right angles to it, are very boldly arcaded on the outside, and have a simple trefoiled corbel-table under the eaves : the hall windows are set within the wall-arcade. The bosses at the intersection of the ribs on the vault of the hall liave interlacing patterns of Moorish dia- racter carved upon them, and afford the only distinct evidence of anything like Moorish influence that I noticed in any of the buildings here. There are two other old churches in Lerida, San Lorenzo and San Juan. San Lorenzo is on the hill, not very far from the cathedral. It is a parallel triapsidal church, the nave vaulted with a pointed waggon-vault, divided into three bays by arches springing from coupled shafts in the side walls. The 360 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVI. ajDse has a semi-dome, and is lighted by three round-headed windows, five inches wide in the clear, and has a corbel-table under the eaves outside. The side walls of the nave are eig:ht feet thick (the nave being thirty-three feet wide), and through them very simple pointed arches are pierced, opening into the aisles. I have no doubt that these were additions to the orimnal fabric. They have polygonal apses at their east end, with very good window-tracery of circa a.d. 1270-1300. On the south side an octagonal steeple was added in the fifteenth century, projecting from the aisle walls. This has a two-light window on each side of the belfry, a pierced parapet, and a simple octagonal spire. There is a fine fourteenth-century Eetablo to the high altar. It has a niche in the centre with a figure of St. Laurence under a canopy, and a number of subjects and statues on either side. There is also one of the usual fifteenth-century galleries at the west end. The interiors both of this church and of San Juan were so dark that I found it almost impossible to make even the roughest notes of their contents or dimensions. San Juan is another fine early church, perhaps a little later than San Lorenzo, and of about tlie same age as the cathedral ; neither of them, however, show any signs of having been, as is the tradition, built as mosques, and converted into churches after the taking of Lmdda from the Moors in a.d. 1149. The plan here is but little altered, and exhibits three bays of cross-vaulting, and an apse.^ On the north side an aisle has been added ; but on the south the facade is nearly unaltered, and the interior is similarly very perfect. The mode of lighting with windows very high up is similar to that of the cathedral clerestory, and is worth the attention of those who wish to adapt the Pointed style for tropical climates. The rose window and great south door are both very fine examples, and extremely peculiar in their arrange- ment. The door, which is very large and ijiiposing, occupies the whole of the central bay, and there are fine windows in the bays on either side of it : the impression produced at first sight is consequently that one is looking at the west end of a large church, upon one side of which an apsidal chancel has been added. The door is in fact out of all proportion to the size of the church, though this very fact gives perhaps somewhat of that monumental character to the whole work which is so rare in small buildings. It is worthy of notice that the very same * See plan, Plate VHI. Chap. XVf. LERIDA: ROMANESQUE HOUSE. 861 design is to be seen in the church of la Magdalena at Zamora — already described ; and there is indeed so much identity of character between the two churches as to make it more than probable that the same architect erected both. In the street near San Juan is a very fine old Romanesque house of unusually good style. It is of three stories in height, the lower story much modernized. The intermediate stage has a very fine row of three-light ajimez windows with slender shafts and capitals very delicately sculptured. The string under these windows is also elaborately carved : above is an eaves-cornice, resting on corbels, and above this a modern upper stage. A stone with a Renaissance border to it, in the lower part of the wall, describes this building as the Exchange of Lerida, “ built in 1589.” A more impudent forgery I do not know ; but probably the architect of that day thought his ugly upper stage the only part worthy of notice, and meant only to record its erection. The patio or court-yard behind is small, but has the same kind of windows as the front — though without any carving — and some good corbel-tables and archways. I saw nothing else of architectural interest in Lerida ; but I confidently recommend other ecclesiologists to examine its build- ings for themselves. They form an important link between the noble cathedral at Tarragona and the smaller but beautiful church of Tudela ; and belonging as they do to the most inter- esting period of our art, the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century, they afford examples for our emulation and study of even more value than the later works at Barcelona and Manresa, which I have before had to describe.^ ^ There is a very fair inn at Lerida, the railway from Barcelona to Zaragoza, the Parador de San Luis, pleasantly passing by Lerida, makes it easy of situated on the bank of the Segre; and access. 362 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVII. CHAPTEil XVII. H U E SC A — ZARAGOZA. To the north of the railway between Lerida and Zaragoza, and within easy distance of the stations of Monzon and Tardienta, are the two old Aragonese cities of Barbastro and Huesca Monzon — a possession of the Knights Templars since a.d. 1143 — is still dignified by a castle on the hill, which rises steeply above the town, and in which there are said to be some remains of the residence of their superior in Aragon. The accounts I obtained of Barbastro made me think it hardly worthy of a visit. The cathedral was built between 1500 and 1533 ; and it is a small church (about 140 feet in length), without either triforium or clerestory, the groining springing from the capitals of the columns, and being covered with ogee lierne ribs.^ Huesca seemed to promise more, so leaving the railway at Almudevar^ I made an excursion thither. It is a drive of three or four hours from the railway ; and the distant views of the old city are striking, backed as it is by a fine mountain-range, on one of whose lower spurs it is built. The cathedral stands on the highest ground in the city ; and the rocky bluffs of the mountain behind it look like enormous castles guarding its enceinte. These picturesque views are the more refreshing by the contrast they ofier to the broad corn-covered j)lain at their feet. Two or three miles from Huesca, on another hill, are the remains of the great monastery of Monte Aragon, which was, however, rebuilt in 1777, and is not very likely therefore now to reward examination. The Plaza in front of the cathedral is surrounded by an im- portant group of buildings — the palace of the kings of Aragon, the college of Santiago, and others belonging to the old uni- versity. They are mostly Benaissance in their design ; but in the old palace is a crypt called ‘‘ la Campana del Key Monje,” whicli seems to date from the end of the twelfth century. It has an apse covered with a semi-dome ; and a quadripartite ‘ Parcerisa, Recuerclos y TJellezas de with a chapel on its eastern side, but I Espaua, Aragon, p. 120. was unable to examine it. 2 Almudevar has a picturesque castle, Chap. XVII. IIUESCA: CATHEDRAL. 3(J3 vault of good character covers the buildings west of the apse. The arches are all semi-circular. The cathedral was almost entirely rebuilt in the fifteenth century, from the designs of a Biscayan architect, Juan de Olot- zaga.^ The cloister on the north side is the principal remaining portion of the older church, and this is so damaged and decayed as to present hardly a single feature of interest save two or three of the picturesque tombs corbelled out from the walls, which are so frequently seen in the north of Spain. The plan^ of the cathedral consists of a nave and aisles of four bays in length, with chapels between the buttresses. The Coro is formed by screens which cut off the two eastern bays of the nave ; it opens at the east into the rather grand transept, which, as is so invariably the case in the later Spanish churches, completely usurps the functions of the nave as the place of gathering for worshippers. To the east of the transept are five apsidal chapels opening out of it ; that in the centre larger than the others, and containing the High Altar. Three broad steps are carried all across the church from north to south, in front of these chapels. It struck me that the plan of this east end was so very similar to that of some of the earlier Spanish churches^ as to render it probable at any rate that Olotzaga raised his church upon the foundations of that which was removed to make way for his work. The steeple which takes the place of the west- ernmost chapel on the north side of the nave is octagonal in plan, but is much modernized, and finished with a brick belfry- stage : it is evidently of older foundation than the church. The columns between the nave and aisles are all clustered, and the main arches are boldly moulded. There is no triforium, the wall above the arcade being perfectly plain up to a carved string- course which is carried round the church below the clerestory ; the windows in which are filled with fiamboyant tracery. The groining is generally rather intricate, and has bosses at all the intersections of the ribs. There is no lantern at the intersection of the nave and transepts. It has been already said that the Coro occupies the usual place in the nave ; and it is clear that it has never been moved, as there are small groined chapels formed between the columns on either side of it. The Beja at 1 Cean Bermudez (Arq, i, 83) says exactly the same as that of the cliureh that the work was commenced in a.d. of Las Huelgas, Burgos (see Plate II.). 1400, and not finished until A. D. 1515. and the cathedral .at Tudela (Plate ^ See plan, Plate XXI, XXIV.), 3 It will be seen that the plan is 364 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVII. the west end of choir is not old ; the usual brass rails are placed to form a passage from the Coro to the Capilla mayor, across the transept. The reredos behind the high altar is carved in alabaster : it is of the latest Gothic, but certainly very tine. Damian For- ment, a Valencian sculptor, executed it between a.d. 1520 and 1533.^ It is divided into three great compartments, the centre rising higher than the others. Each compartment has a subject, crowded lavishly with figures in high relief ; whilst a broad band of carving is carried round the whole, and many figures in niches are introduced. The subjects are : 1, The Procession to Calvary; 2, the Crucifixion, with the First Person of the Holy Trinity surrounded by angels in the sky ; and, 3, the Descent from the Cross. Between these subjects and the altar are statues of the twelve Apostles and our Lord, and a door on either side of the altar opens into the space behind the reredos. The west doorway is said by Cean Bermudez to be the work of Olotzaga. My own impression is that it is a work of circa A.D. 1350. It is a fine middle-pointed doorway of rich character. The arch is of seven orders ; three enriched with foliage, and the remainder with figures under canopies, of — 1, figures with scrolls ; 2, angels ; 3, holy women ; 4, apostles and saints. The tympanum has the B. V. Mary and our Lord under a canopy ; she is standing on a corbel, on Avhich is carved a woman with asps at her bosom ; on either side of the canopy is an angel censing ; below, on the left, are three kings, and on the right the Noli me tangere. The lintel has some coats of arms; and there are seven statues of saints in each jamb ; and below them were subjects enclosed within quatrefoils, all of which have been de- stroyed.^ The gable over the doorway arch is crocheted, and 2 )ierced with tracery, and has pinnacles on either side. The horn-shaped leaf so often seen in English work is profusely used here, and in the arches is generally arranged in the French fashion, a crochet. The wooden doors are covered with iron plates beaten up into a pattern, and nailed on with great brass nails. The west end is finished at the top with a straight cornice. ^ This reredos cost 5500 crowns (es- monument in the cloister here described cudos) or libras jaquesas. — ^Cean Ber- him as “arte statuaria Phidise, Praxi- mudez, Arq. de Espana, i. 218. — Da- telisque iEmulus,” a statement which mian Forment is said to have studied must be accepted with the reserve usual under Donatello, which seems, however, in such cases. — Bellas Artes en Espaha, on a comparison of dates, to have been ii. p. 132. all but impossible. The epitapli on his " See Ainsa, Historia de Huesea, lib. 4. Chap. XVI 1. HUESCA : SAN PEDEO. 8f)5 with circular turrets at the angles, and pinnacles between, divid- ing it into three compartments. Tlie detail of all this upper part is very poor and late in style, and altogether inferior to that of the west doorway. The clerestory is supported by simple flying buttresses, finished with rich pinnacles. There are two other old doorways. That from tlie cloister on the north side is round-arched, witli dog-tooth, chevron, and roses carved on it ; yet the detail seems to prove that it cannot be earlier than a.d. 1300, whilst some of the carving looks as if it were even later than this. The other door is in the south transept, and certainly deserves examination. It has a small groined porch formed between two buttresses in front of it ; over the arch is the Crucifix, S. Mary, and S. John; whilst on the west wall are the three Maries coming with spices, &c., to the grave of our Lord, which is represented on the east Avail of the porch, Avith the angel seated on it. The church of San Pedro el Viejo, Avhich I noAV have to men- tion, is by far the most interesting in the city, being of much earlier date than any part of the cathedral.^ It has a nave and aisles of four bays, a transept Avith a raised lantern over the cross- ing, and three parallel apses at the east end. A hexagonal tower is placed against the north wall of the north transept, and a cloister occupies the Avhole south side of the church ; Avhilst on the east of the cloister is a series of chapels or rooms of early date. There is, so far as I know, no evidence of the date of this Avork ; but judging by its style, it can hardly be later than the middle of the twelfth century, Avith the exception of the raised vault of the lantern, Avhich was finished, hoAvever, before the consecration of the church, Avhich is said to have taken place in A.D. 1241.^ The nave and aisles are vaulted Avith continuous Avaggon- vaults, the chapels at the east end Avith semi-domes, and the lan- tern Avith a quadripartite vault, the ribs of Avhich are enriched Avith the dog-tooth ornament. The Avaggon-vault of the nave is divided into bays by cross arches corresponding Avith tlie piers of the arcades. The vaulting of the lantern springs from a higher level than the other vaults, and has ridge ribs as Avell as diagonal and Avail ribs. The lantern is lighted by four circular AvindoAvs, Avhich have rich early thirteenth-century mouldings, and are filled in Avith tracery Avhich is evidently of Moorish origin. A fine round-arched doorway, Avith three engaged shafts in each 1 See ground-plan on Plate XXI. 2 Parcerisa, Aragon, p. 157. 366 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVII. jamb, leads from the transepts into the tower, which has groin- ing shafts in each angle. The Coro here now occupies the western bay of the nave, and is fitted up with fair fifteenth- century stalls, which, being carried across the end, block up the old western doorway. The whole church is built of red sandstone, but is whitewashed throughout, and the exterior is much modernized, though the old woi’k is still in part visible. The west front has a bold arch under the roof, which corresponds with the waggon-vault inside. The abacus from which this springs is carried across as a string- course, and in the space enclosed between it and the arch is a round-headed window, with a broad external splay and plain label moulding. A very plain western doorway is now (as also is this window) blocked up. The aisles have also small windows high up in the walls, and the whole church is covered with a roof of very flat pitch laid immediately on the stone vaults. Publishedl)y Joim. Mmray, idbemarle Sdl865. i u- Chap. XVIL HUESCA : SAN PEDRO. 807 Tlie lowest stage of the tower liad windows in each of its dis- engaged sides : it rises in four stages of equal height, divided by stringcourses, but is capped with a modern belfry stage. The lantern is carried up to the level of the top of its vault, and then covered like the rest of the church with a Hat tiled roof. A stringcourse, richly worked with a billet moulding, is carried round the outer walls of the aisles, and round their pilaster buttresses. The cloister, though in a very sad state of dilapidation, is still very interesting. It is covered with a lean-to roof, and has round arches throughout springing from capitals, some of which are carved with figures, and some with foliage only, but all of rude cliaracter. Several arched recesses for monuments are formed in the outer walls, but none of the inscriptions that I observed were earlier than a.d. 1200. In the south wall six of these arches have enormous stone coffins, each supported on three corbels on the backs of three lions. These coffins are about two feet deep, by seven feet in length, and covered with a gabled stone cover. The columns in the arcades of this cloister are curiously varied, some being coupled shafts, some quatrefoil in section, some square, and some octagonal. Against the east wall are four chambers opening into the cloister. That nearest the church is the Chapel of San Bartolome, and of the same style as tlie nave, covered with a low waggon-vault, and with the original stone altar still remaining against the square east end. The chapel next to this has a very late vault ; the next, a quadripartite vault ; and the southernmost has a pointed waggon- vault, with three plain, pointed- arched recesses in each of the side walls. Over the modern doorway from the cloister into the church is the tympanum of the original doorway, rudely sculptured with the Adoration of the Magi, above which two angels hold a circle, on which are inscribed the monogram of our Lord, and the letters A and O. I could find nothing else of much architectural interest in Huesca. The Church of San Martin has a plain thirteenth-cen- tury west doorway, and that of San J uan — said to have been consecrated in a.d. 1201 — seemed to have an apse of about that date, with a central lantern-tower carried on pointed arches. There are remains also of two of the town gateways, but they are of no interest. In the distance, as I approached Huesca, I had noticed what looked like an old church at Salas, and, having time to spare, I 368 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVII. walked there. The way lay along fields and by the muddiest of roads, where ruts were being levelled, and the whole made uni- formly muddy, in order to accommodate the Bishop of Huesca, wJio was coming out in procession to have a service in the church there. I found the east and west ends of the church to be old, but the rest, inside and out, had been hopelessly modernized. The east end retains nothing beyond three very long slits for windows, about six inches wide, and not intended for glazing. The west end is very fine, and almost untouclied. It has a noble doorway of six orders, very richly sculptured with chevrons, dog-tooth, mouldings of first-pointed character, and rich transitional foliage. The capitals have similar foliage, but the shafts and their bases have been destroyed, and a modern head to the door has been inserted within the arch. This door is set forward from the face of the wall nearly four feet, and has engaged shafts in the angles, and a richly-carved cornice. The gable (which is of flat pitch) is filled with a large circular window, the tracery of which has been destroyed. It has three orders of moulding round it, one moulded only, tlie others carved with a very bold dog-tooth enrichment. The label has rather ingeniously contrived crockets of very conventional design. The whole of this front is of very much the same character as the early work in the cathedral at Lerida. It is only about a mile and a half out of Huesca, and ought to be visited, as, with the exception of San Pedro el Viejo, it is certainly the most inte- resting work to be seen. Travellers will find accommodation which is just tolerable in the Posada at Huesca. They should not return, as I was obliged to do, to Zaragoza, but should extend the journey to Jaca, where there seems to be a fair Homanesque cathedral. Near Jaca, too, Sta. Cruz de los Seros has a fine Homanesque church, with an octagonal raised central lantern, and a steeple of several stages in height on its north side, San Juan de la Pena, a monastery in the same district, has a fine Homanesque cloister, of the same character as that of San Pedro at Huesca ; but the church is, I think, modern.^ I returned from Huesca to the railway, and thence to Zara- goza, hoping that, notwithstanding all it had suffered from wars and sieges, something might still be found to reward examina- tion. I have seen no city in Spain which is more imposing in ^ Views of Jaca and San Juan de la Pena are given by F. J. Parcerisa, ‘ Re- cuerdos y Bellezas de Eapana,’ Aragon. No. 46. SALAS, NEAR HUESCA p. 363. •WEST FRONT OF THE CHURCH. Chap. XVII. ZARAGOZA; THE SEU. 369 the distance, and yet less interesting on near acquaintance. A great group of towers and steeples stands up so grandly, that it is natural to suppose there will be much to see. But whether the French in their sieges destroyed everything, or whether it is that the city is too prosperous to allow old things to stand in the way, it is certainly the fact that but few old buildings do stand, and that none of them are of first-rate interest. The river here is rapid and broad, and the view of the distant mountains fine, whilst, partly owing to its being a centre for several railways, it is a fairly gay and lively city, and is year by year in process of improvement, in the modern sense of the word. There are here two cathedrals, in which I believe the services are celebrated alternately for six months at a time, the same staff serving both churches. On the two occasions on which I have stop23ed in Zaragoza, it has fortunately haj^pened that the old cathedral was open, and the exterior of the other promises so little gratification in the interior, that I never even made the attempt to penetrate into it. The old cathedral is called the “ Sen,” par excellence, the other being the Cathedral “ del Pilar.” The Sen ^ is the usual term for the principal church, and the name of the second is derived from a miracle-working figure of the Blessed Virgin on a. j^illar, which it seems that the peo23le care only to worship half the year. The Seu is in some respects a remarkable church, but it is so much modernized outside as to be, with the exception of one portion, quite uninteresting, and the interior, though it is gorgeous and grand in its general effect, is of very late style and date, and does not bear very much examination in detail. It is very broad in proportion to its length, having two aisles on each side of the nave, and chapels beyond them between the but- tresses ; and there are but five bays west of the Crossing, and of these the Coro occupies two. There is a lantern at the Crossing, and a very short apsidal choir. The nave and aisles are all roofed at the same level, the vaulting springing from the capitals of the main columns, and the whole of the light is admitted by windows in the end walls, and high up in the outer Avails of the aisles. In this respect Sj)anish churches of late date almost ahvays exhibit an attention to the requirements of the climate, Avhich is scarcely ever seen in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and this church OAves almost all its good effect to this circumstance, for it is in light and shade only, and neither in 2 B ^ Sen, Sedes, See. 870 GOTHIC AECHITECTURK IN SPAIN. Chap. XYII. general design nor in detail, that it is a success. The detail, indeed, is almost as much Pagan as Gothic. The capitals of the columns, for instance, have carvings of fat nude cherubs, supporting coats of arms, and the groining, which is covered with ogee lierne ribs, has enormous bosses and pendants cut out of wood and gaudily gilded. There is some interesting matter in the history of the Cim- borio over the Crossing. It seems that in the year 1500 there was supposed to be some danger of the old Cimborio falling, and the Archbishop, D. Alonso de Aragon, and his Chapter, there- upon invited several artificers and skilled engineers to examine the works, and advise as to its repair. At this Junta there were present two maestros from Toledo— one of them Henrique de Egas; Maestro Font, from Barcelona; Carlos, from Montearagon (Huesca) ; and Compte, from Valencia ; and they, having delibe- rated with the artificers attached to the cathedral, reported that it would be necessary to take down the Cimborio and rebuild it, and do other repairs to the rest of the church. This repoi't having been presented, the archbishop some time afterwards, in January, 1505, makes an appeal to the King on the subject, in order that he may obtain the services of Henrique de Egas as architect for the work. He says that he has had the advice of the most ex])erienced and able architects of the day, and among them of Egas, and that they were all agreed that the Cimborio must be taken down, which had been done. And then he says that, inasmuch as the rest of the church seems to be mucli in want of repair, and as Egas seemed to be a man of great ability and experience, he Avas very anxious to procure his aid, but that Egas had excused himself on the plea that he had a certain hospital to build at Santiago in Galicia for the King, who required him to go there. Wiiereupon tlie archbishop begs the King, for the love of God our Lord, that he will have pity on him ; and since there is no great necessity at Santiago, and a very great one at Zaragoza, that he will com- mand Egas to undertalve the work. It is said that Egas did execute the work after all. But it is impossible not to be amused at the enormous contrast betAveen those times and our own, if then it was necessary for an arch- bishop to appeal to the King to make an architect undertake such a Avork ! ^ 1 I am reminded by this of a curious which is to be gathered out of the entries passage of somewhat similar character in the old parish books of St. Dionis in the life of Sir Christopher Wren, Backchurch, Fenchurch-street. Here Chap. XVII. ZAIIAGOZA : THE SEU. 371 The detail of the Cimborio is, as might be expected from its date, most impure. It is octagonal in plan, the canted sides being carried on semi-circular arches thrown across the angles. It is of two stages in height, the lower having square recesses for statues, and the upper traceried windows. The general scheme is Gothic, but the detail is all very Eenaissance in character.^ The choir is apsidal, but the apse is concealed by an enormous sculptured lietablo, which, in spite of its very late date, is cer- tainly dignified in its effect. Externally there are evidences of the existence of an earlier church, the lower part of the apse being evidently Romanesque, a portion of the buttresses and one of the windows retaining their old character. The neAV work is of brick, the windoAvs generally of four lights, with flamboyant tracery, and the walls crowned with rich cornices. The exterior of the Cimborio, as well as of the church, owes much of the picturesqueness which marks it to the fact that the brickwork is everywhere very roughly and irregularly executed. One portion of the exterior of the church is, hoAvever, most in- teresting ; for on the face of the wall, at the north-east angle, is a very remarkable example of brickwork, inlaid with coloured tiles, the character of which proves that it is, no doubt, part of the cathe- dral which was approaching completion in the middle of the four- teenth century, and earlier in date therefore than the greater part of the existing fabric. This Avail is a lofty unbroken surface, about sixty-four feet in length from north to south, and is erected in front of a building of tAVO stages in height, and pierced Avith pointed windows in each stage. It is built Avith bricks of, I Sir Christopher built a steeple, and when it was nigh completion the grave question arose whether they should have an anchor for a weather-cock. Sir Christopher preferred it, and some of the parishioners, of course, opposed it. They appealed to the bishop, and after many interviews it was at last decided that the bishop should meet them at Sir Christopher’s at 8 o’clock a.m. to settle the matter. Sir Christo- pher’s “gentleman” (who was always treated to something to drink by the churchwarden when he came to the church) having made the engagement. The bishop was punctual to his appoint- ment, but Sir Christopher seems to have gone out for an early walk and forgotten all about it; and finally, the Bishop of London, having waited an hour for the great man, retired in despair, but ordered Sir Christopher’s weathercock to be adopted. 1 The following inscription on the Cimborio fixes the date of its comple- tion : “ Cimborium quo hoc in loco Benedictus Papa XIII. Hispanus, patria Arago, gente nobili Luna exstruxerat, vetustate collapsum, majori impensa erexit amplissinms, illustrisque Al- phonsus Catholic! Ferdinand!, Castelloe, Arago, utriusque Sicilite regis filius, q. gloi'ia finatur, anno 1520.” 2 B 2 ^72 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVII. think, a reddish colour (though I am a little uncertain, owing to their being now very dirty), which are all arranged in patterns in the wall, by setting those which are to form the outlines forward from one-and-a-half to two inches in advance of the general face of tlie wall. The spaces so left are then filled in with small tiles set in patterns or diapers, the faces of which are generally about three quarters of an inch behind those of the brick outlines. The tiles are of various sliapes, sizes, and colours, red, blue, green, white, and buff on white. The blue is very deep and dark in tone, tile green light and bright. The patterns are generally of very Moorish character ; and there can be no doubt, I think, that the wliole work was done by Moorish workmen. The general character of this very remarkable work is certainly most effective ; and though I should not like to see the Moresque character of the design reproduced, it undoubtedly affords some most valuable suggestions for those who at the present day are attempting to develop a ceramic decoration for the exteriors of buildings. Here I was certainly struck by the grave quiet of the whole decoration, and was converted to some extent from a belief which I had previously entertained rather too strongly, that the use of tiles for inlaying would be likely to lead to a very gay and garish style of decoration, foreign to all dignity and repose in its effect. There is an intersecting arcade under the lowest windows, in which, as also in some other parts, the ground of the panels is plastered ; and in this plaster panels of tiles and single sunk disks of tile are inserted on the white ground. The windows are pointed, and all of them have rich borders to their jambs, which are continued round the arches. Within their borders there appears to have been an order of moulded brickwork, and then the window opening, which is now blocked, but which may possibly have had stone menials and tracery. The bricks used here are of the usual old shape, about 1 ft. 1 J in. long by 6| in. wide. They are generally built alternately long and short, but not by any means with any great attempt to break the bond. The mortar-joints are also not less than half an inch in thickness, and this, it must be remembered, in a work the whole characteristic of which is the extreme delicacy and refinement of the decoration. The tiles are five-eighths of an inch thick ; some of them are encaustic, of two colours ; and all are, as is usual with Moorish tiles, glazed all over. This tile and brick decoration begins at a height of about eight feet from the ground, and is carried up from that point to the top of the wall. Such work seems to be obviously unfitted to be close to Chap. XYII. ZARAGOZA; S. RABLO. 373 the ground ; and the lower part of the wall is therefore judi- ciously built with perfectly plain brickwork. The most important church in Zaragoza after the cathedral is that of San Pablo. This is an early thirteenth-century church, of the same class as that of San Lorenzo at Ldrida, having a nave of four bays, and an apse of five sides with a groined aisle round it. The side walls of the nave, which are of enormous thickness, are pierced with pointed arches opening into the aisles, which seem to be of the same date, though from the enormous size of the piers they are very much cut off from the nave. The groining ribs are of great size, and moulded with a triple roll in both nave and aisles. Some trace of the original lancet windows is still to be seen in the apse ; but most of them are blocked up or destroyed. Tlie aisle is returned across the west end of the nave ; and there is a western door and porch, with a descent of some eleven or twelve steps into the church. The Coro is at the west end of the nave, and is fitted with stalls executed circa a.d. 1500-1520, with a Eenaissance Keja to the east of them. There is a good reredos, rich in coloured and sculp- tured subjects, Avhich is said to be a work of the beginning of the sixteenth century, by Damian Forment, of Valencia, who, as will be recollected, carved the reredos in the cathedral at Huesca. The fine octagonal brick steeple is evidently a later addition to the church, and rises from the north-west angle of the nave. It is very much covered with work of the same kind as the Avail veil at the cathedral, Avhich I have just been describing, though on a bolder and coarser scale ; and it belongs, as far as I can judge by its style, to somewhere about the same period.^ The brick patterns here, as there, are in parts filled in Avith glazed tiles ; and the general effect of the steeple is very graceful, rising as it does Avith richly ornamented upper stages, upon a plain base, out of the low and strange jumble of irregular roofs with Avhich the church is now covered. The great steeple, called the Torre Nueva, in the Plaza San Felipe, is finer and loftier than that of San Pablo, and is, I suppose, on the Avhole, the finest example of its kind anyAvhere to be seen. It is octagonal in plan, and the sections of the various stages differ considerably in outline, OAving to the inge- ^ Dou P. de la Escosura (Espana Art. but, I feel confident, without good y Mon.), iii. 93, attributes this tower ground for doing so, as far as the former and the church to the twelfth century, is concerned. 374 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVII. iiioiis manner in wliich the face of the walls is set at various angles. The face of most of the work is diapered with patterns in brickwork as in the other Zaragozan examples ; but the most remarkable feature is, perhaps, the extraordinary extent to which the whole fabric falls out from the perpendicular. This, which is so common a fault with the Italian campaniles, arises here evidently from the same causes, the badness of the foundations, aud the absence of buttresses. A great mass of brickwork has been built up on one side, in order to* prevent the further settle- ment of this steeple ; and it is to be hoped tliat the remedy may be effectual ; for Zaragoza can ill afford to lose so remarkable a feature out of the scanty number still left ; and it is valuable also as one of the grandest examples of a very remarkable class. It is said to have been built in a.d. 1704. Another j)ai*ish church in the principal street has a very small brick steeple of the same class, but very simple, and with it I think I must close my list of really Gothic erections here. The lienaissance buildings have often a certain amount of Gothic detail, and some Gothic arrangements of plan, but of so late and debased a kind as to make them little worthy of much study. Their real merit is their great size, and the rude grandeur of their treatment. They are usually built of rough brickwork, boldly and massively treated. They have always an arcaded stage, just below the eaves, which are very boldly corbelled out from the walls, and generally supported on moulded wood cor- bels, carrying a plate which projects some three or four feet from the face of the wall, and throws, of course, a very fine shadow over it. The patios, or court-yards, are lofty, and surrounded by columns which carry the open stages of the fii’st and second floors. There is here no attempt at covering the brickwork with plaster or cement ; and accordingly, though the detail is poor and uninteresting, the general effect is infinitely more noble than that of any of our compo- covered, smooth-faced modern London houses. The picturesque roughness of the work which was always indulged in by the mediaeval architects was no sin, it seems, in the eyes of the early Kenaissance architects ; and it is, indeed, reserved for our own times to realize the full iniquity of any honest exhibition of facts in our ordinary buildings ! Among the buildings here which illustrate the transition from Gothic to Eenaissance the cloister of the church of Sta. En- gracia seems to be one of the most remarkable. It is said to Chap. XVII. ZARAGOZA; S. EXGRACIA. 375 have been constructed in 1536 by one Tudelilla of Tarazona, and an illustration is given of it in Villa Amil.^ The Gothic element seems here to have been as much Moresque as Gothic, and hence the combination of these with Renaissance makes a whole which is as strange and heterogeneous as anything ever erected. It will be seen that Zaragoza has not very much to interest an architect or ecclesiologist. Travellers in Spain who find it necessary to recruit after roughing it in country towns may no doubt feel grateful for the creature comforts they will be able to enjoy there, and it is now rather a centre of railway com- munication, being on the line of railway which runs from Bilbao to Barcelona, and at the point where the line from Madrid joins it. ^ Vol, ii., plate 45. GOTHIC AliCHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. Chap. XV I II. CHAPTEli XVIIL TAKAZONA — VEKUELA. 1 FOUND it a pleasant drive of two and a half hours, through vineyards and olive-grounds, from Tiidela to Tarazona.' In front all the way was the noble Sierra de Moncayo, which, according to one of my Spanish fellow-travellers, is the highest mountain in Spain, from which view however I humbly, and somewhat to his annoyance, dissented. But whether he were right or not, it is still of very grand height, and the more impressive in that it rises by itself in the midst of a comparatively flat country. Behind us was an admirable view of Tndela, backed by the brown and arid hills which skirt the Ebro ; beyond them, in the far distance, the Pyrenees ; whilst in the immediate foreground we had a rich green mass of olives and vines spread in a glorious expanse over the country. The villages on the road have nothing to boast of if I except a pilgrimage church at Cascante, approached by a long covered gallery from beloAV, and a brick tower at Monteacadeo, of the Zaragozan type. We passed, too, a newly-established convent for monks, who are already beginning to build, in spite of the ruin with which they have so lately been visited. But long before the end of our journey was reached, the towers and steeples of Tarazona rose attractively in front over the low hill which conceals the complete view of the city until you are almost close upon it. Attractive as this general view undoubtedly is, this old city does not lose when it is examined more closely and carefully. It is not only in itself picturesque, but its situation on either side of the stream which a few miles below falls into the Ebro is emi- nently fine, and has been made the most of by the happy and })robably unconscious skill of the men who have reared on the cliff above the water a tall pile of buildings on buildings, carried on grand arches, corbelled here and buttressed there, and with a sky-line charming in itself, and rendered doubly beautiful by the Chap. XVI IT. TARAZONA: CATHEDRAL. 377 sudden break in its outline caused by the lofty brick steej)le of la Magdalena — one of the finest of its class — vvliich rears itself, with admirable hardihood, on the very edge of the cliff. The streets and Plazas, too, of the old city are all picturesquely irregular, full of colour and evidences of national peculiarities, and climb the steep sides of the hills from the river-side to the high ground at the northern end of the city, which is crowned by the church of San Miguel. I call such skill as this unconscious,” because it is so much a characteristic of old works of this kind that their authors never exhibit any of that pert conceit which so dis- tinctly marka the efforts of so many of us nowadays. Old archi- tects fortunately lived in days when society was moderate in its demands, and had not ceased to care for that which is true and natural : sad for us that we live when every man wishes only to excel his neighbour, and that without regard to what is true or useful ; so that, instead of obtaining those happy results which always reward the artist w^ho does exactly what is needed in the most natural and unartificial manner, we, by our attempts to show our own cleverness, constantly end in substituting a petty personal conceit, where otherwise we might have had an enduring and artistic success. The cathedral stands very much alone, and away from the busier part of the city, at the upper end of a grass-grown and irregular Plaza, on the opposite side of the river from the Alcazar, and indeed from the bulk of the houses. This Plaza, wlien I first saw it, on a Sunday afternoon, was thoroughly beautiful and characteristic as a picture of Spanish life. There was a foun- tain in the centre, around which hundreds of peasants were congregated in lively groups, talking at the top of their voices, and all gay with whitest shirt-sleeves, bright-coloured sashes, and velvet breeches, slashed daintily at the knees, to show tlie whiteness of the linen drawers ; and wiien I went on into the church, I found in the Lady Chapel another group of them kneeling before the altar, and following one of their own class in a litany to the Blessed Virgin, the effect of which was striking even to one unable to join in the burthen of the prayer. The cathedral here is said to have been restored by Alonso the First of Aragon, in the year 1110 ; but an old Breviary, cited by Argaiz, fixes the foundation of the present cathedral in 1235,’ ^ Madoz, xiv. pp. 595-599. 378 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVIII. and with this date the earliest part of the existing church agrees very closely. The plan ^ is very good, consisting of a nave of six bays, with aisles and chapels between their buttresses, tran- septs, a lofty Cimborio over the Crossing, and a choir of two bays, ended with a five-sided apse. The chapels in the chevet have mostly been altered, though the first on the north side appears to be original, and proves that the outline of the plan of the chevet could never have been very good. This chapel is four-sided in plan, but much wider at one end than the other, and we must, I fear, give but scant credit to the architect who planned it. The Lady Chapel is a late and poor addition of a very inferior kind, and completely modernized — as indeed is the greater part of the church — on the exterior. On the south side of the cathedral there are old sacristies and a large cloister, of which more presently. The west end seemed to me to have been intended for two steeples, but one only has been com- pleted, and this is on the north side of the north aisle. The remaining portions of the thirteenth-century church have been so much altered that the general effect of the early work is almost entirely destroyed. The columns and arches generally are original ; the former have carved capitals ; many of the latter are slightly horseshoe in shape, and have labels enriched with the dog-tooth ornament. The choir and transepts retain a good simple arcaded triforium, carried on detached shafts, and this returns across the gable-walls of the latter; it is of the simplest early pointed character ; so too are the choir windows, which before their alteration appear to have been lancets, with engaged shafts in their jambs, wliilst in the eastern wall of the transepts are windows of two lancet lights, with a circle above within an enclosing arch. Most of the arches of the nave are adorned with carved fiowers on the chamfers, the effect of which is not good ; indeed I half doubted whether they were not plaster additions, though they seemed to be just too good for this. The choir has two (and only two) flying buttresses ; and as they are evidently of early date, with pinnacles of the very simplest pyramidal outline, they were probably erected to coun- teract a settlement which showed itself immediately after the erection of the church, for there is no evidence of any others having existed. The walls of the apse had originally a richly carved cornice, filled with heads and foliage. The groining of 1 See Plate XXII. I\ilDlis]n.edlDy JoliTi l/l^array, Albemarle S^'1865 /qxx x .v ; ; ; - •*•. if - r ;P-b,-X;' ■¥ „ / c Chap. XVIIl. TARAZONA: CATHEDRAL. 379 the aisles is generally simple and early in date, and quadri- partite in plan : that of the whole of the rest of the choir and nave is of the richest description, and of the latest kind of Gothic. Here, as is so frequently the case all over the world, the builders of one period used an entirely different material from tliat used by those of earlier times ; ^ so that you may tell with tolerable accuracy the date of the work by the material of which it is built. Here the early church was entirely built of stone, but in all the later additions brick is the prevailing material ; and at first sight it is in these later additions that we seem to find almost all the most characteristic work in the church. Many of these additions, as for instance the Churrigueresque alterations of the clerestory, are thoroughly bad and con- temptible ; but some of them, though they damage the unity of effect of the building, and have taken the place of work which one would much rather have seen still intact, are nevertheless striking in themselves. Such is the singular and picturesque Cimborio erected by Canon Juan Munoz ^ in the sixteenth cen- tury ; it is certainly most picturesque, but such a curious and complex combination of pinnacles and turrets built of brick, and largely inlaid with green, blue, and white tiles, is perhaps nowhere else to be seen. It is octagonal in plan, and of three stages in height, the angles of the octagons in the several stages being all counterchanged. Enormous coats of arms decorate the fronts of the buttresses. The whole work is of the very latest possible Gothic, utterly against all rules both in design and decoration, and yet, notwithstanding all this, it is unquestion- ably striking in its effect. The mixture of glazed tiles with brickwork has here been carried to a very great extent, and the result does not, I think, encourage any one to hope for much from this kind of development. This work is not to be com- pared to that at the east end of Zaragoza Cathedral, where a plain piece of wall is carefully covered all over with a rich coloured diaper of brickwork and tiles, which are all harmonious and uniform in character, and — which is equally important — in ^ The fact is worthy of record, from old precedents; yet, if our fore- because in these days, though it is often fathers’ example is to be followed, we manifestly convenient to use a different ought to do as they would have done in material from that which was used by our circumstances. our ancestors, there are many vvell-dis- ^ fjis name occurs in an inscription posed people who object to such a course, on it. as being an unwarrantable departure 380 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVIII. texture, and it has, on the contrary, great similarity to some attempts to combine bricks and tiles which we see made in the present day, and seems to show that these attempts are not to be carelessly encouraged. For even when such work is first exe- cuted, and the brickwork is fresh and neat, I think we always feel that the smooth hard surface of the tile offers rather too great a contrast to the rougher texture of the bricks ; and whilst the former is likely to remain almost unchanged for ever, the latter is certain gradually to grow rougher and ruder in its aspect, until, in the end, we shall have walls showing everywhere pic- turesque marks of age, and yet with their decorations as fresh as if they had but just been introduced. NotluDg can well be worse than this ; for if the appearance of age is to be venerated at all, it must be somewhat uniformly evident ; and it no more answers to permit the decorations on an old and rugged wall to be always new and fresh-looking, than it does to allow a juvenile wig to be put on the venerable head of an old man ! The brick steeple of the cathedral is an inferior example of the same kind as that of la Magdalena, which I shall have pre- sently to describe ; its upper half is modern, and the lowest stage of stone. The west front is all modernized, and the north transept is conspicuous for a large porch of base design, erected probably in the sixteenth century, and exhibiting a curious though very unsuccessful attempt to copy — or perhaps I ought to say caricature — early work. The whole of the clerestory walls have been raised with a stage of brickwork above the windows, which was added pro- bably in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Tlie cloister, built in the beginning of the sixteenth century, by D. Guillen Eamon de Moncada, is a remarkable example of very rich brickwork. It deserves illustration as being of an extremely uncommon style, and withal very effective. All the arches and jambs of the openings are of moulded brick, and there are brick enclosing arches, and a very simple brick cornice outside ; but the delicate traceries which give so much character to the work are all cut in thin slabs of stone let into the brick- work. Of course such a work was not intended for glazing, and was an ingenious arrangement for rendering the cloister cool and unaffected by the sun, even when at its hottest. The forms of the openings here are certainly not good, and look much more like domestic than ecclesiastical work ; but in spite of this one cannot but be thankful for novelty, whenever it is, as here. Chap. XVIT[, TARAZONA : CATHEDRAL 381 legitimately obtained. The brieks are of a very pale red tint, 12-i inches long, inches wide, and from IJ to If thick, and the mortar-joint, as usual, is very thick — generally about f of an inch. The cloister is groined, and probably in brick, but is now plastered or whitewashed unsparingly, and its effect is in o-reat degree ruined. Cloister, 'I’arazona. The sacristies are rather peculiar in their arrangement : they are all groined, and one of them has a small recess in one angle with a chair in it facing a crucifix, of wliicli I could not learn the use. Another of this group of buildings contains a fountain under a small dome, the plashing of whose waters seemed to make it a very popular rendezvous of the people, and made itself heard everywhere throughout the sacristies and their passages. The stalls in the Coro are of very late Gothic, the bishop’s stall, with one on either side of it in the centre of the west end. 382 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVIII. having lofty canopies. The Coro is more than usually separated from the Capilla mayor, and there can be little doubt that it does not occupy its original position. The men wlio built so long a nave would never have done so simply to render its length use- less by so perverse an arrangement of the choir. Here, in fact, the Coro occupies the same kind of position to which one so often sees it reduced in parish churches in Spain, where it is usually either in a western gallery, or at any rate at the extreme western end of the nave, behind everybody’s backs, and apparently out of their minds ! A chapel on the north side of the nave, dedicated to Santiago, has a richly cusped arch opening from it to the aisle, and its vault, springs from large corbels, carved with figures of the four evangelists, rudely but richly sculptured. It is mainly worthy of notice now on account of the beauty of a panel-painting still preserved over the altar : this is painted on a gold back- ground, richly diapered, and the nimbi and borders to the vestments all elaborately raised in gold in high relief. The frame is richly carved with figures of saints, and gilt. The pre- della has on either side of the centre St. John and the Blessed Virgin, and four other holy women ; in the centre a sculpture of our Lord and four saints which serves as a pedestal for a well- posed figure of Santiago ; and on either side of the saint are two pictures with subjects illustrating his life. It is, on tlie whole, a very fine example of the combination of painting and sculpture, of which the Spaniards in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were so fond. The paintings are less realistic than German work of the same age, and, if not so delicately lovely as early Italian works, are yet of great interest and merit. Keturning from the cathedral to the town, and before one crosses to the opposite side of the river, a noble view of the build- ings on the cliff above it is obtained from the bridge. The grandest of these is an enormous bishop’s palace, once I believe the Alcazar ; and close to it is the church of la Magdelena. The interior of this is entirely modernized, but the east end outside is a valuable example of untouched Komanesque. The eastern apse is divided into three by engaged shafts, stopping with caj^itals at the eaves-cornice, which is carried on a very simple corbel- table. To the west of this church is the steeple to which I have already alluded as giving so much of its character to Tarazona. It is a very lofty brick tower, without buttresses, with a solid simple base battering out boldly and effectively, and diapered in its upper stages with the patterns formed by projecting bricks, I'ARAZONA. ca:mpaxilb of la magdaleka. .1:1 Chap. XVI II. TARAZONA: S. MIGUP]L. 388 of which the builders of the brick buildings throughout this dis- trict were so fond. At a very slight exjjense a great effect of enrichment is obtained ; the dark shadows of the bricks under the bright Spanish sunlight define all the lines clearly ; and the uniformity of colour and the absence of buttresses make the general effect sim23le and quiet, notwithstanding the intricacy of the detail. The upper stage of this steeple is, as I need hardly say, a comparatively modern addition, but it no doubt adds to its effect by adding so much to the height, and in colour and design it harmonizes fairly with the earlier work below. The church of La ConcejDcion, not far from this, is a very late Gothic building, with a western gallery whose occupants are quite concealed by stone traceries of the same kind as those in the cloisters of the cathedral. The sanctuary walls here are lined with glazed tiles, and the floor is laid with blue, green, and white tiles, the colour of each of which being half white and half blue or green allows of the whole floor being covered with a diaper of chequer-work, which is very effective and very easily arranged. At the farther end of the city, and on the toj) of the long hill on which it is built, is a church dedicated to San Miguel. This has a simple nave with a seven-sided apse. The groining is all of very late date, the ribs curling down at their intersection as pendants, the under sides of which are cut off to receive bosses which were probably large and of wood. Tliis groining is pro- bably not earlier than the end of the sixteenth century, though the church itself is of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, having two doors of one of these dates : that on the north side has, in most respects, the air of being a work of the thirteenth, but its sculpture seems to 2 >rove that it cannot be earlier than the fourteenth century. It has the Judgment of Solomon carved on one of the capitals, angels in the label, and a figure of St. Michael above. The south doorway is executed in brick and stone, and is of the same date as the other. A brick belfry on the north side is enriched in the same fashion as that of la Magdalena, and, like it, batters out considerably at the base, but it is altogether inferior both in size and design. From Tarazona I made a delightful excursion to the Abbey of Veruela. It is a two hours’ ride, and the path takes one over a hill which conceals the Sierra de Moncayo from sight in most 23arts of Tarazona. The scenery on tlie road was beautiful. 384 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVIIL The town itself is always very striking ; and as we ascended, the views of the distant hills and mountains beyond tlie Ebro were finer and finer. After riding for an hour and a half, a grand view of the whole height of Moncayo is obtained ; below it to the right is a little village guarded by a picturesque castle keep, and on beyond and to the left a long line of roof, and towers, and walls girt around with trees, which seems to promise much to reward examination : and this is the old abbey of Yeruela. At last the avenue is reached, which leads to the abbey gateway, in front of which stands a tall but mutilated cross, which forms the centre from which five paths — each planted with an avenue of trees — diverge. The history of this abbey is interesting. It was the first Cis- tercian house in Spain, and was founded by a certain Don Pedro de Atares, and his mother Teresa de Cajal, who commenced it in A.D. 1146, completed it in 1151, and obtained its formal incorporation in the Cistercian order on the 1st of September of the same year. There was a foundation for twelve monks, who were the first of their order to cross the Pyrenees, and who established themselves definitively here on the 10th August, 1171, under the direction of Bernard, Abbat of Scala Dei.^ 1 suppose the desolate situation of Veruela led to its being carefully fortified, though, indeed, at the date of its foundation, most religious houses were enclosed within fortified walls, and the severe rule of the early Cistercians will account fully for the remote and solitary situation chosen by the brethren who planted this house where we see it : at any rate, whatever the cause, it is now completely surrounded by walls, from which round towers project at intervals. The walls and towers are all perfectly plain, and surmounted with the pointed battlement so often seen in early Spanish buildings. A walled courtyard protects the entrance to the main gateway, and it is in front of this that the avenues mentioned just now all unite. The view here is very peculiar. In front are the low walls of the outer court, with a raised archway in the centre; behind these the higher walls and towers, with a lofty and very plain central gateway, finished with an octagonal stage and low crocheted spire of late date, but pierced at the base with very simple thirteenth-century archways, leading into the inner court. Beyond this, again, is' seen the upper part of the walls and the * Madoz, vol. XV. p. G85. No. 48. ENTRANCE GATEWAY. 1 j I Chap. XV 111. VEKUELA: ABBEY. 385 steeple of the Abbey Church, backed by a bold line of hills. Passing through this gateway, a long narrow court leads to the west front of the church ; and to the right of this court is a long range of buildings, all of which I think are of compara- tively modern erection, though the brickwork in a patio entered by one of the openings is picturescpie and good. The west front of the church has a very noble round-arched doorway, boldly recessed, and with many shafts in the jambs. Above this is a small stone inscribed with the monograms X. P. and A. II. ; and then, higher, a delicate line of arcading carried on slender shafts. All this work is set forward in advance of the general face of the wall. The nave and aisles were each lighted with a plain circular window, and the arcading ujD the eaves of the western gable still remaining shows that its pitch was always very flat. A steeple was built by an Abbat — Loj^e Marco — in the sixteenth century, against the western bay of the north aisle, and before its erection there was, I suppose, no toAver attached to the abbey. In plan ^ the church consists of a nave and aisles six bays in length, transejDts Avith eastern apses, and a choir Avith an aisle round it, and five small apsidal cha23els. To the south of the nave is a large cloister Avith a Chapter-house on its eastern side, and other ranges of buildings on the AA^est and south. To the east, too, are large erections noAv occupied as a private residence, and of Avhich consequently I saAV nothing properly, l)ut Avithout much regret, as they did not seem to show any traces of anti- quity, and had probably been all rebuilt in those halcyon days in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, Avhen Spaniards had more money than they Avell knew hoAV to spend. If Ave compare this cliurch Avith one of the earliest French convents of the same order — as, for instance, Clairvaux — Ave shall find a very remarkable similarity in most of the arrange- ments. In both, the church is approached through a long narroAV court, to AAdiich it is set in a slightly oblique line. In both, the extreme simplicity, the absence of sculptures, the absence of a steeple, are observed in compliance Avith the fundamental rules of the Order. Both have their cloisters similarly placed, Avith similar Chapter-houses, and lavatories projecting from their southern alleys. The sacristies and the great libraries are in the same position — though here the latter has been converted 2 c 1 See Plate XXIII. 386 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVIII. into an enornious hall — and there are here groups of buildings all round the cloister, which were probably appropriated much in the same way as were those at Clair vaux. Both, too, were enclosed in a very similar way with walls and towers, though at Clairvaux the enclosure was far larger than at Yeruela. It is clear, therefore, that the French monks who were brought here to found this first Spanish Cistercian house, came with the plan approved by their Order, and it is probable with something more than the mere ground-plan, for the whole of the work is such as might at the same date have been erected in France. The whole exterior of the church is very fine, though severely simple. The west front has already been described. The exterior of the chevet is more striking. The roofs of the chapels which surround it finish below the corbel-table of the aisle, which has a steepish roof finishing below the clerestory ; and the latter is divided into five bays by plain pilasters. All the eaves have corbel -tables, and the windows throughout are round- headed. The chapels on the eastern side of the transepts are of the same height as the aisle round the choir, and higher than the chapels of the chevet. The design of the interior, though very simple, is extremely massive and dignified. The main arches are all pointed, the groining generally quadripartite (save in the small apses, which are roofed with semi-domes), and the piers large and well planned. Many of the old altars remain ; and among them the high altar in the choir, and those in the chapels of the chevet. The former is arcaded along its whole front, but has been altered somewhat in length at no very distant period. Near it is a double piscina., formed by a couple of shafts with capitals hollowed out with multifoil cusping. The chapel altars are all like each other, and unlike the high altar, which is solid, whilst they are stone tables, each supported upon five detached shafts. They stand forward from the walls in the centre of the apses, and have rudely carved and planned piscime, and credence niches on the right-hand side as you face them. The stones are marked in all directions by the masons, some of them with a mere line across from angle to angle, but mostly with marks of the usual quaint description. A number of examples of them are given on the engraving of the ground- plan. Some part of the floor is laid with blue and wliite tiles, No. 49. VERUELA ABBEY CHURCH. p, 386. INTERIOR. / ir': ■■ M ; i ;.| i Chap. XVIll. VEKUELA : ABBEY. 387 arranged in chevrons with good effect, and other parts with toinl^stones of Abbats, whose effigies are carved on them in low Chapel Altar, Veruela. relief. They are flatter than the somewhat similar stones in some of the Gferman churches (as e.g. at S. Elizabeth, Marburg) blit are still a great deal too uneven on the surface to be suit- able for a pavement. The capitals are all very rudely sculptured, and the whole of the work has the air of extreme severity, almost of rudeness, which might be anticipated from the circumstances of its erection. A chapel was built in the sixteentli century to the north of the north transept by Ferdinand of Aragon, Bishop of Zaragoza, and nephew of Ferdinand the Catholic. It has nothing remark- able in its design. Later than this a large chapel was added to the east of the sacristy ; and from what still remains of the fittings of tlie Coro in the nave, they seem to have been still later in date. A fine late Eomanesque door leads from the south aisle into the cloister, the whole of which is a good work of the early part of the fourteenth century, with well-traceried windows of four lights. The groining piers are clusters of shafts, and the buttresses on the outside are finished with crocheted gables and a bold cornice carved with foliage. The traceries are now all filled in with very thin panels of alabaster, which do not obscure the light much, whilst they effectually keep out the sun ; but this precaution against sunshine does not seem to have been much needed, if the men were right who raised a second stage 2 c 2 388 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVIH. upon the old cloister, tlie Renaissance arcades of ^Yhicll are all left perfectly open. On the southern alley of the cloister tliere is a very pretty hexagonal projecting chamber, in which no doubt — if we may judge by the analogy of Clairvaux — was once the lavatory. The cloister has been built in front of, and without at all disturbing, the original Chapter-house, on its east side. The new groining shafts stand detached in front of the old arcade to the Chapter-house, and the combination of the two is managed very cleverly and picturesquely. This old arcade Entrance to Chapter-House, Veruela. consists of the usual arrangement of a central doorway, with two openings on either side, all carried on clusters of detached shafts with capitals of foliage. The Chapter-house itself is divided into nine groining bays by four detached shafts; it is very low and small, and its three eastern windows are blocked u]), but nevertheless its effect is admirable. One of its columns has been spoilt by the elaborate cutting in of the names of a [>arty of Englishmen who ascended the Sierra de Moncayo to see the eclipse of tlie sun in 1860, and who recorded their not very hazardous or important achievement in this most barbarous fashion. It is a fact quite worth notice here, that none of the old Avindows are blocked up : the truth is that the churches from winch this was deiived Avere, in common with all Romanesque churches, taken straight from Italy, where the requirements of Chav. XVni. TARAZONA : CROCKERY-WARE. 389 tlie climate were very similar to those of Spain. Yet it was only very gradually that the northern architects discovered their unfitness for a northern climate, and increased their dimen- sions. Here they give just enough and not too much light ; but at a later day, when the northern churches were all window from end to end, the saaie fault was committed ; and when their architects were employed to build in other climates, they fol- lowed their own traditions witliout I’eference to altered circum- stances, as we see at Milan, at Leon, and elsewliere frequently. The cliurch at Veruela seems now to be but little frequented, the high altar alone being ever used. The stalls of the Coro are gone, and a shattered fragment of the old organ-case standing out from the wall serves only as a forlorn mark to show where it once stood. The buildings generally are sadly decayed and ruinous, and I have seldom seen a noble building less cared for or respected. It is sad to see this result of the suppression of religious orders, and one may be permitted to doubt whether it can be for the interest of religion that this noble foundation should now be nothing more than the private residence of a Spanish gentleman, instead of — as it was intended it should be by its pious founder — a perpetual refuge from the cares of the world of those in every age who aim to lead the holiest and most devoted lives. I left Yeruela with regret that I was unable to obtain more accurate notes of such portions of the monastic buildings as probably still remain overlaid with the poor additions of a too wealthy convent during the last three centuries. It is, however, easily accessible, and the plan which I give of the church will no doubt soon induce others to complete my examination wherever it has been defective. On the ride back to Tarazona, we made a short detour to loolv at what seemed to be an important church and village. Neitlier could well have been less so ! The church was without anything worth remark save a band of tiles, set chevron fashion, in the cornice, and not harmonizing at all well with tlie walls. The village was wretched in the extreme. At Tarazona I was much struck by the extremely good character of the common crockery in use in the inn and else- where. It is all painted by hand, never printed ; and the result is that, even when simple diapers only are used, there is far greater life, variety, and vigour in the drawing than there ever is in our machine-made work. The colour seems generally to 890 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XVIII. be used in such a way as that when burnt it varies charmingly in tint and texture. Every plate is different in pattern ; and I fear that, uncivilized as we might think these good Spaniards in some things, they would be justly shocked were they to see the wretchedly inferior patterns with which, after many years of talking about art, we are still satisfied to decorate our earthen- ware. These people excel, too, just as much in form as in ornament. Their jugs are always quaint and good in outline, and made with tlie simplest regard to what is useful. VtiRUflm HBBttY: -Ground Plan of tljr Gljnn'l; it; FlJileXXIIl, XI k: -rn p S/-t]L 2^U A X 'cpv<, \ m I on tke Ijed \ Q) o£ Slone, j itasons Marks on face of walls of Clmrcli . Coliimus ill Nave, ’/4-rnclx to a Foot. Court Tanl & Avenue ketweeiv the Clmrclr the Ahhey Gateway. C OTix' t Y a r fl Before 1200 | 13 IP CertUirv^ lYP Century! LYKuCPCeTi(V.| IModern. i-xtiEeet . '/(■' Jleh'M W.Yest, LiYT Pntlisliecl Gy JoGia Murray, ALGemarle SP 1865 . CfiAP. XIX. TUDKLA : CA'I HEDKAL 31)1 CHAPTER XIX. TUBE LA — OLITE — PAMPLONA. From Zaragoza the railway to Paiu])loiia passes by Tudela. The line is carried all the way along the valley of tlie Ebro, the southern side of which is a fairly level open country, wliilst on the north bold, barren hills, stream-Avorn and furrowed in all directions, rise immediately above the river. The broad VcRlcy through Avhich the railway passes is well covered Avith corn-land, Avhich, Avhen I first passed, Avas rich Avith crops. To the south, as Tudela is approached, are seen the bold ranges of the Sierra de IMoncayo, Avhilst in the ojAjDosite direction, far off to the north, soon after leaving Zaragoza the grand and snowy outlines of the Pyrenees come in sight. Alagon is the only considerable town passed on the road, and there seems to be here an old brick belfry of the same character as the great steeple of Zaragoza, and, like it also, very much out of the perpendicular. The cathedral dedicated to Sta. Maria at Tudela is one of the same noble class of church as those of Tarragona and Lerida, and quite Avorthy in itself of a long pilgrimage. It is said by Madoz to have been commenced in a.d. 1135, and consecrated in 1188, and was at first served by Regular clergy, but Secu- larized in 1238. It is slightly earlier in date than the churches just mentioned, yet some of its sculpture, as Avill be seen, has, perhaps, more affinity to the best French aabiP, and is indeed more advanced in style, than that with Avhich the other tAvo churches are decorated. This may be accounted for, most pro- bably, by its more immediate neighbourhood to France. Its scale is fairly good without approaching to being gi-and, and thus it affords a good illustration of the great power which the medi- eval architects undoubtedly possessed, of giving an impression of vastness even Avith very moderate dimensions, and of securing a thoroughly cathedral-like effect in a building much smaller in all its dimensions than the ordinary cathedral of the middle ages. Xo power is more to be desired by an architect ; none marks more distinctly the abyss betAveen the artist and the 892 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XIX. mere mechanical builder; and none has been more lost sight of during the three centuries which have elapsed since the eclipse of the Feinted style in the sixteenth century. We see here the usual subdivisions of parts, all well-proportioned and balanced. The nave^ is of four bays only in length, and this is now, and perhaps was always in great part, occupied by the Coro : but, on the other band, the proportions of the transept are very tine, and its internal perspective compensates in great degree for the loss of that of the nave. Out of this transept five arches in the east wall open to the choir and to four chaj^els, two on either side : and it is remarkable tliat two of tliese have square east ends, wliilst all the rest have circular apses. The plan of the columns is almost identical with that seen at Tarragona and Lerida : but it is one of which the eye is never satiated,^ inasmuch as it is well defined in its outlines, strong and massive-looking, and evidently equal to all that it has to per- form. The vaulting is all quadripartite, except in the two eastern chapels on each side of the centre apse, or Capilla mayor, which are roofed with semi-domes, the Capilla mayor having its apse groined in five bays, with very bold groining ribs. The arches are all pointed, very simply moulded with bold, broad, flat soffeits, generally of only one order, and with labels adorned with dog-tooth. The bases and abaci of the capitals are all square. The former have the transition from the circular members to the square managed with admirable skill, tufts of foliage occupying the angles. The latter throughout the church are deej3 and boldly carved, as also are the capitals themselves. These seem to l)e of different dates : all those on the eastern side of the transept, and all the lower capitals of the nave, save the west end and first column, being very classical in their design, and probably dating from early in the thirteenth century, whilst the remainder appear to be generally of the latter part of the same century. In the earlier capitals the abaci are all set square with the walls, whereas in the later work they are set at right angles to the arch which they have to carry, and often, there- fore, at an angle of 45° to the walls. The groining ribs are very bold, and well moulded. There is no triforium, and the clerestory windows come down to a string- course just above the points of the main arches. They are of two lights, Avith a circle in the arched head, and their rear ardies are moulded and carried on engaged jamb-shafts. The See ground-plan, Plate XXIV. No 50 rUDEL'V l^ATHEDRAE. p. 392 . INTERIOR u? CnOTR I 1 -1 ' ■, rojecting chapel on the south-west angle is exceed- ingly delicate in its construction, and is screened from the cloister with iron grilles. A quaintly trimmed box-garden occupies the cloister-court to the no small im}wovement of its effect. On the eastern side is the Chapter-house ; a very remarkable work of 231’obably the same age as the cloister, though of a simj^ler, bolder, and much more grand kind of design. It is square in plan, but the vault is octagonal, the angles of the square being arched and covered with small subordinate vaults below the s|3ringing of the main vault. Buttresses are placed outside to resist the thrust of each of the eight |3rincipal ribs of the octagonal vault ; and these buttresses, being all |3laced in the same direction as the ribs, abut against the square outline of the building in the most singular and, at first sight, unintelligible manner. They are carried uj) straight from the ground nearly to the eaves, wliere they are weathered back and finished with square crocheted 23innacles ; wljilst between them an 02)en arcade is carried all round just below the eaves. On the exte- rior this Cha^fierdiouse seems to be so far removed from the east end of the church as to have hardly any connection with it ; they are separated by houses built u}3 close to their walls, and 23resent consequently a not very im2)osing effect from the exterior ; and standing, as the Cha23ter-house does, just on the edge of the city walls, it is strange that it has fared so well in the many attacks that have been made on Pam}3lona. The interioi* is remarkable only for the grand scale and jDi’opoidions of the vault with which it is covered. There are several other old churches here which deserve notice, though none are on a very fine or grand scale. That of San Saturnino — the first Bisho23 of Painj3lona — is remarkable chiefiy for the very unusual 23lanning of its eastern end, which has three unequal sides, out of wdiicli three unequal cha23els open.^ My im})ression is that there was never any altar under the great apse, but that the high altar stood in the central chapel, at its east end. The Coro is, and jDrobably was always intended to be, in the western gallery, the under 1 See ground-plan on Plate XXV. Chap. XIX. PAMPLONA ; CHURCHES. 407 side of which is groined, and any arrangement of stalls on the floor of such a church would be obviously inconvenient and out of 2:>lace. Two towers are built against the easteiTi bay of the nave. The window tracery is of good geometrical middle- pointed character, and the mouldings and other details all seem to prove that the church was built about the middle of the four- teenth century. Tlie south doorway has the rare feature at this period of capitals histories ; on the left hand are the Annun- ciation, the Salutation, the Nativity, and the Flight into Egypt ; and on the right our Lord bearing His Cross, the Descent from the Cross, the Kesurrection, and the Descent into Hell. The Crucifixion forms the finial of the canopy over the door- way, and three or four other subjects are concealed by the modern framework round the door. There seems to be no reason why the idea of such a plan as this should not be adopted again : the termination of the nave by a kind of apsis, from one side of which the chancel projects, is extremely good, and perhaps, on the whole, the best way of effecting the change from the grand span of so broad a nave to the moderate dimen- sions (just half those of the nave) of the chancel. Such a church would probably hold about six hundred worshippers, all in sight of the altar, and might, with advantage to its })roportions, be lengthened by the addition of another bay ; and, simple as all its parts would be, it would be a relief to eyes wearied by the flimsy weakness of our modern Gothic work to look upon any- thing which could not possibly be constructed without solid walls, massive buttresses, and some degree of constructive skill. The church of San Nicolas is of Komanesque date, but much altered and added to at later periods. It consists of a nave and aisles of three bays, a Crossing, and a short eastern polygonal apse. The nave aisles retain their original waggon vaults, with trans- verse ribs at intervals ; but the other vaults are all quadripartite. The clerestory of the nave, too, consists of broad unpierced lancets, which are probably coeval with the arcades below them. The exterior of this church is very much obscured by modern additions and excrescences, but still retains some features of much interest. There is a fine early western door, and above this a rose window filled with rich geometrical tracery, over which is a very boldly projecting pointed arch, which abuts aaainst a tower on the north and against a massive buttress on the south. The walls appear to have been finished at the eaves 40S GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chai*. XIX. with very bold machicoulis. At a much later date than that of the church a lofty open cloister, with plain pointed arches, was added on the western and northern sides. On either side of the apse of this church, in front of the Eetablo and altar, are what look like two tabernacles for the reservation of the Sacrament : but I had no opportunity of learning the object of this double arrangement. The views from the walls of Pamplona are eminently lovely ; I remember looking across to the east, over the flat which stretches away from them to where the mountains begin to rise boldly beyond ; and, as my eyes wandered on, I began to turn my thoughts eagerly homewards, and much as I had enjoyed the Spanisli journey which ended at Pamplona, there was perhaps no part of it which I enjoyed more than this, where I was ungrateful enough to Spain to allow everything to be seasoned by tlie near prospect of home. 4c 1 Chap. XX. INFLUENCE OF THE MOORS. 409 CHAPTEE XX. GENERAL SUMMARY. It is time, now that I have described so many Spanish Gothic buildings in detail, to nndertake a somewhat more general classification of them, both in regard to their history and their style. Hitherto I have spoken of each building by itself, only endeavouring to give so clear and concise an account of each as was necessary in order that their general character might be understood. But this kind of account would be incomplete and almost useless without a more generalizing and more sys- tematic summary of the whole. And to this I propose to devote this chapter. There are, indeed, few parts of Europe in which it is more easy to detect the influence of History upon Art than it is in Spain. I dismiss from consideration the period of the Visi- gothic rule, which lasted from a.d. 417 to 717 ; for though it is possible that some works of this age still exist, as e.g. part of the walls of Toledo, and the metal votive crowns of Guarrazar, they do not really come within the scope of my subject, inas- much as there is no kind of evidence that they exercised any influence over the architecture of the Christian parts of the country after the Moorish interregnum. From the first invasion by the Moors in a.d. 711 down to their expulsion from Granada in a.d. 1492, their whole history is mixed up with that of the Christians ; and, as might be ex- pected, so great was the detestation in which the two races held each other, that neither of them borrowed to any great extent from the art of the other, and accordingly we see two streams of art flowing as it were side by side at the same time, and often in the same district, — a circumstance, as I need hardly say, almost, if not quite, unknown at the same period in any other part of Europe. The Mosque at Cordoba in the ninth century, the Alcazar and Giralda at Seville in thirteenth, the Court of Lions in the Alhambra in the fourteenth, some of the houses in Toledo in the fifteenth century, are examples of Avhat the Moors were building during the very period of the Middle Ages in 410 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. which all the buildings which I have described and illustrated were being erected ; the only exception to be made to this general statement being, that when the Christians vanquished the Moors they usually continued to allow them to build somewhat in their own fashion, — as, for example, they did in Toledo, — whilst on the other hand, the Moors seem never to have imitated this example, though they were of course utterly unable to suppress all evidence in their work of any knowledge of Gothic buildings. The reason of this was, no doubt, that throughout this period any contrast drawn between the Moors and Christians in regard to civilization would generally, if not always, have been in favour of the former. They were accomplished both in art and science : their architectural works would have been impossible except to a very refined people, and their scientific attainments are evi- denced even to the present day by the system of artificial irri- gation which they everywliere introduced, and which even now remains almost unaltered and unimproved. The Christians, on the contrary, were warlike and hardy, and in the midst of con- stant wars had but scant time for the pursuit of art ; and finally, when they had re-established their supremacy, they wisely allowed the Moors to remain under their rule when they would, and em- ployed them to some extent on the works in which they could not fail to see that they excelled. Again, the subdivision of the country into several kingdoms, administered under varying laws, owing no common allegiance to any central authority, and inhabited by people of various origin, might well be expected to leave considerable marks on the style of the buildings ; though, at the same time, the an- tipathy which the inhabitants of all of them felt for the Moors rendered this cause less operative than it would otherwise liave been. Some portions of the country liad never been conquered by the Saracens : such were the regions of the Pyrenees lying betwixt Aragon and Navarre, the Asturias, Biscay, and the northern portion of Galicia.* And though it was by degrees that the other states freed themselves from their conquerors, it happened fortunately that the Christian successes generally syiichronized as nearly as possible with that great development of Christian art which at the time covered all parts of Europe witli the noblest Examples of Pointed Architecture. Toledo was recovered by the Christians in a.d. 1085, Tarragona in 1089, Za- ragoza in 1118, Lerida in 1149, Valencia in 1239, Seville in 1248, 1 Morales, lib, 12, cap. 76 . Chap. XX. SUBDIVISION OF THE COUNTRY. 411 whilst Segovia, Leon, Burgos, Zamora, and Santiago suffered more or less from occasional irruptions of the Moors down to the beginning of tlie eleventh century, but from that date were practically free from molestation. By the middle of tlie fifteenth century the number of states into which the country had been divided was reduced to four, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and the Moorish kingdom of Granada. Of tliese Aragon and Castile are the two of which I have seen tlie most, and, I may venture to add, those in which the History of Gothic Architecture in Spain is properly to be studied. For though it is true that Seville was recovered in the thirteenth century, and Cordoba about the same time, it is equally so that most of their buildings are Moorish or modern, the Gothic cathedral in the former not having been com- menced until A.D. 1401, and the Moorish mosque in the latter still doing service as the Christian cathedral ; and generally through- out the South of Spain, so far as I can learn, there are but few early Gothic buildings to be seen ; whilst the late examples of the style were designed by the same architects, and in precisely the same style, as those which were erected in the parts of Spain which I have visited. Of these two great divisions of the country, Aragon included the province of that name, together with Cataluiia and Valencia; and owing to the great political freedom which the Catalans in particular enjoyed at an early period, to the vast amount of trade with Italy, the Mediterranean, and the East carried on along its extensive seaboard, and to its large foreign possessions — which included the Balearic Isles, Naples, Sicily, and Sar- dinia — the kingdom of Aragon possessed great wealth and power, and has left magnificent architectural remains. The kingdom of Castile in course of time came to include, in addition to the two Castiles, Leon, Biscay, the Asturias, Galicia, Estremadura, Murcia, and Andalusia : and here there was not only a larger Spanish territory, but one peopled by a much more varied population than that of Aragon, and which naturally, I think, left a less distinct architectural impress than we see in the other. Each of these kingdoms of course inherited a certain number of buildings erected under the rulers who had formerly held the country. It is possible that some portion of the walls of Toledo were built by the Goths ; and at any rate we know by the for- tunate discovery of the crowns at Guarrazar,^ that, whatever may liave been the state of the people in respect of other arts, that of working in precious metals was in an advanced state. 1 Seep. 212. 412 GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. The Moors who succeeded them undertook undoubtedly large works in many parts of the country. They first built the Bridge of Alcantara across the Tagns at Toledo, and enclosed several towns with strong walls, among others Valencia and Talavera. They erected mosques and other public buildings, and before the Christian conquests of the eleventh century had no doubt imported much of a very advanced civilization into the country which they ruled. The mosque “ Cristo de la Luz,” at Toledo, is a remarkable example of delicate skill in design and construction, and certainly in advance of the coeval Christian works. The ingenuity of the planning of the vaults is extreme, and though, at the same time, there is to our eyes an error in trying to do so much in so very small a space — nine vaulting compartments covered with varied vaults being contrived in a chamber only 2 1 feet square — it is to be observed that this is just one of the mistakes which arises from over-great educa- tion and skill, and is in marked contrast to the kind of design which we see in the simple, grave, but rude buildings which the less cultivated Christians were erecting at the same period. Of the early Christian buildings I think there can be but little doubt that some at least still exist. There is no one year in Spanish history which can be used as that of the Norman Conquest is in England. Here people are accustomed to argue as though before and after a.d. 1066 two entirely different styles existed, with few, if any, marks of imitation of one from tlie other, though of course both must have had the same common Homan origin. This cannot be said in Spain ; and where we find distinct and good evidence of the erection of churches in the ninth and tenth centuries, and the buildings still standing, with every architectural evidence of not being more modern than the eleventh century, I see not why we should doubt their greater antiquity. For looking to the solid way in which all these early works were built, it seems to be extremely unlikely that they should have required rebuilding so soon, or that, if they were rebuilt, not only should older stones with inscriptions recording the dates be inserted in the new walls, but also that no kind of evidence — documentary or other — should be forthcoming as to their reconstruction. Several inscriptions on foundation-stones are given by Cean Bermudez,^ and I regret never having been able to examine the buildings in which they occur. One of the earliest of these, Sta. Cruz de Cangas, is described as having a crypt; and a 1 Noticias de los Arq. de Espaiia, i. 1-14. Chap. XX. EAllLY CHRISTIAN BUILDINGS. 413 long inscription, with the date 73d, on a stone in it is given by Florez.^ But I gather from Mr. Ford that the church has now been modernized. Cean Bermudez describes it as strong, arched, and without ornament.” Another church at Santiahes de Pravia has a labyrinthine inscrijAion of a.d. 776, recording its erection by the King Silo. This church was very small, but had a Capilla mayor, two side chapels, a Crossing, and three naves ; in fact, was in plan completely and exactly what the Spanish churches of the twelfth century were ; and in this case it may, perhaps, be doubted whether the inscription referred to the church described, and was not taken from some older building. But the most interesting probably of these early churches is that of Sta. Maria de Naranco, near Oviedo. This is described and illustrated by Parcerisa,^ and is undoubtedly a most remarkable example, though unfortunately I can find no reliable evidence as to its probably very early date. It seems to be planned with a view to a congregation outside the church joining in the w^orship within, there being galleries and open arches at the ends through which the altar might be seen. I confess that the details which I have seen, as well as the plans and views of this church, and of some portions of Oviedo Cathedral, to which a similarly early date is ascribed, do not give me the impression of work whicli is sufficiently distinct in style to be pronounced, as the Spanish writers have it, “ obra de Godos,” or work of the Goths. Yet it is undoubtedly of early date, and pro- bably, at any rate, not later than the tenth or eleventh century. TTie detail is Bomanesque, and the modification of plan in such a building seems to point to some special use for it rather than to some special age for its erection. On the other hand, there is some reason to suppose that the church at Santiago, which existed before the erection of the present cathedral, was very similar in its plan C if so, it would seem to fortify the claim for a very early date for Sta. Maria de Naranco. I have thought it right to refer to these buildings on account of the great age ascribed to some of them ; but I have done so witli some hesitation, because I have not seen them myself, and it is impossible to form any good opinion upon such questions as arise in connexion with them Avithout careful personal examination. It is a relief, therefore, to turn now to more certain ground, and to speak of churches which I have myself seen. I think the earliest of these are the two old churches of San Pablo and 1 Esp. Sag., vol. xxxvii. p. 86-7. 2 Recuerdos y Bellezas de Esp., Ast. y Leon, p. 76 and 244. 3 See the account of it in the Historia Compostellana, lib. i. cap. 78. 414 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. San Pera, at Barcelona, said to have been built in a.d. 914 and 983. I see no reason whatever to doubt these dates ; at least it is improbable that if San Pablo was built in 914 it should have required rebuilding before the end of the next century ; and no one I suppose would suggest a later date for it tlian this. In any case it is a valuable example. The ground-plan is cruciform, with a central lantern and three eastern apses ; and the roofs are all covered with waggon vaulting and semi- domes. The plan is quite worthy of very attentive considera- tion, since with more or less modification of details it is that wliich more than any other may be said to have been popular in Spain in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The question as to the quarter from whence it was derived is one of the greatest possible interest, and admits, I think, of but little doubt. It must be remembered that in considering these questions there are no Pyrenees. The towns on what is now the French side of the mountains were not then Frencli; and such places as S. Fine were not only really Spanish, but so intimate was the connexion existing between them and places at a greater distance (as e.g. Carcassonne), that for our purpose they may fairly be considered as being in the same country. The plan which we see in San Pablo del Campo is one which, having its origin in the East, spread to the north of Italy, was adopted largely in Provence, Auvergne, and Aquitaine, and was probably imported from thence to Barcelona. The central lantern and the three eastern apses are rather Byzantine than Bomanesqne in their origin ; and though they are not common in Italy, they are occasionally met with ; whilst in the parts of I'T’ance just mentioned they are of frequent occurrence. The church which I coupled with this — San Pedro de las Puellas, in the same city — was consecrated in a.d. 983 ; it is also cruci- form, but has no chapels east of the transepts. Here, too, we have waggon-vaults, and a central dome. The little church of San Daniel,^ at Gerona, not much later ])robably in date than those first mentioned, is mainly remarkable for the apsidal north and south ends of its transepts. This common German arrangement is most rarely seen in Spain, and deserves especial notice. Here it is coupled with a central octagonal lantern, which has a very good effect. It is repeated very nearly in the church at Tarrasa, and so far as the apses at the end of the transept in tlie church of San Pedro, Gerona ; * See p. 331. I am not certain as to the dedication. I refer to the small church near San Pedro de los Galligans. Chap. XX. ELEVENTtI AND TWELFTH CENTURIES. 415 and there is considerable similarity between the latter and the cathedral at Le Puy en Velay. The succeeding century shows ns the same type of plan be- coming much more popular^ and developed again in such close imitation of some foreign examples as to make it almost impos- sible to doubt its foreign origin. In these buildings the nave has usually a waggon-vault, and this is supported by half barrel- vaults in the aisles. There is no clerestory ; a central lantern rises to a moderate height ; and three eastern apsidal cha]:)els open into the transepts, and are roofed with semi-domes. San Pedro, Huesca — probably not later in date than a.d. 1096-1150 — is a remarkably good and early example of the class ; and will be found to be extremely similar to some of the churches built about the same time on the other side of the Pyrenees. The plan of the steeple^ — which is hexagonal — deserves special record ; and it may not be amiss to observe, that at T'arbes, in the Pyrenees, the principal church not only has three eastern apses, but also a central octagonal steeple ; and the same type is again repeated at San Pedro, Gerona — said to have been commenced in a.d. 1117 — though here there are two apses on each side of the principal altar, and all the detail of the design is very Italian, or perhaps I should rather say Pro- vencal, in its character. If we compare some of these clmrclies with the earlier portions of the cathedral at Carcassonne, ^Ye shall find them to be almost identical in character and detail, and cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that tliey were all designed by the same school of architects or masons. Carcassonne Cathedral has a nave and aisles divided by columns formed of a square block, with an engaged shaft on each face : the covering of the nave is a waggon-vault with square ribs on its under side, and that of the aisles is a quadrant. It is, in fact, almost identical with San Pedro at Gerona. Go farther east, and in the church at Monistrol, between Le Puy and S. Etienne, the same design precisely will be seen in a remote French village far from Spain. About this period a type of church varying but little from this became extremely common in Aquitaine and Auvergne ; and this again evidently influenced at least one of the Spanish architects very much indeed : I allude to such churches as those of Notre Dame du Port, Clermont Eerrand, and S. Sernin at Toulouse — to name two only out of a large number. In these the ground-plan has usually nave and aisles, transepts, central lantern, and a chevet consisting of an a|)sidal choir with a sur- ' For illustration, &C:, see p. 3GG, and Plate XXL 416 GOTHIC AHCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. rounding aisle, and chapels openiug into it, with spaces between each chapel. This plan, as I have already shown, is absolutely repeated at Santiago with such close accuracy that one can hardly avoid calling it merely a reproduction of S. Sernin at Toulouse.^ It is the more remarkable because for some reason the early Spanish architects almost always avoided the erection of a regular chevet, and adhered strictly to their first plan of separate apsidal chapels on the eastern side of the transept. But whilst the early French chevet was only copied at Santiago, the other features of the French churches to which it belonged were copied not unfrequently — these are the waggon-vaulted nave, supported by half waggon-vaults over the aisles, and the central lantern. Gradually the design of these various parts was develoj^ed into a sort of stereotyped regularity, the instances of which extend so far across to the Peninsula as to be very surprising to those who have noticed the remarkable way in which local peculiarities generally confine themselves to the particular districts in which they originated. In course of time the groining was varied, and in place of the round barrel-vault, one of pointed section was adopted, and in place of it again the usual quadripartite vault. The examples wliich I have de- scribed, and which belong to this class, are — San Isidore, Leon ; San Vicente and San Pedro, Avila ; several churches in Segovia ; the old Cathedral at Salamanca ; Lerida old Cathedral ; Sta. Maria, Benevente ; and Santiago, la Coruna. Other churches of precisely similar character exist at Yaldedios, near Gijon ; Villa- nueva and Villa Mayor, near Ona ; San Antolin de Bedon, between liibadella and Llanes ; Sandoval, on the river Esla ; San Juan de Amandi and Tarbes, on the French side of the Pyrenees. Those in Segovia may be accepted as the best examples of their class, and they are so closely alike in all their details as to lead naturally to the belief that they were all executed at about the same period, and by the same work- men. The sack of tlie city by the Moors in 1071, when it is said that thirty churches Avere destroyed, seems to point to the period at which most of these churches Avere probably erected to take the place of tliose that had been destroyed; and it seems to be certain that their leading features remained 1 Botli these churches are planned vault of the nave is struck ; and all the upon pi’ecisely the same system of pro- subordinate divisions are also so exactly portions founded upon the equilateral marked that there is hardly room for triangle. Taking the width of the nave doubt that the system was distinctly and aisles as the base, the apex of the recognised, and intentionally acted on. triangle gives the eentre from which the CiTAP. XX. COPIES OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 4]7 generally unaltered until about the end of the twelfth, if not far into the succeeding century. Indeed it is remarkable in Spain, just as it is in Germany, that the late Eomanesque style, having once been introduced, retained its position and f vestige longer than it did in F ranee, and was only supplanted finally by designs brought again from France in a later style, instead of developing into it through the features of first-] )ointed, as was the case in England and France. In this general similarity there are several subordinate varia- tions to be observed. At Santiago, for instance, we see an almost absolute copy of the great church of S. Sernin, Tou- louse, erected soon after its original had been completed. At Lugo it is clear, I think, that the arcliitect of the cathedral copied, not from any foreign Avork, but from that at Santiago : he was probably neither acquainted with the church at Toulouse, nor any of its class. At San Vicente, Avila, again, though we see the Segovian eastern apses repeated with absolute accuracy, the design of the church is modified in a most important manner by the introduction of quadripartite vaulting in place of the waggon-vault, and the piercing the wall above the nave arcades with a regular triforium and clerestory. The same design was repeated with little alteration at San Pedro, in the same city ; and in both it seems to me that we may detect some foreign influence, so rare was the introduction of the clerestory in Spanish build- ings of the same age. Sta. Maria, la Coruiia, again, though it evidently belongs to the same class as the cathedral at Santiago, has certain peculiarities which identify it absolutely with that variation which we see at Carcassonne and Monistrol : ^ for here there are narrow aisles; and the three divisions of the church are all covered with waggon-vaults, those at the sides resisting the thrust from the centre, and, owing to tlieir slight width, exerting but slight pressure on the outer walls. The distinction between this design and one in which the aisles are covered with quadrant- vaults is very marked ; and the erection of the cathedral at Santiago would not have been very likely to lead to the design of such a church as this. In all these churches the proportion of the length of the choir to that of the nave is very small. Usually the apses are either simply added against the eastern wall of the transe]>t, or else, whilst the side apses are built on this plan, the central 1 The Mouistrol I refer to is the village between S. Etienne ami Le Pny, and not the place of the same name at the foot of Monserrat, in Cataluiia. 2 E 418 GOTHIC AECHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. apse is leiigtliened by the addition of one bay between the Cross- ing and the apse. It is very important to mark this plan, be- cause, however it was introduced — whether in such churches as that of the abbey of Yeruela, where the conventual arrangement of Citeaux was imported, or in those earlier churches of which San Pedro, Gerona, may be taken as an example, in which from the first no doubt the choir was transferred to the nave, and the central apse treated only as a sanctuary — the result was the same on Spanish architecture and Spanish ritual. The Church found herself in possession of churches with short eastern apses and no choirs ; and instead of retaining the old arrangement of the choir, close to and in face of the altar, she admitted her laity to the transept, divorced the choir from the altar, and invented those church arrangements which puzzle ecclesiologists so much. In our own country the same system to some extent at first prevailed ; but our architects took a different course ; they re- taineil their choirs, prolonged them into the nave, and so con- trived without suffering the separation of the clergy from the altar they serve, which we see in Spain. ^ In one great English church only has the Spanish system been adopted, and this, strangely enough, in the most complete fasiiion. IVestminster Abbey, in fact, will enable any one to understand exactly what the arrangement of a Spanish church is. Its short choir, just large enough for a sumptuous and glorious altar, its Crossing exactly fitted for the stalls of the clergy and choir, its nave and transepts large enough to liold a magnificent crowd of wor- shippers, are all mis-used just as they would be in Spain ; whilst the modern arrangements for the people — much more mistaken than they are there — involve tlie possession of the greater part of the choir by the laity, and the entire cutting off by very solid metal fences of all the wwshippers in the transepts from the altar before which they are supposed to kneel, and the placing of the entire congregation between the priest and the altar.^ This digression will be excused when it is remembered how universally this tradition settled itself upon Spain, and how com- pletely the perseverance in Romanesque traditions has affected ^ E. (j., St. Albans, Winchester Catlie- think it would be a great gain if the dral, St. Cross Chapel. metal screens across the transepts were 2 The parallel holds good in very moved so as to form the narrow central small matters. At Westminster the passage from the choir to the altar, so clergy and choir assemble in the choir, common in Spain. They would then and begin the service so soon as have some meaning and use, which they the clock strikes. Tn several Spanish certainly have not now. churches the same' custom obtains. 1 Chap. XX. ABBEY CHUBCH AT VERUELA. 419 her ritual arrangements, and witli them her church architecture from the twelfth century until the present day. The long choirs which were naturnlly developed in England and France were never thought of there ; the choir \\ as merely the Capilla mayor” — the chapel for the high altar; and the use of the nave as the people’s church was ignored or forgotten as much as it was — very rightly — in some of our own old conventual churches, where the choir was prolonged fai\ down into the nave, and the space for the people reduced to a bay or two only at its western end. 1 must now bring this discussion to a close, and proceed with my chronological summary ; and here the Abbey Church at Yeruela ought to be mentioned, if regard be had to the date of its erection — circa a.d. 1146-1171 — though I must say that I have not been able to discover that it exercised any distinct influence upon Spanish buildings. It is in truth a very close copy of a Burgundian church of the period, built by French monks for an order only just established in Spain, under the direction probably of a French architect, and in close com- pliance with the rather strict architectural rules and restric- tions which the Cistercians imposed on all their branches and members.^ The character of the interior of this church is grand and simple, but at the same time rather rude and austere ; but the detail of much of the exterior is full of delicacy ; and the design of the ehevet, Avith its central clerestory, and the sur- rounding aisle roofed with a separate lean-to roof, and the chapels projecting from it so subordinated as to finish below its eaves, recalls to memory some of the best examples of French Romanesque work.^ The beauty and refinement of the little Chapter-house hei'e lead me to suppose that it cannot be earlier than the end of the century. TTiere are some of these churches Avhich require more detailed notice as being derived to some extent from the same models, but erected on a grander scale, and if documentary evidence can be trusted, whose erection was spread over so long a time as to illustrate very Avell indeed the slow progress of the deve- lopment in art which we so often see in these Spanish build- ings. The old cathedral at Salamanca was building from a.d. 1120 to 1178; Tarragona Cathedral Avas begun in 1131; ^ See pp. 3(S5-G. have been commenced as early as a.t>. 2 The design of this ehevet is almost 1040, though most of it is certainly a repetition of that of the church at later by a century than this. Aveniferes, near Laval, which is said to 2 E 2 420 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. Tiidela, commenced at about the same time, was completed in 1188 ; Lerida, whose style is so similar to that of the others as to make me class them all together, was not commenced until 1203, nor consecrated until 1278 ; and Valencia Cathedral, of which the south transept of the original foundation still remains, was not commenced until a.d. 1262. Yet if I except the early and Italian-looking eastern apse at Tarragona, most of the features of these, churches look as though they were the design of the same man, and very nearly the same period ; and it is altogether unintelligible how such a work, for instance, as Lerida Cathedral could be in progress at the same time as Toledo and Burgos, save upon the assumption that the thirteenth century churches in an advanced Pointed style, such as these last, were erected by French workmen and artists imported for the occasion, and in a style far in advance of that at which the native artists had arrived. Yet I think few churches deserve more careful study than these. I know none whose interiors are more solid, truly noble, or impressive ; and these qualities are all secured not by any vast scale of dimensions — for, as will be seen by the plans, they are all churches of very moderate size — but by the boldness of their design, the simplicity of their sections, the extreme solidity of tlieir construction, and the remarkable contrast between these characteristics and the delicacy of their sculptured decorations ; they seem to me to be among the most valuable examples for study on artistic grounds that I have ever seen anywhere, and to teach us as much as to the power of Pointed art as do any churches in Christendom. In all there is a very remarkable likeness in the section of the main clustered piers. They are composed usually of four pairs of clustered columns, two of them carrying the main arches, and two others supporting bold cross arches between the vaulting bays, whilst four shafts placed in the re-entering angles carry the diagonal groining ribs both of the nave and aisle. The arches are usually quite plain and square in section, the groining ribs are very bold and simple, and the whole decorative sculpture is reserved for the doorways and the capitals and bases of the columns. The windows have usually jamb-shafts inside and out; and the eastern apses are always covered with semi-dome vaults. Permanence being the one great object their builders set before them, they determined to dispense as far as possible with wood in their construc- tion, and they seem to have laid stone roofs of rather flat Chap. XX. OBJECTS OF OLD SPANISH ARCHITECTS. 421 pitc'Ii above the vaulting, and in some cases very ingeniously contrived with a view to preventing any possible lodgment of wet, and so any danger of decay. It may be said, perhaps, that fragments only of these roofs remain, so that after all timber roofs covered with tiles would have been equally good ; but this is not so. The very attempt to build for everlasting is in itself an indication of the highest virtue on the part of the artist. The man who builds for to-day builds only to suit the miserable caprice of his patron, whilst he who builds for all time does so with a wholesome dread of exciting hostile criticism from those grave unprejudiced men who will come after him, and who will judge, not consciously perhaps, but infallibly, as to the honesty of his work. In England we have hardly a single attempt at anything of the kind, though in Ireland, in St. Cormack’s Chapel at Cashel, we not only have an example, but one also that proves to ns that we may build in this solid fashion, so that onr work may endure in extraordinary perfection come what may — as it has there — of neglect, of desolation, and of desecra- tion I Yet of all the virtues of good architecture none are greater than solidity and permanence, and we in England cannot therefore afford to affect any of our Insular airs of superiority over these old Spanish artists ! Look also at the thorough way in which their work was done. The Chapter-houses, the cloisters, the subordinate erections of these old buildings, are always equal in merit to the churches themselves, and I really know not where — save in some of the English abbeys which we have wickedly ruined and destroyed — we are to find their equals. Nothing can be more lovely than such cloisters as those of Gerona or Tarragona, few things grander than that desecrated one at Lerida, whilst tlie Chapter- house at Yeruela, and tlie doorways at Valencia, LeTida, and Tudela, deserve to rank among the very best examples of mediaeval art. There are yet two other grand early churches to be men- tioned which do not seem to range themselves under either of the divisions already noticed, and which yet do not at all belong to the list of churches of French design with which my notice of thirteenth-century Spanish work must of necessity conclude. These are the cathedrals of Sigiienza and Avila.' Loth of these are, so far as I can see, but to a slight extent founded upon other examples. Sigiienza Catliedral seems to have had origin- I miglit perhaps add Tarazona Cathedral to this list. 422 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. ally three eastern apses : the plan is simple and grand, and its scale, either really, or at any rate in effect, very magnificent. The great size of the clustered columns, their well-devised sections, the massive solidity of the arches, the buttresses, and all the details, make this church rank, so far at least as the interior is concerned, among the finest Spanish examples of its age. At xlvila, on the other hand, we see a remarkable attempt to intro- duce somewhat more of the delicacy and refinement of the first- pointed style ; and just as if the architect had been exasperated by the obligation under which he lay to end his chevet within the plain, bald, windowless circular wall projecting from the city ramparts which was traced out for him, we find him indulging in delicate detached shafts, a double aisle round the chevet, and subsequently in such strange as well as daring expedients in the way of the su])port of the groining and the fiying buttresses, as could hardly have been ventured on by any one really accus- tomed to deal with the various problems which the constructors of groined roofs ordinarily had before them. I venture therefore to place these two churches at Siguenza and Avila among the most decidedly Spanish works of their day ; I see no distinct evidence of foreign influence in any part of their design, and they seem to me to be fairly independent on the one hand of the early Spanish style of Tarragona, Lerida, Salamanca, and Segovia, and on the other of the imported French style of Toledo, Burgos, and Leon. And now I must say a few words on the three last-named churches. I have already expressed my opinion as to their origin, which seems to me to be most distinctly and undoubtedly F]-ench. The history of the Spanish Church at the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century, points with remarkable force to such a development as we see here. What more natural than that the country which looked, on the re- covery from its troubles — on the expulsion of the Saracen — to its neighbour the French Church to supply it with bishops for its metropolitan and other sees — should look also to it for a supply of that instruction in art which had grown and flourished there, whilst men were fighting and striving with all their might and main here ? And what is there more natural than that French architects, sent over for such works, should first of all plan their buildings on the most distinctly French plan, with French mouldings and French sculpture ; and then — as we see both at Burgos and Toledo, in the singular treatment of the triforia — should have gradually succumbed to the national and Chap. XX. TOLEDO CATHEDRAL. 423 in part Moresque influences by which they were surrounded? At Leon the evidences of imitation of French work are so remarkable, that no one capable of forming a judgment can doubt the fact ; and if at Burgos and Toledo they are not quite so strong, the difference is slight, and one only of degree. I have already spoken upon these points in describing the churches in question ; and here I will only repeat that, as the features of which I speak are exceptional and not gradually developed, it is as certain as anything can be that their style was not invented at all in Spain. We have only to re- member the fact, that at the same time that Lerida Cathedral was being built, those of Toledo and Burgos were also in progress, whilst that of Valencia was not commenced until much later, to realize how fitful and irregular was the progress of art in Spain. It is, in fact, precisely what we see in the history of German art. There, just as in Spain, the Komanesque and semi-Romanesque styles remained long time in quiet possession of the held, and it was not until the marvellous power and success of the architects of Amiens and Beauvais excited the German architects to emulation in Cologne Cathedral, that they moved from their Romanesque style into the most decided and well-developed geometrical Gfothic. And just as Cologne Cathe- dral is an exotic in Germany, so are those of Burgos, Leon, and Toledo in Spain ; so that, whilst Spaniards may fairly be proud of the glory of possessing such magnihcent works of art, their pride ought to be conhned to that of ownership, and should not extend to any claim of authorship. The demands of these three great churches upon our admira- tion are very different. The palm must be awarded to Toledo, which, as 1 have shown, equals, if it do not surpass, all other churches in Christendom in the beauty and scale of its plan. Undoubtedly, however, it lacks something of height, whilst later alterations have shorn it also of some of its attractiveness in design, the original triforium and clerestory remaining only in the choir. Nevertheless, as it stands, with all its alterations for the worse, it is still one of the most impressive churches I have ever seen, and one in which the heart must be cold indeed that is not at once moved to worship by the awefulness of the place. I have already, in my account of this great church, entered somewhat fully into a description of the peculiarities of its plan, and the evidence which they afford of its foreign origin. The unusual arrangement of the chevet, in which tlie vaulting bays 424 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. in both the surroimding aisles of tlie presbytery are made of nearly the same size/ by the introduction of triangular vaulting compartments, and in wliich the chapels of the outer aisle are alternately square and circular in plan, renders it, however, not merely an example of a French school, but one of the very highest interest and peculiarity. There is no church, so far as I know, similarly planned, though some are extremely suggestive as to the school iu which its architect had studied. The cathedral at Le Mans has triangular vaulting compartments in the outer of its two aisles, arranged somewhat as they are at Toledo, but with inferior skill, tlie aisle next the central apse having the unequal vaulting compartments, which have been avoided here ; but the surrounding chapels in these two examples are utterly unlike. Notre Dame, Paris, also has tri- angular vaulting compartments, but they are utterly different in their arrangement from those in Toledo Cathedral.^ Neither of these examples, in short, proves much as to the authorship of the latter. A hir more interesting comparison may, however, be instituted between the plan of this chevet and that rare exam])le of a Mediaeval architect’s own handiwork, which has been handed down to us in the design for a church made by VvTlars de Honecort, under which he wrote the inscrip- tion, ‘‘ Deseure est une giize a double charole. K vilars de lionecort trova & pieres de corbie.” In English : ‘‘ Above is (the presbytery of) a church with a double circumscribing aisle, which Wilars de Honecort and Peter de Corbie contrived together.” ^ In this plan we find these two old architects, not only introducing alternate square and circular chapels round their apse, but also an arrangement of the groining which looks almost as thougli they were acquainted with some such arrange- ment as that of the triangular vaulting compartments of Le Mans and Toledo. The diligent and able editors of Wilars de Honecort — M. Lassus and Professor Willis — say that no such })lan as this is anywhere known to exist ; and I believe they were nearly, though not, as I liave shown, absolutely correct in this assertion. At Toledo they still exist in part, and once, no doubt, existed all round the chevet ; and it may well, I think, be a question whether Peter, the architect of Toledo, had ^ See ground-plan, Plate XIV. and are constructed differently from - The round portion of the Tenii^le those at T circa a.d. 1450 ; Antonio Rincon,^ who was born at Guadalajam in 1446, studied under Ghirlandaio for a time, and, subsequently residing at Toledo, painted in a.d. 1483 the walls of the old sacristy, and died circa 1500, with the reputation of being the painter who had most contributed to the overthrow of the me- diaoval style ; finally, Juan de Borgoha, who may be mentioned as one of the latest and greatest of the earlier school, and almost the only one of them whose known works are still to be seen. His great work appears to have been a series of paintings round the cloister of Toledo Cathedral, which have all been destroyed ; besides which he executed other works in the sacristy, chapter- house, and Mozarabic chapel there, and in the Cathedral at Avila. The feature which strikes one the most in these early works is the strange way in which sculpture and painting are combined in the same work. The great Eetablos which give so grand an effect to Spanish altars are frequently adorned with paintings in some parts and sculptured subjects in others. The frames to the pictures are generally elaborate architectural com- positions of pinnacles and canopies, and consecpiently the art is altogether rather decorative than pictorial in its effect. Some- times, when the altar is small, and the Betablo close to the eye, this is not so much the case, and I have seen many of the pic- tures in these positions look so thoroughly well as to give a very high impression of the men who produced them. They are almost all painted on panel, and, as might be expected, on gold grounds. Old wall-paintings are comparatively rare : I have seen no important series save that which I have described at Leon, and of the later of these some at least appeared to me to be extremely Florentine in their character. This general review of the whole course and history of Spanish art seemed to be necessary in order to give point and intelligible order to the various descriptive notices which have been given in the previous chapters of this book. It is probable that some of my readers may after all think that I have had but little that was new to tell them. Possibly this may be so. The history of art repeats itself everywhere in obedience to some general law of progress ; and it might have been assumed before- hand that we should find the same story in Spain as in France, Germany, or England. But the real novelty of my account is, I take it, this, — that whereas generally men credited Spain with ^ See the short account of tliese painters in Mr. Stirlings ‘Annals of the Artists of Spain/ vol. i. chap. ii. 446 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XX. forming an exception to a general rule, my business has been to show that, on the whole, she did nothing of the sort. Just as we obtained a Frencli architect for our Canterbury, as the people of ]\Iilan obtained one from Germany for their cathedral, as the architect of St. Mark at Venice borrowed from the East, as he of Perigueux from St. Mark, as he of Cologne from Amiens or Beauvais, so Spain profited, no doubt, from time to time, by the example of her French neighbours. But at the same time she formed a true branch of art for herself, and one so vigorous, so noble, and so worthy of study, tliat I shall be disappointed indeed if lier buildings are not ere long far more familiar than they now are to English Ecclesiologists. I think, too, that the occasional study of any ancient school of architecture is always attended with the best possible results to those who are themselves attempting to practise the same art. It recalls us, when necessary, to the consideration of the points of difference between their work and ours ; and thus, by obliging us to reconsider our position, may enable us to see where it is defective, and where the course we are pursuing is evidently erroneous. I have already noticed incidentally, in more than one place in this work, the noble air of solidity which so often marks the early Spanish buildings ; I need hardly say that in these days none of us err on this side, and that in truth our buildings only too often lack even that amount of solidity which is necessary to their stability. And this leads me natu- rally to another questionable feature in modern work, which is to a great extent the cause of our failing in the matter of solidity. These noble Spanish buildings were usually solid and simple ; their mouldings were not very many, and their sculptures were few, precious, and delicate. There was little in them of mere ornament, and never any lavish display of it. Sculpture of the human figure was but rarely introduced, and whatever sculpture there was, was thoroughly architectural in its character. How different is the case now ! Hardly a church or public building of any kind is built, which — whatever its poverty elsewhere — has not sculpture of foliage and flowers, birds and beasts, scat- tered broadcast and with profusion all over it. However bad the work, it is sure to be admired, and as it is evidently almost always done without any, or with but little interference of the architect, he is often tempted to secure popularity for his work in this easiest of ways. I know buildings of great cost which have been absolutely ruined in effect by this miserable practice ; and I know none in the middle ages in wliich so much carved Chap. XX. SCULPTURE IN MODERN BUILDINGS. 447 work has been introduced, as has been in some of those wliich have recently been erected. I believe it to be a fact that more carving — if the vulgar hacking and hewing of stone we see is to be called carving — has been done in England within the last twenty years than our forefathers accomplished in any fifty years between a.d. 1100 and 1500 ! And I believe equally that, if we limited ourselves to one-tenth of the amount, there would be more chance of our having time to think about it and to design it ourselves. The same misfortune that has befallen us with foliage will soon befal us with figures. It has suddenly been discovered that every architect ought to be able to draw the human figure, and soon, I fear, Ave shall see it become the fashion to introduce figures without thought or value everywhere. If men would but look at some of our own old buildings, tliey would see how great is still the work which has to be done before we understand how to emulate the merits of those even among them which have no sculpture of any kind in their composition, and Iioav great the architect may be Avho despises and rejects this cheap kind of popularity.^ And they ought to take warning, by the comparison of old work and old ways of working witli new, of those too attractive but most dangerous schemes for seducing them from tlie real study of their art into other paths, certain, it is true, of popularity, but full of snares and pitfalls, Avhich, as we see on all sides, entrap some of those even who ought to have been aware of their danger. Sculpture in moderation is above everything beautiful. Sculp- ture in excess is very offensive. These Spanish churches teach us this most unmistakably if they teach us anything at all ; and as the main object of tlie study of ancient art — ■ the main object of those who wish to “stand in tlie old ways wliere is the truth ” — is to derive lessons for the present and future from the practice of the past, I am sure that, in applying the results of my study of Spanish art in tlie Avarniiig Avliich I here very gravely give, I am only doing that which as an artist I am bound to do, if I care at all for my art. ^ I venture to regard the stern sim- church is from first to last the work of plicityof Mr. Butterfield’s noble church a great master of his art, and one for of St. Alban as his silent protest against which his brother artists owe him a the vulgarity in art to which I here great debt of gratitude, refer. Without any sculpture, this 448 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XXL CHAPTER XXL THE SPANISH ARCHITECTS OP THE MIDDLE AGES. The history of the architects of the middle ages has never been written, and so few are the facts which Ave really know about them, that it may Avell be doubted AAdiether it ever can be. Yet Avere it jiossible to do so, few subjects Avould be more interesting. To me it ahvays seems that the most precious property of all good art is its human and personal character. I have always had an especial pleasure in tracing out Avliat appear to be such similarities between different buildings as seem to prove, or at least to suggest, that they Avere designed by the same artist ; for, just as in painting, a Avork becomes far more precious if we know it to be really the handiwork of a Giotto or a Simone Memmi, so in the sister art a building is far more j^recious Avhen AA^e know it to be theAvork of an Elias of Dereham, an Alan of Walsingham, or an Elides de Montrenil ; and if Ave are able, as in their case, to start Avitli the knowledge that certain men did certain Avorks, the interest of such investigations is at once manyfold enhanced. This is precisely the point at Avhich Ave have now arrived in regard to Spanish buildings ; for the notices of their architects which I have given in various parts of this book are so numerous tliat I think I shall do Avell to collect them together in their order ; and to sum up, as much as one can learn from the docu- ments relating to them, as to the terms on Avhicli they canied on their AVork, and generally, indeed, as to the position Avhich they held. In the earliest period, and jnst Avhen any information would have been more than usually interesting to us, I have been able to learn next to nothing of any real value as to the superin- tendents of Spanish buildings. One of the first notices of an architect is that contained in an inscription in San Isidoro, Leon, to the memory of Petrus de Deo, of whom it Avas said, Erat vir miraD abstinentim, et multis Chap. XXT. ARCHITECTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 449 florebat miraciilis and, wliat is even more to our purpose, lie is said to have built a bridge. He ‘‘ siipera^diticavit ” the clmrcli of San Isidoro, and, from the reference to his saintly life, one is inclined to suspect that he must have been a priest and pro- bably a monk ; if so, it is important to note the fact, inasmuch as almost all the other architects or masters of the works referred to in all books I have examined, seem to have been laymen, and just as much a distinct class as architects at the present day are. The expression “ supera3dificavit ” does not tell us much as to the exact office of Petrus de Deo ; but the next notice of an architect is not only one of the earliest, but also one of the most curious ; this is in the contract entered into by the Chapter of Lugo with their architect Eaymundo of Monforte de Lemos, in A.D. 1129 ; and from the terms of his payment, which was to be either in money or in kind, it is clear that, whatever his position was, he could not leave Lugo, but was retained solely for the work there. The terms of the contract are very worthy of notice, and may be compared with some of the similar agree- ments with the superintendents of English works, who frequently stipulated for a cloak of office and other payments in kind, though I doubt whether we know of any English contract of so early a date. It is clear from the payment of an annual salary, and an engagement for the term of his life, that Maestro Eay- mundo was distinctly an architect, not a mere builder or con- tractor ; it seems that he was a layman, and that his son followed the same •profession. The title given him in the contract, “Master of the works,” is, as we shall find, that which in course of time was usually given to the architect ; though I am not inclined to think that it makes it impossible that he should also have wrought with his own hands. Indeed, the very next notice of an architect is of one who certainly did act as sculjjtor on his own works. This was Mattheus, master of the works at Santiago Cathedral. The warrant issued by the king Ferdinand II., in A.D. 1168, granted him a pension of a hundred maravedis annu- ally for the rest of his life,* and, though the amount seems to be insignificant, the fact of any royal grant being made proves, I think, not only the king’s sense of the value of a fine church, but also somewhat as to the degree of importance which its designer may have attained to, when he was recognized at all 1 See Appendix. The maravedi was, say what amount of money at the pre- I believe, a more valuable coin tlien sent day this grant really represents, than it is now, so that it is difficult to 2 G 450 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XXL by the king. On the other hand, when twenty years later the same man (no doubt) wrote Ins name exultingly on the lintels of the church doorway, which was only then at last finished,^ there can be no doubt that he had been acting there both as sculptor and architect : and if, from a modern point of view, he lost caste as an architect, lie no doubt gained it as an artist ; and even now, if one had to make the choice, one would far rather have been able honestly to ])ut up one’s name as the author of those doorways, than as the builder of the church to which they are attached. It will be noticed that here, just as at Lugo, the master of the works was appointed at a salary for his life- time, and held his office precisely in the same way as do the surveyors of our own cathedrals at the present day. Much about the same time, in a.d. 1175, a most interesting document was drawn out, binding one Eaymundo, a Lam- bardo,”^ to execute certain works in the cathedral at Urgel, in Cataluna. It is very difficult to say whether this Eaymundo was the architect and builder, or only the builder, of the church, though I incline to believe he was both. He was to complete his work in seven years, employing four “ Lambardos,” and, if necessary, “ Cemeutarios,” or wallers, in addition ; and in return he was to be paid with a Canon’s portion for the rest of his life. The mode of payment, the engagement for life, and the fact that there is no mention whatever of any materials to be provided by Eaymundo, as well as the absence from the contract of any reference to a master of the works, lead, I think, to the conclu- sion that he was in truth the architect, but that he also super- intended the execution of the works, and contracted for the labour.''^ ^ This inscription is referred to at p. 144-. 2 I do not know the meaning of this term : it is evidently the name of a trade or calling, and probably corresponds with masons,” as distinguished from “wallers;” the two terms, “Lam- bardos” and “Cemeutarios,” being used somewhat in opposition to each other. Cementarius is one of the earliest terms used in documents referring to English buildings, and no doubt would be properly translated by the word “mason ;” but in the case of the Urgel contract, it seems there were to be several “Lambardos,” and, as “Cemen- tarios” were only to be employed if absolutely necessary, there must have been some distinction between them, which was more probably of grade or degree than of profession. Possibly the “Lambardos” may have been mem- bers of a guild, “Cementarios” common masons. ^ This contract is given by Don J. Vil- lanueva, Viage Literario a las Iglesias de Espana, vol. ix. pp. 298-300. I extract from it the parts which are especially interesting : — “ Ego a. Dei Gratia Urgellensis episcopus, cum consilio et comuni voluntate omnium canonicorum Ur- gellensis ecclesiae, commendo tibi Raymundo Lambardo opus beatae Chap. XXI. ARCPIITECTS OF THE MIDDI.E AGES. 451 The next notice I find of an architect is in a.d. 1203, when the architect of Lerida Cathedral, one Pedro de Cuniha, is described as “Magister et fabricator,’' and there can be no douljt, therefore, that he not only designed but executed the work, which, as we go on, we shall find to have been a not very nncoinmon custom ; but it is rare, nevertheless, to see this title of “Fabri- cator ” given to the architect, Avho is usually “ Magister operis,” and no more as, indeed, we see in the case of the successor Mariae, cum omnibus rebus tarn mobilibus quam immobilibus, scilicet, mansos, alodia, vineas, census, et cum oblationibus oppressionum et peniten- tialium, et cum elemosinis fidelium, et cum numis clericorum, et cum omnibus illis, quae liucusque vel in antea aliquo titnlo viclentur spectasse sive spectare ad prepliatum opus beatae Mariae. Et preterea damns tibi cibum canonicalem in Omni vita tua, tali videlicet pacto, ut tu fideliter et sine omni enganno claudas uobis ecclesiam totam, et leves coclearia sive campanilia, unum fdum super omnes voltas, et facias ipsum cugul bene et decenter cum omnibus sibi per- tinentibus, Et Ego R. Lambardus convenio Domino Deo, et beatae Mariae, et domino episcopo, et omnibus clericis Urgellensis ecclesiae, qui modo ibi sunt, vel in autea erunt, quod hoc totum, sicut superius scriptum esfc, vita comite, perficiam ab hoc presenti Pascha, quod celebratur anno dominicae incarnationis M.° C.° LXXV.", usque ad VII, annos fideliter, et sine omni enganno. Ita quod singulis annis habeam et teneam ad servitium beatae Mariae, me quinto, de Lambardis idest IIII. lambardos et me, et hoc in 3 ^ erne et in estate indesinenter. Et si cum istis j^otero perficere, faciam, et si non potero addam tot cementarios, quod supra dictum opus consume- tur in prephato termino. Post VII. vero annos, cum iam dictum opus, divina misercordia opitulante, comple- vero, habeam libere et quiete cibum meuni dum vixero, et de honore operis et avere stem in voluntate et manda- mento capituli postea. Preterea nos, tarn episcopus, quam canonici, omnino prohibemus tibi Rajunundo Lambardo, quod per te, vel per submisam per- sonam, non alienes vel obliges aliqua occasione quicquam de honore operis, quae modo habet, vel in antea habebit. De tuo itaque honore, quern nomine tuo adquisisti, et de avere, fac in vita et in morte quod tibi placuerit post illud septennium. Si forte, quod absit, tanta esterilitas terrae incubuerit, quod te niniium videamus gravari, liceat nobis prephato termino addere se- cundum arbitrium nostnim, ne notam periurii incurras. Sed aliquis vel aliqui nostrum praedictam relaxationem sacra- ment! facere tibi non possit, nisi in pleno capitulo, eomuni deliberatione et consensu omnium. Et quicquid melio- raveris in honore operis, remaneat ad ipsum opus. Si vero pro rnelioracione honoris operis oporteret te aliquid im- pignorare vel comutare, non possis hoe facere sine cousilio et conveniencia capituli. Juro ego R. Lambardus, quod hoc totum, sicut superius est scriptum, perficiam, et fidelitatem et indempnita- tem canonicae beatae Mariae Urgellensis ecclesiae pro posse meo, per Deum, et haec sancta evangelia = Sig -fi num R. Lambardi, qui hoc iuro, claudo et con- firmo Sig + num domni Arnalli Ur- gellensis episcopi,” &c. &c. ^ E.g. at San Cristobal de Ibeas — Era M. C. LXX. Fuithoc opus fundatum Martino Abbate i-egente Petrus Christophorus Magister hujus operis fuit. Or another at Ciudad Rodrigo — Aqui 5*ace Benito Sanchez, Maestro que fue de esta obra, e Dios le perdone. Amen. So too the inscription given at p. 234 of the architect of Toledo. The same term was used extensively at the same time over the greater part of Europe. In France we have these among 2 G 2 452 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XXI. of Pedro de Cumba, one Pedro de Penafreyta, who is described on his monument by this title only. In the thirteenth century we have the names of several architects, but nothing more than their names ; and the only point which seems worthy of special note is that, so far as I can learn, none of them were ecclesiastics ; whilst, from first to last, I have found no reference to anything like freemasonry. Indeed, on both these points, the history of Spanish architects seems to be singularly conclusive ; and there can be little doubt that they carried on their work entirely as a business, and always under very distinct and formal engagements as to the way in which it was to be done. In the fourteenth century the earliest notice is that contained in an order of the king, in 1303, dated at Perpinan, and directed to his lieutenant in Mallorca, requiring him to go at once “ cum Magistro Poncio ” to Minorca, to arrange about the building a town Avail, wliicli the king wishes to have built with round toAvers, “ sicut in muro Perpiniani and two years later the king Avrites again, Item audivimus turrim nostram Majoricarum, ubi stat angelus ictu fulgens fnisse percussam et aliquantulum defor- matam. Volumus quod celeriter sicut magister Poncins et alii viderint faciendum celeriter restauretur.” ^ Here it is, to say the least, doubtful Avhether Master Ponce was architect and adviser only, or also the mason who Avas to do the work. But this could not have been the case Avith the tAvo architects of Narbonne, employed in the rebuilding of the cathedral at Gerona, one of Avhom was appointed in a.d. 1320-22 at a salary of tAvo hundred and fifty sueldos a quarter, and under agreement to come from Narbonne six times a year. Here, Avhilst the old plan of making the architect enter into a kind of contract is adhered to, Ave seem to have a distinct recognition of a class of men who Avere not workmen, but really and only superintendents of buildings — in fact, architects in the modern sense of the Avord. others; — “ Ci git Robert de Coucy, Maitre de Notre Dame et de Saint Nicaise, qui trepassa Pan 1311.” In a.d. 1251, at Rouen, ‘‘Walter de St. Hilaire, Cementarius, magister operis,” is mentioned; and in a.d. 1440, in the same city, we have this inscription : ‘ ‘Ci git M. Alexandre de Berneval, Maistre des Gjluvres de Massonerie an Baillage de Rouen et de cette eglise.” In Italy the same term was commonly used, as, c. f/., in the Baptistery at Pisa, which has the inscription, “ Deotisalvi magister huj us operis and again in the church at Mensano near Siena, which has “ Opus quod videtis Bonusamicus magister fecit.” But in England, according to Mr. Wyatt Papworth, who has devoted much pains to the elucidation of the subject, the term “ Master of the works ” appears to be very seldom employed, and some- times of the officer called the “ operarius ’ in Spain, rather than of the architect. * Villanueva, Viage Lit. xxi. 106. Chap. XXL ARCHITECTS OE THE MIDDLE AGES. 453 About the same time. Jay me Fabre (or Fabra), a Mallorcaii, seems to have been one of the greatest architects of his day, and to have given a very important impulse to the principal pro- vincial development of architecture of which we see any evidence in Spain — that of Cataluiia. From a contract entered into in A.D. 1318, between him and the Superior and brethren of the convent of San Domingo at Palma, in Mallorca, it seems that he was bound by an older agreement to execute the works of their church ; and that he then promised to come back whenever required to Palma, from Barcelona, whither he was going to undertake another work at the desire of the king and the bishop. This “other work” was the cathedral, and here we know that Fabre was employed till A.D. 1339, when he and the workmen ' of the church put the covering on tlie shrine which contained the relics of Sta. Eulalia, in the crypt. It is impossible to read the account of the completion of the shrine of Sta. Eulalia at Barcelona, without feeling that Fabre superintended a number of masons, and acted in fact as their foreman, though this is no reason whatever why he should not also have designed the work they executed. He seems to have carried on the two works at Barcelona and Palma at the same time ; for, on the 23rd June, A.D. 1317, a year only after his agreement with the convent of San Domingo at Palma, he was appointed master of the works of Barcelona Cathedral, with a salary of eighteen sueldos each week, and payment of liis expenses on his voyages to and from Mallorca. Soon after this time, in a.d. 1368, the fabric rolls of the cathedral at Palma, in Mallorca, record the name of Jayme Mates, who was “ Maestro Mayor ” of the work at Palma, and had a salary of twenty pounds a year, besides six sueldos a day for the working days, and two for festivals.^ In the same year we have the very interesting contract between the Chapter of San Feliu, Gerona, and Pedro Zacoma, the master of the works of the steeple ; by this, it seems, he did not contract for tlie work, but had permission to employ an apprentice on it, and he was not to undertake any other work without the consent of the “ Operarius,” or Canon in charge of the works, save a bridge on which he was already engaged. He was to be paid by the day, with a yearly salary in addition. I have given the contract at p. 332 of this volume. Zacoma is ^ Fabre is spoken of in the inscrip- of Martin Mayol, G. Scardon, Bernardo tion on the shrine as Jacobus “Majori- Desdous, and Jayme Pelicer, as painters carimi, cum suis consortibus.” of pictures between a.d. 1327 and 2 These fabric rolls contain the names 133‘J. 454 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Chap. XXI. called in it the “ Master of the work of the belfry.” He must have been employed constantly at the church, or It would not liave been necessary to prevent his undertaking other works ; and in such a building a man could hardly have been constantly employed, without absolutely working as a mason. It may be thought that the “ Operarius ” was the real archi- tect ; but I find, at this time, that most collegiate and cathedral churches had a Canon whose special duty it was to make arrange- ments with the master of the works. Sometimes they are called “ Canonigos fabriqueros,” at others “ Obreros,” or else, as in this case, “ Operarii.” Some examples of the application of these terras may be given to prove what I say : — In a.d. 1312, for instance, the Chapter of Gerona appointed two of their own body — one an archdeacon, the other a Canon — to be the obreros of their works.^ In a.d. 1340 the ‘‘Operarius ” was gathering alms in Valencia and the Balearic Isles for the works at Gerona Cathedral. '^ In an inscription of a.d. 1183, at S. Trophime at Arles, Poncius Kebolli is called “ Sacerdos et operarius at Palencia, in a.d. 1321, there was an “ Obrero,” or Canon in charge of the works, as he is described by Davila.^ In the inscription on a stone in the choir of Lerida Cathedral,^ the two offices of the “ operarius” and the “ magister et fabricator” are contrasted, and the double office of the latter seems to make it impossible that the former can have been the architect. The fabric rolls of Exeter Cathedral contain, in a.d. 1318, a payment to the “ Custos operis ” for the adornment of the high altar : and, no doubt, lie held the same post as the Operarius in Spain. At the end of this century Juan Garcia de Laguardia was named “Master-mason” of the kingdom of Navarre, by a royal writ, at the wage of three sueldos a day. His title adds another to those already mentioned. In A.D. 1391 Guillermo folivella undertook to make twelve statues of the apostles, at Lerida, at the price of 240 sueldos for each statue ; and subsequently, in a.d. 1392, he is styled “ Magister opeils ” of the see of Lerida, and “ Lapicida,” and he had the superintendence of the stained glass windows which J uan de San Amat was making for the apses of the church, with the stories of the apostles.^ He was evidently, I think, a builder. 1 See p. 319. tie Espaua^ xvi. 99, says that ‘^Lapi- 2 See p. 332. cida” does not really mean a cutter of See p. 57. stones, which would be described as See p. 349, note 1, ‘'pica petras.” In vgl. xxi. p. 107, Villanueva, Viage Lit. a las Iglesias however, he speaks of “Lapicida” as ClIAl^ XXL ARCHITECTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 455 mid yet held very much the office of a modern architect as sujier- intendent of the whole work. Jayme Fabre describes himself as “ Lapicida,” but was also the “ JMaster of the fabric ” at Barce- lona ; whilst Eoque, who succeeded F abre at Barcelona, was also called master of the works only, and received three sueldos and four dineros a day, besides a hundred sueldos a year for clothino*. O Just about this period we have what appears to me to be a rather important reference to the separate offices of the archi- tect and builder in the same work ; for it seems that during the construction of the tower of the catliedral at Valencia, one Juan Franck acted as architect, with a succession of men as builders and contractors under him.^ I confess I do not adduce this example with much confidence, inasmuch as one of them was Balaguer, wliose mission to Lerida has already been mentioned, and who is moreover termed, in a contemporary document, an “ accomplished arcliitect.” In the fifteentli century the notices of architects are more numerous, and their position becomes much more clearly defined. In A.D. 1410 a contract was entered into by one Lucas Ber- naldo de Quintana — master mason, as he is called in it — for the rebuilding of the church at Gijon in the Asturias. In this contract ^ there is no reference of any kind to j)lans, or to a directing architect or superintendent of any kind ; but the dimensions and form of the building are all carefully described in such a way as to lead to tlie conclusion that the notary who drew up the contract had some sort of plan before him. It is said, for instance, ‘‘ that the church is to be twenty-five yards long by twelve and a half wide, with three columns on each side, three vaults each with three ribs crossing them, and ail the arches, pilasters, &c., as well as the door (which is to be twelve and a half feet high by eight wide), to be of wrought stone. There is to be a turret for two bells over the door, &e.” “ Item, the ' master ’ is to be allowed to use the materials of the old church.” The contract was entered into on March 10, 1410, and the key of the building was to be delivered up on the 1st of May, 1411, and finally two sureties were bound with the con- tractor. The whole deed is so very formal and careful in its the Latin term corresponding to “ pica- ^ See p. 265. pedres ” in the vulgar tongue; and he - Tlie contract is given at length by says sculptors of figures called them- Cean Bermudez, Ar

S'cm (7erom, in a. d. 1385. He seems to have been Maestro Mayor of Gerona Cathe- dral from A.D. 1368 to 1397. CoMPTE [Pedro]. Architect at Valencia, employed on the Cathedral, and one of the Architects consulted as to the rebuilding of the Cimborio of Zaragoza, and the Architect of the Lonja at Valencia. In 1486 he superintended the laying of a marble pavement in the Cathedral thei-e. He is described in a contemporary MS. as being “ Molt sabut en Part de la pedra.” Pie was made jTrpetual “Alcaide” of the Lonja, or Exchange, in 1498, with a salary of 30 sueldos a year. He was “ Maestro Mayor ” of the city, and was employed on some engineering works for it : one of them was the bringing the waters of the river Cabriel to augment those of the Guadalaviar, and in a.d. 1500 he was engaged on another similar work. CovARRUBiAsf Alonso de]. A native of Burgos. He was one of the Architects consulted as to the erection of Salamanca Cathedral in 1513. He competed with Diego de Siloe for the erection of the Chapel “ de los Eeyes Nitevos,'” Toledo Cathedral, and succeeded, 1531-4. Was Maestro Mayor of Toledo from 1534 to 1566. Employed on the Archbishop’s Palace at Alcala. Employed by the King on the Alcazars at Madrid and Toledo in 1537. He was paid 25,000 maravedis a year, and compelled to attend his work six months in the year, during which time he received four reals a day for mainte- nance. He married Maria de Egas, a daughter, it is thought, of Anequin de P]gas ; and his son was after- wards Bishop of Segovia. Various Royal writs in reference to his work jind payment are given by Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esp., i. 304-7. Cuuz [Diego de la]. Assisted Gil de Siloe in his works in the church at Mirajlores, Burgos, a.d. 1496 to 1499. CuMBA [Pedro de] “ Magister ct fabricator ” of the Cathedral at Lerida in A.D. 1203. Deo [Petrus de]. Master of the Works at San Isidoro, Leon, in a.d. 1065. Pie also built a bridge called “ de Deo tamben,” and seems to have had a great repute for sanctity. Dolfin [el Maestro]. Painter on Glass. Commenced painting the windows of Toledo Cathedral in a.d. 1418. Egas [Anequin de]. Of Brussels. Maestro Mayor of Toledo Cathedral in 1459, and erected the facade “ de los Leones ” about that year. He had an “ aparejador ” (or clerk of the works), Juan (or Alfonso?) Fernandez de Llena. Egas [Anton], In 1509 was engaged at Toledo Cathedral, and re- ceived two writs from the King ordering him to go to Salamanca to assist other Architects in deciding on the plan of the new Cathedral. In a.d. 1510, conjointly with Alonso Rodriguez, he drew a plan for the Cathedral. 476 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. B. Egas [Enrique de]. Succeeded his father as Maestro Mayor of Toledo in a.d. 1494, and held the office until his death in a.d. 1534. He was summoned with other Architects to decide what should he done after the fall of the Cimborio at Seville. He built the Hospital “ de los Espiritos,” at Toledo, in 0504-1514, and the Royal Hospital at Santiago in 1519. Altered the Mozarabic Chapel at Toledo, and built the Hospital of Sta. Cruz, Valladolid', went in 1515 with two other Architects to examine J. G. de Hontahon’s work at Seville, for which he was paid 120 ducats of gold. He and Juan de Alava then made plans together for the Capilla Mayor at Seville. He was ordered by the King to go to Zaragoza to examine the Cathedral, but endeavoured to excuse himself on the ground that he had the Royal Hos[)ital at Santiago in hand. In 1529 he appears to have gone again to Salamanca to see whether the work at the Cathedral was being done perfectly by J. G. de Hontahon. He went to Malaga on another occasion with the same object. In a Royal writ issued in his favour, in a.d. 1552, he is called “ Maestro de Canteria” — Master of Masonry. Escobedo [Er. Juan de]. A monk of the Convent of El Parral, Segovia. He re])aired the Roman Aqueduct at Segovia in A.D. 1481. Estacio. Native of Alexandria, Engineer, constructed the Mole at Barcelona, 1477. Eabre, or Fabra [Jayme]. Was Architect of the Dominican Convent at Palma, Mallorca, in a.d. 1317. This seems to have had a single nave of enormous width. He was ordered in 1307 to go to Barcelona to act as Architect at the Cathedral. In 1339 he assisted at the transla- tion of the remains of Sta. Eulalia to the crypt under the high altar. He is said to have died circa 1388. He seems to have been the architect from whose work most of the later Catalan buildings were derived. A Dative of Narbonne, and Architect of the Chevet of Gerona Cathedral in a.d. 1320. Of Montearagon. Was consulted with others as to the rebuilding of the Cimborio of Zaragoza Cathedral in A.D. 1500. Architect engaged on Steeple at Manresa in a.d. 1572-90. Executed the alabaster Reredos of Iluesca Cathedral in 1520-1533. Painter on Glass. Executed some of the windows of Toledo Cathedral, circa 1459, in company with two Germans, Pablo and Cristobal. One of the Architects employed on the Tower of Valencia Cathedral, between a d. 1381 and 1418. Fa VARUS [Jacobo dej. Font [Carlos]. Font [Juan]. Forment [Damian]. Frances [Pedro]. Franck [JuanJ. App. B. ARCHITECTS, SCULPTORS, AND BUILDERS. 477 G ALLEGO [Juan]. Gallego [Pedro]. Garcia [Alvar]. Gomar [Francisco]. Gomez [Alvar]. He was employed in 1389 at the Monastery of Guadalupe. Master of the Works at El Parral, Segovia^ in A.D. 1459-1472. “ Gobernador de los Torres ” at Leon Cathedral in A.D. 1175. Architect of Avila Cathedral in a.d. 1091, a native of Navarre. Executed the Porch in front of the South doorway of Lev Ida Cathedral, in a.d. 1490. Maestro Mayor of Toledo Cathedral; in a.d. 1418 he designed the W est Front and Tower of the Cathedral. The papers in the archives of the Cathedral speak of him as “aparejador de las canteras,” which seems to imply that he was a superintendent of masons. He was a[)pointed to this office in a.d. 1425, and is the first recorded to have held it ; from his time the names of the architects of Toledo Cathedral are all known. Guadalupe [Pedro de]. Made additional Stalls for Palencia Cathedral, and moved the old stalls from the choir into the nave, in A.D. 1518. Gual [Bartolome]. One of the Architects summoned to the Junta at Gerona in a.d, 1416. At this date he was Maestro Mayor of Barcelona Cathedral, and calls himself “ lapicida et magister operis.” Guas [Juan]. Architect of the Convent of San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, commenced in a.d. 1476. His ]iortrait (together with those of his wife and children) is preserved in a mural painting in the Convent. Guinguamps [Joannes de]. “Lapicida” of the town of Narhonve, and one of the Junta of Architects at Gerona in a.d. 1416. Gumiel [Pedro]. Architect of SS. Just y Pastor, at Alcald de Henare$, in A.D. 1497-1509. He was “ Regidor ” of the city in 1492, and Architect to Cardinal Ximenes, and both their names were inscribed on the first stone of the College of San lldefonso at Alcald, which was laid in 1497. He died circa 1516. Gutierrez [Antonio]. Executed the Entrance to the Summer Chapter- house, Toledo Cathedral, in a.d. 1504. Henricus. “ Magister operis ” of Leon Cathedral ; he deceased in A.D. 1277. Holanda [Alberto de]. Painter on Glass, of Burgos. Executed several windows in a.d. 1520 for Avila Cathedral at a charge of 82 maravedis the foot. Hontanon [Juan Gil de]. WasMaestroMayorof/8«/a'ma«ca Cathedral when it was resolved to rebuild it. He made plans, which are still (it is said) preserved, with the signatures of four Architects who were called in to advise upon them. He seems, however, to have followed some 478 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. 13. plans prepared in a.d. 1510 by Alonso Rodriguez and Anton Egas, and to have been appointed Archi- tect in 1513, after having given a joint report with nine other Architects on the mode of construction of the Cathedral. Subsequently other Architects, Martin de Palencia, Francisco de Colonia, Juan de Badajoz, and others, were summoned to Salamanca by the Chapter to certify that he was adhering to the plan originally agreed to. In one of their reports they speak of a plan made by Juan Gil, of which they approve. In 1513, after the fall of the Cimborio at Seville^ he was summoned (after a Junta of four Architects had reported) to superintend the work, and before 1522 he made plans for the new Cathedral at Segovia, which was commenced in that year. He deceased in 1531. IIoNTANON [Juan Gil de]. Son of Juan Gil. Assisted his father in his work at Salamanca. IIoNTANON [Rodrigo Gil de]. Second son of Juan Gil. Continued his father’s works at Salamanca (with a salary of 30,000 maravedis and a house) and Segovia; he erected the Pagan fapade of the College at Alcala de Henares, and churches in various towns. In the paper appoint- ing him “ Maestro Mayor” of Salamanca Cathedral, he is called “ Master of Masonry.” His will proves that he contracted for as well as designed some buildings, as he complains bitterly of the losses he has sustained in this way, especially in the Church of San Julian at Toro, for which he could not get paid. This will is dated May 27, 1577. Juan [Pedro].. Sculptor. Executed the Reredos of Cathe- dral in 1126-36. Eapi [Geri] Embroiderer, of Florence. He made an Altar-cloth for the Collegiate Church at Manresa, which still exists, and is inscribed with his name. Llena [Juan Fernandez de]. “Aparejador” or assistant to Anequin de Egas, Architect of Toledo Cathedral in a.d. 1459. Llobet [Martin]. Completed the Micalete at Valencia in a..d. 1424. He seems to have been a mason, and contracted for the execution of the work. Loquer [Miguel]. Made the Canopies of the Upper Stalls in the Coro of Barcelona Cathedral in a.d. 1483. Luna [Hurtado de]. Maestro Mayor of the Church at Irun in a.d. 1508. Maeda [Juan de] Manso [Pedro]. Matueus. Assistant to Diego de Siloe, who by his will, in a.d. 1563, left him all his plans and designs. Enlarged the Rercdos in Palencia in a.d. 1518. Master of the Works of Santiago Cathedral, from A.D. 1168 to 1188. Matienzo [G. Fernandez de]. Architect of Church at Mirafiores, from App. 13. ARCHITECTS, SCULPTORS, AND BUILDERS. 479 A.D. 1466 to 1488, after the death of Juan de Colonia. Mota [Guillermus de la]. “ Socius magistri ” of Tarragona Cathedral, and one of the Junta of Architects at Gerona in a.d. 1416. He completed the Retablo of Tarragona Cathedral (commenced by Pedro Juan in 1426). Narbonne [Enrique of]. Architect of Chevet of Gerona Cathedral in A.D. 1316. Contracted for the erection of the Cloisters of San Francesco el Grande, Valencia, in a.d. 1421. Appointed “ Obrero Mayor” of the Works at the Castle “de la Mota,” Medina del Campo, in a.d. 1479. Designed and commenced the Cathedral at Tlnesca in A.D. 1400. He is said to have carved the statues for the fafade. One of the Junta of Architects assembled at Sala- manca in A.D. 1512. Executed the Monuments of the Constable Alvaro de Luna and his wife, in the Chapel of Santiago in Toledo Cathedral. He obtained this work in a competition, and contracted for its execution in a.d. 1489. Architect of the 'I’ower on the Bridge of Alcantara, Toledo, in a.d. 1217. Penafreyta [Pedro de]. Master of the Works of Lerida Cathedral, de- ceased in A.D. 1286. Perez [Pedro] or “ Petrus Petri.” Master of the Works of Toledo Ca- thedral. He deceased in a.d. 1290. PiTUENGA [Florin de]. Superintendent of Works in building the Walls of Avila in a.d. 1090. He is said to have been a Frenchman. Navarro [Miguel]. Nieto [Alonso]. Olotzaga [Juan de]. Orozco [Juan de]. Ortiz [Pablo]. Paradiso [Mateo]. Plana [Francisco de]. Raymundo. Rio [Francisco del]. Roan [Guillen de]. Rodrigo. Rodriguez [Alonso]. A Catalan, Maestro Mayor of Gerona Cathedral circa A.D. 1346-1368. Master of the Works of Lugo Cathedral, which was commenced in a.d. 1129. The agreement for his pay- ment is given at p. 131. He was evidently the Ar- chitect, and not the builder, of the Cathedral. Built the Steeple of La Magdalena, Valladolid, under contract, and according to the plans of Rodrigo Gil de Hontaiion, in 1570. Maestro Mayor of Leon Cathedral ; he deceased in A.D. 1431, and on his monument he is called “ Maestro ” of Leon and “ aparejador ” of a chajoel at Tordesillas, in which he was buried. Sculptor of the lower range of Stalls in the Coro of Toledo Cathedral in a.d. 1495. Maestro Mayor of Seville Cathedral in a.d. 1503. In 1510, at the command of the King, he went to Sala- manca with Anton Egas, and prepared a plan for rebuilding the Cathedral, and afterwards went to the island of San Domingo to build a Church A Sanlucar. 480 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. B. Rodriguez [Gaspar.] Rodriguez [Juan]. Romano [Casandro]. Roque [el Maestro]. Ruesga [Juan de]. Made the Iron Screen across the Coro of Palencia Cathedral in a.d. 1555. Built the Church of San Pahlo^ Burgos, between a.d. 1415 and 1435. Superintendent of Works in building the Walls of Avila in a.d. 1090. Built the Cloister of Barcelona Cathedral, which was completed in a.d. 1448. He was appointed Master of the Works in a.d. 1388. Ruan [Carlos Galtes de]. Master of the Works at Lerida Cathedral a.d. 1397 to 1416. He was employed on the Campanile. An inhabitant of Segovia. Was employed by the monks of El Parral to reconstruct the Gallery for the Coro in their Church in a.d. 1494 ; he also completed Palencia Cathedral a.d. 1506-1510, and seems to have been a builder rather than an architect. Sagrera [Guillermo]. Master of the Works of S. John, Perpiiian, in a.d. 1416. In the same year he served on the Junta of Architects at Gerona. In 1426 commenced the Ijonja or Exchange at Palma in Mallorca, for which lie was both Architect and Contractor, and carried it on until a.d. 1448 or 1450, when he quarrelled and went to law with liis employers. Pie then went to Naples, and commenced the Castel Nuovo there in 1450, of which he is described as “ Protomagister ” in a Royal writ of that year. Salorzano [Martin de]. Contracted to complete Palencia Cathedral in A.D. 1504, and deceased in 1506. Was Maestro Mayor of ToZetZo Cathedral in a.d. 1481- 94, and designed the Entrance to the old Sacristy. Executed the Stalls in the Coro of the Church at Miraflores, near Burgos, in a.d. 1480. “ Mayordomo ” of the Castle at Burgos during its construction in a.d. 1295. A native of Picardy, and Maestro Mayor of Gerona Cathedral in a.d. 1397. Santa Celay [Miguel de]. Architect of the Church of San Vicente, San Sebastian, in a.d. 1507. Santillana [Juan de]. Executed the painted glass at Miraflores, Burgos, circa 1480. One of the Junta of Architects assembled at Sala- manca in a.d. 1512. Son of Gil de Siloe the Sculptor. One of the revivers of Pagan art in Spain. He executed various works in Granada, Seville, and Malaga, and deceased in A.D. 1563. Sculptor of the Monuments of J uan and Isabel, and of Alfonso their son, in the Church Miraflores, Burgos, and of the Retablo in the same Church, between a.d. 1486 and 1499. Sanchez [Bonifacio]. Sanchez [Martin]. Sanchez [Pedro]. San Juan [Pedro de]. Saravia [Rodrigo de]. [Diego de]. Siloe Siloe [Gil de]. App. B. ARCHITECTS, SCULPTORS, AND BUILDEHS. 481 Tornero [Juan]. One of the Junta of Architects at Salamanca in a.d, 1512. Tudelilla. Of Tarazona, Architect of the Cloister of Sta. Engracia^ Zaragoza, in a.d. 1536. Urrutia [Juan de]. Architect of the Church of San Vicente, San Sebas- tian, A.D. 1507. Valdevieso [Juan DE.] Executed Stained-glass in the Church at MiraJio7'es in A.D. 1480. Valdomar. Architect of West end of Nave of Valencia Cathedral in A.D. 1459. Vallejo [Juan de]. One of the Architects of Burgos Cathedral. He was consulted as to the rebuilding of Salamanca Cathedral in 1512, and wrought under Felipe de Borgoha in re- building the Cimborio of Burgos Cathedral, between A.D. 1539 and 1567. Fie built the Renaissance Gate- way on the East side of the South Transept between 1514 and 1524. Vall-llebrera [Pedro de]. Architect of the Steeple of Sta. Maria Cervera, A.D. 1431. Valleras [Arnaldus de]. “Lapicida” and “ Magister operis ” of the Col- legiata at Manresa. One of the Junta of Architects consulted at Gerona in a.d. 1416. Vallfogona [Bernardo de]. Maestro Mayor of Tarragona Cathedral in A.D. 1375. Vallfogona [Pedro de]. Executed Reredos of High Altar, Tarragona, and was one of the Junta of Architects at Gerona in A.D. 1416. Valmeseda [Juan de]. Executed the Statues in the Reredos, Palencia Cathedral, in a.d. 1518. Vantier [Rollinus]. Maestro Mayor of Gerona Cathedral in a.d. 1427. XuLBE [Johannes de]. One of the Junta of Architects assembled at Gerona in A.D. 1416. He describes himself as son of Paschasius de Xulbe and “ Lapicida.” XuLBE [Paschasius de]. Master of the Works of Church at Tortosa, and one of the Junta of Architects at Gerona in a.d. 1416. [Pedro]. Architect of the Tower of San Feliu, Gerona, in a.d. 1368. 2 I Zacoma 482 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN' SPAIN. App. G. (C.) DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW CATHEDRAL AT SALAMANCA. Royal Order of Ferdinand the Catholic, requiring Alfonso Rodriguez to go to Salamanca to choose the site and to make a design for the Construction of the Cathedral, The King to the Master Major of the Works of the Church of Seville. Since it has now to be decided how the Church of Salamanca may be made, in order that the building and its design may be made as it ought, I agree that you may be present there. I charge and com- mand you that, instantly leaving all other things, you may come to the said city of Salamanca, and, jointly with the other persons who are there, you may see the site where the said church has to be built, and may make a drawing for it, and in all things may give your judgment how it may be the most suited to the Divine worship and to the ornature of the said church; which, having come to pass, jdien your salary shall be paid ; which I shall receive return for in this service. Done in Valladolid, the 23rd day of the month of November, 1 509, &c.^ Order of the Queen Dona Juana to the same. Recites that the King, her Lord and Father, had given an order, which she repeats, quoting the document above given, and then proceeds : — “ And now, on the part of the Church of the said city of Salamanca, relation has been made me, that, although the said order was notified to you, until now you have not come to do anything in the business of which mention is made therein, making various excuses and delays ; and it has been demanded of me, as for this cause of your not having come there is much delay in the work of the said church, to order you at once to come to the said city of Salamanca to make yourself acquainted with the affairs contained in the said order, as was by it commanded, or as my will might be ; which, being seen by those of my council, it was agreed that I should order this my letter to be given for the said reason ; and I find it good, as I command you, that immediately that this my letter shall be made known to you, without making any excuse or delay, you shall go to the said city of Salamanca, according and as by the said order was commanded, in order that, conjointly with the other persons who have to make themselves acquainted with the before-said matter, thou mayest give a plan how the said church may be made, which done, tlie salary will be paid you for Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Esp., vol. i. p. 285. App. C. NEW CATPIEDRAL AT SALAMANCA. 483 the said church, which you are entitled to have for the coming, and staying, and returning to your house ; and thou inayest not fail in this, under pain of my displeasure, and of 50,000 maravedis for my treasuiy. “ Given in the most noble city of Valladolid, 2Gth day of the month of January, from the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ 1510 years.” ‘ W7'it of Fe^'dinand the Catholic to Anton Egas, ordering him to go to Sala- manca to choose the site and 7nahe the plan for the Cathedral^ November 23rJ, 1509. Anton Egas is ordered to go at once, and, jointly with the other architects there assembled, make a plan, &c. ; which done, his salary, which he receives on service, shall be paid him there. This writ is endorsed as having been served on his two maids, Maria and Catalina, he and his wife being both away. Declaration or Infoimiation which Alonso Rodriguez and Anton Egas made before the Chapter of Salamanca on the mode of constructing the Cathedral. In Salamanca, the second day of the month of May, 1510, Sehor Gonzalo de San Vicente, representative of S. A., being with the Chapter, present the Eeverend Sehors D. Alfonso Pereira, Dean of Salamanca, and other persons, dignitaries and beneficiaries, who were in Chapter, in order to acquaint themselves touching the order and plan of their church, oath being taken in the due form by the Senors Alonso Eodrigaez, Maestro of Seville, and Anton Egas, Maestro of Toledo, persons deputed by his Highness for the ordering and planning of the said church, that all affection and passion, partiality and interest, or any other cause, being well and faithfull}^ joostponed, they determine and declare, according to God and their conscience, the most commodious plan and site that may be fitting for the adorn- ment of the said church, and for the utility of it and of this city, without prejudice and wrong to the Schools of this University of Salamanca ; both of whom made the said oath, and replied to its confession, and said, So I swear, and Amen.” And under the said oath they presented a plan and outline of the said chureh, drawn on parchment to the lieights and widths of the naves, and thicknesses of the walls, and projections of the buttresses, the whole taken in writing by me the said notary ; the which they affirmed by their names in my presence, and said that the site marked out by them for where the said church — our Lord per- mitting — ought to be, would not do any wrong or prejudice to the said Schools, rather they would be benefited and adorned, because the site of the said church commences ten feet further from the gate ^ Cean Bermudez. Arq. de Esp., vol. i. p. 2 S(t. 2 i 2 484 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. C. “ del Apeadero ” of the Schools, being set back from the street by the said Schools fifty feet, in front of the said church, from the line of the church as it now is. And because there was a diversity in the opinion of these Masters as to the proportion of length to breadth in the Capilla mayor, thej^ agreed to meet in Toledo in ten days, and to select an umpire between them if it were necessary, so that the decision should be arrived at with more circumspection, and sent within fifteen days to the said Sehor San Yicente, or to this Chapter.^ Declaration or Judgment which was pronounced in Salamanca in a Junta which was held Sept. 3rJ, 1512, by the Masters of Architecture Anton Eyas, Juan Gil de Hontahon, Juan de Badajos^ Juan de Alava, Juan de Orozco, Alonzo de Covarruhias, Juan Tornero, Rodrigo de Saravia, and Juan Campero, as to the mode of constructing the Cathedral. That which appears to the Masters who were called and assembled by the most reverend and most magnificent in Christ, Father and Lord Don Francisco de Bobadilla, by the grace of God, and of the Holy Church of Rome, Bishop of Salamanca, and of the Council of the Queen our Lady, and by the Reverend the Dean and Chapter of the Church of Salamanca, to give the plan of the site and building of this holy church and temple, which it has been unanimously decided by the said Lord Bishop and Chapter — our Lord helping — to make and begin, is as follows : — Firstly, the said Masters decided that the site of the church should be in length as far as the church of San Cebrian, and in width as far as the Schools. Item . — That the three clear naves should begin from the line of the tower unto the place of the Schools, so that all the three doors of the front ma^" show themselves and be clear of the tower. Item .' — They determine that the church should be directed and turned as much as possible to the east ; and it appears to them that it can turn directly to the said east. Item .- — They determine that the principal nave may have fifty feet in width in the clear, and a hundred and ten in height. Item . — That the side naves shall have thirty-seven feet in clear width, and seventy feet in height, or seventy-five, not being of the height of the other. Item . — They determine that the chapels opened in the side walls may liave twenty-seven feet in clear width, and forty-three or forty- five in height. Item . — That the three gable walls of the west front may have all three seven feet of thickness, and the side walls throughout ‘ Ceau Bermudez;, Arq, de Esp., vol. i. p. 287. App. C. NFAV CATHEDRAL AT SALAMANCA. 485 the church six feet; hut to some of the said Masters it appeared that the end walls should be eight feet in thickuess. Itein . — That the buttresses of the end walls may project beyond the wall twelve feet, and in thickness may have seven feet in front. Item . — That the buttresses of all the side walls of the church may be five feet thick in front, and project six feet beyond the wall outside. Item . — That the divisions of the chapels in the walls may be seven feet thick. Item . — That the four principal columns of the Cimborio may be eleven-and-a-half feet thick. Item . — They determine that the head of the Trascoro may be octagonal.^ Item . — They determine that the Capilla mayor may have in length and breadth two chapels of the sides. Item . — ^That the chapels in the walls of the Trascoro may be twenty-seven feet in depth from wall to wall, and that in the spaces of the walls and buttresses in the angles of the octagons, which are formed between the chapels on the outside, sacristies for each chapel may be made. Item . — They declare that the feet of which in this their declara- tion and determination mention is made, are to be taken as the third of a yard; and (marking out the form of the said church) the said Masters declare that from the mark towards the door of the Schools to the first step there may be seven yards and a third, which is twenty-two feet. Item . — They declare that the wall of the west front within the tower has to be begun forty-nine feet from the corner of the said tower on the inside, and should be in thickness from there forward so much as to leave forty-nine feet of the tower visible. Item . — They declare that the wall of the side nave, from towards the old church, has to come with the side of the tower, and has to contract itself the thickness of the said wall in the said tower. And inasmuch as some persons, as well members of the Chapter as out of it, have held certain opinions in regard to the site of the said building, and where it ought to stand, the said Lord Bishop and Chapter, desiring to avoid and escape such opinions as at present and in future may impede the order and form of the said building, command the said Masters to give the reasons and motives that may have moved them to direct and propose the site and position determined on by them, and not the other places, lines, or ‘ 111 the margin of this paragraph is square.” The word ‘ Trascoro ’ seems to written, in the hand of Maestro Juan be used here of the east end of the del Ribero Rada,--‘Mt has been built church. 481 ) GOTHIC ARCHlTECrURE IN SPAIN. App. C. sites suggested ; and that they should say specifically for their satisfaction why, with all quietness and willingness, the order, form, and site laid clown by them may be followed. The which said Masters, in order to satisfy the persons who either held or might hold opinions contrary to their own, gave the following reasons : — Firstly. That making or putting the church in another part or site than that determined on by them, it and its cloister would be separated from the view of the city, and would be concealed; that it could not be seen round about, only the end wall by itself, and the Chevet by itself, and there would be no entire view. The second reason is, that the said church would be put behind the schools from the Crossing almost to the end, where the best view and the most frequented part of the church ought to be, because there the doors have to be placed. The third reason is, that of the cloister — which already exists — the two parts are so placed that it would leave a narrow passage be- tween the church and the Archbishop’s chapel, and the library and Chapter-house, and the said chapels would remain separated, and one would enter them from the narrow passage, and in a roundabout way ; for though it might be desired to make a door from the Chevet, it could not be done, because the sacristy would pre- vent it. The fourth reason which they give is, that if the said church has to be moved to another site opposed to that declared and determined on by them, the tower would have to be destroyed, which is a good and singular work, and could not be rebuilt without a great sum of maravedis, and the church could not be without a tower. The fifth reason is, that if the said church has to be moved to another site, it will be necessary to take down the house of the said Lord Bishop, and to restore it opposite the front of the church ; and in order to restore it, besides the great sum of maravedis it would cost, it would be necessary to destroy fourteen houses, the rent of which is of much value, and this would be costly to the church, and involve loss to the treasury of the Chapter. The sixth reason is, that in order to make the cloister on another site contrary to their determination, many houses must be taken ; and in order to make it on the south, it would be necessaiy to go into it by what is called the Eiver-door, and afterwards to be more away from the city, and out of view ; and it would be very costly to make the foundations of such great depth, and to raise the walls to the level of the church. The seventh reason which they give is, that the Chevet of the church would cover the door of the chapel of the Archbishop and the libraiy in order to join them. The eighth reason which they give is, that the Crossing would not come in the line of any street, and there would be no way out by App. C. NEW CATHEDRAL AT SALAMANCA. 487 way of the cloister, because the new and old cloister would stop it ; and supposing a remedy to be sought, by separating the new cloister, it would be so high when they bad to go out, that it would have at least more than fifteen steps, and the entrance would be by a narrow passage ; because on one part would be the new cloister, and on the other part of the old cloister the chapel of the Arch- bishop. The ninth reason which they give is, that the church would encroach upon the principal street of the schools, which comes before the house of his Lordship, and the other street, “c/e/ Desa- fiadero so that if there was none at the apse of the church there would be no way out ; and the height of the church, putting it so much between the sun and the schools on the south, would take away much of their light, and darken them much. The which reasons they give against the opinions of them who say or desire to say that the site of the said church should be towards the house of the Lord Bishop, and towards the street “ Desafiadero and in order to answer the other opinion of some who argue that the site of the said church could go through the cloister, which is already built to the Kiver bridge, because this would not be a con- venient site for the church ; and in order to oppose the opinion for it, they give the following reasons : — -Firstly. That it would be more separated from the city, and would not go well with the schools, and would lack the appearance which it would have going, as is agreed, towards the schools. The second reason which they give is, that it would stand at an angle with the schools, and would be an ugly thing, and the facades of the church and the schools would not be harmonized together by the said arrangement of the plan. The third reason which they give is, that the Plaza of the Lord Bishop’s house would be narrowed in great part, so that the Plaza would be a street ; and the height of the church would shut out the sun from the said house of his Lordship, and would stifle it very much ; and the doors of the church would be behind the tower in the view as one comes fromi the city through the Street of the Schools. The fourth reason which they give is, that the west front of the church would have to join the wall of the Archbishop’s chapel, and through its inequality and depth it would be necessary to have many steps through that part, and towards the town not any, and this would be a defective and ugly thing. The fifth reason which they give is, that, making the cloister towards the Schools, all the view of the church would be shut out, and the cloister would be gloomy, and it would be without the harmony and order of good churches, and without grace. The sixth reason which they give is, that the church standing 488 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. App. C. close to the chapel of the Archbishop and the library, its height would shut out the light from the small chapels in the walls, and there would be no exit for the water fi-om the roof of the middle of the church at that part. The seventh reason which the}^ give is, that in order to make the new church it would be necessary to clear out immediately all the church and the cloister, and the chapel of the Doctor of Talavei a, and of Sta. Barbara, and the Chapter-house ; and in their opinion it would be a grand inconvenience to be so many years without having where to celebrate the Divine offices. The eighth reason which they give is, that if the church is separated from above, and put as in a corner, part in the shade through the one part of the tower and the cloister, and through the other of the library and the chapel of the Archbishop, it could not have as much of its walls in light as is convenient. The ninth reason which they give is, that the door of the transept would come out so high from the street, in their opinion, as more than ten or twelve steps, and would cut across the street “ cfe? Chan&e” and would l e bad in its arrangement, and a place where nuisance would be caused. This opinion having been given, it is then pronounced by the deputies appointed by the Cliapter to confer with the architects, that as they were all agi’eed both as to the site and as to the general form of the church, and as they are such learned and skilful men, and experienced in their art, their opinion ought certainly to be acted on. But for the more certainty it was thought well to make every one of the architects take an oath, “ by God and St. Mary, under whose invocation the church is, and upon the sign of the cross, upon which they and each of them put their right hands bodily,” that they had spoken the entire truth, wliich each of them did, sajung ‘‘ So I swear, and amen.”^ The report of the architects having been received, the Chapter then say that the many singular and great Masters of the Art of Masonry (canteria) who had been consulted had agreed on a plan, but that it will be necessary to choose and elect a Master (Maestro) and an overseer (aparejador).^ On the same day, Sept. 3rd, 1512, Juan Gil de Hontanon, “ Master of Masonry,” was appointed prin- cipal master of the works (Maestro principal), and Juan Carapero, mason, overseer, with a salary to the former of 40,000 maravedis a year, and 100 maravedis more for each day that he assisted at the works ; and to the latter of 20,000 maravedis a year, and 24 reals ^ From Ceaii Bermudez, Not. de los “ the substitute of the chief architect of Arq. y Arquos de Espana, vol. i. p. 293- the building, who places the workmen 299. and distributes the materials according 2 The sense of this word is given in to the arrangements of the plan.” Connelly and Higgins”s Dictionary, as App. D. SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL. 489 per day.* And on the 1 0th May, 1538, Eoderigo Gil de Hontanon was appointed principal master of the works, with the salary of 30,000 maravedis a year. Alonso de Covarmbias seems to have been joined with Rodrigo Gil de Hontanon as master. ^ By R. G. de Hontaiion’s will it seems that he also had a house rent free from the Chapter.^ (D.) SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL. Warrant of King Ferdinand //., issued in 1168, in favour of Matthe us ^ Master of the Works of Santiago Cathedral, copied from the Archives. In nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Amen. Majestati regia) convenit eis melius providere, qui sibi noscuntur fidele obseqiiium exhibere, et illis praecipue, qui Dei sanctuariis et locis indesinenter obsequium probantur impendere. Ea propter ego Fernandus Dei gratia Hispaniarum Rex ex amore Omnipotentis Dei, per quern reg- nant reges, et ob reverentiam sanctissimi Jacobi patroni nostri piissimi, pro munere dono, et concede tibi magistro Matheo, qui operis prsefati Apostoli primatum obtines et magisterium, in uno- quoque anno in medietate mea de moneta Sancti Jacobi refectionem duarum marcharum singulis hebdomadibus, et quod defuerit in una hebdomada suppleatur in alia, ita quod haec refectio valeat tibi cen- tum maravotinos per unumquemque annum. Hoc munus, hoc donum do tibi Omni tempore vitae tuae semper habendum quatenus et operi Sancti Jacobi, et tuae inde personae melius sit, et qui viderint praefato operi studiosius invigilent et insistant. Si quis vero contra hoc meum spontaneum donativum venerit, aut illud quoque modo tentaverit infringere, iram incurrat decunti pertinentis, et iram regiam, et mille aureos parti tuae tamquam excomunicatus cogatur exolvere. Facta carta apud Sanctum Jacobum, viii. kalendas Marti, Era m. cc. vi. Regnante rege Dno Fernando Legione, Extremadura, Gallecia in Asturiis. Ego Dhs F. Dei gratia Hispaniarum Rex hoc scriptum quod fieri Jussi proprio robore confirmo. [Signed also by various Bishops and Grandees.] ^ Cean Bermudez, vol. i. p. 300. 3 Ibid., vol. i. p. 317. - Ibid,, vol. i. p. 315. 490 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. E. (E.) SEGOVIA CATHEDRAL. Memoir of the Canon of Segovia Juan Rodriguez^ in which is related all that happened as to the Construction of the Cathedral from the year 1522, in which he began to exercise the government and administration of the fabric, until the year 1 502, in which, through infirmity, he gave it up. — From the Arcliives of the Cathedral. After reciting his pious reasons for his undertaking, he contimies his Memoir as follows ; entering first of all into various particulars in reference to the subscriptions for the work and so forth, he then goes on : — “We commence, in the name of God, to give an account of the form and order which prevailed in the work of the said church and cloistei'. Chapter-house, libraries, tower, sacristy, and place for relics,^ and all the other necessary offices, which until this time have been paid for, and now belong to the said holy church, free from all interest or tax. “ Commencing at the beginning, which was in the said year of 1520, when the Chapter was driven out of the other church by reason of the alterations already mentioned, they had the divine offices in the Church of Sta. Clara, which the monks of the order of Sta. Clara had left, who at present reside in the monastery of San Antonio el Real ; and beginning by having the divine office on the floor of the church on some benches or logs of wood, which were placed for it from the door of the church as far as the rooms of the keepers of the wardrobe of the convent which were there, afterwards they made a tribune on some pieces of timber or posts for the Coro, in order to have the holy office ; and afterwards they put the altars right with Retablos and images, which they brought from the old church ; and they put right the old cloister, which had some high battlements ; and they overcame difficulties and put everything in order to be able to make use of it, and set right the chapel where the Crucifix and Sacrament were, and where the chaplains said their office. Then, likewise, was made a hall of the old corridors, in which the Chapter was held, where it was for some years, until that one was made below close to the chapel of the Crucifix. And then the tower was raised, and there they placed some of the bells of the other old church, and others they made new in the town of Olmedo ; and they got a new clock from Medina del Campo, and put the whole in the old tower. “ Then, in consequence of the narrowness of the church, they took ' Sagrario. — This, I think, sometimes means the chapel, commonly called the Varroqula, or Chapel of the Cathedral Parish. App. K. CONSTRUCTION ON SEGOVIA CATHEDRAL. 491 some houses in which lived the wardrobe-keepers, and pulled them down, and made a wall of lime and stone in front, and placed there the Coro of the old church, and repaired it in the said place where the divine office was said, and placed the iron screens of the two Coros ; the whole of which was done between the said year of 1520 and June 8th, 1522, when, by the consent and resolution of the Lord Bishop D. Diego de Ilivera, and of the Dean and Chapter of the said church, it was agreed to commence the new work of the said church, to the glory of God, and in honour of the Virgin Mary and the glorious San Frutos and All Saints, taking for master of the said work Juan Gil de Hontahon, and for his clerk of the woiks (aparejador) Garcia de Cubillas. Thursday, the 8th of June, 1522, the Bishop ordered a general procession with the Dean and Chapter, and clergy, and all the 3'eligious ordei’s. Solemn mass was said in the Plaza of San Miguel, before the doors of the said Church of Sta. Clara, and there was a sermon, and absolution, and general pardon to all who had erred ; and they demolished the other church, and gave absolution for all the faults and sacrileges which might be committed in it, as is the case in all general pardon of sins. From there the Bishop, Dean and Chapter, clergy and religious, went in procession to the part where was the foundation of the principal wall of the foot of the holy church, and in that place where the principal door was to be, which is now called ‘ del Pardon and the Master of the wwks and the officials being there with stone and mortar, ihe Lord Bishop placed the foundation in the middle where the said door had to come, which is called ‘ del Pardon.’ Giving first his benediction on the commencement of the work, he put a piece of silver with his face on it, and others of metal with certain letters, and upon them placed the stone and mortar. The workmen then raised the building. “All this solemnity, as I have told, began to the glory of God our Lord, the Virgin Mary, and All Saints, for the promotion of the said work. This was settled and arranged between the Lord Bishop, the Dean and Chapter, to be executed in masonry of a ]-ough description, by reason of the great poverty of the said church. And I then, feeling this, conferred on this matter with the said Juan Gil de Hontanon and Garcia de Cubillas, and it seemed to them to be a great pity to execute the work in such a way in so cele- brated a citj^ And the Lord Bishop, the Dean and Chapter, having considered this, thought it well to give leave, confiding in the pro- vidence of our Ijord, that it should be done as I had petitioned, for which many thanks be given to our Lord.” “ The building being commenced, as I have said, on Thursday, July 8th, 1522, was carried on according to the plan first of all given, beginning from the principal door at the foot of the church. 492 G(ymiC AHCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. Apr. E. which is called ‘ del Pardon,’ corresponding to the principal nave, and going on in order, taking the chapel and the chapels in the walls, of which there are five on either side, ten in all, where at present the private masses and endowments which the said church has are said. “ After the same manner the principal pillars in the said church were built, which divide, and on which is raised the principal nave, and on either side one, in all five collateral naves ; the principal, of 115 to 120 feet in height, and 54 in width, from line to line; the collaterals, 80 feet in height each one of them, and 38 in width, and the chapels between the buttresses, of which there are ten, 50 feet of height, and 26 in width, as, thanks to God, they have all been made and finished to perfection, as may be seen. “ The brdlding, so far erected, reached only to the two principal pillars of the Crossing, which are twelve feet in width, because they are the two upon which the Cimborio will have to be built, and the other two pillars will embellish the work which has to be done presently, when the Capilla mayor and the Crossing are erected. The other round pillars of the body of the said church are ten feet in thickness, and are ten in all, and upon them were built the main nave and its collaterals. “ Likewise I may mention that these principal pillars, for fear there should be any misfortune or bursting in the work, were all compacted throughout their body, with shaped stones, in pieces of the same thickness as those which are in the face of the work ; so that there is not the least thing omitted which could give strength. Likewise the walls were made, three extending past the said three principal pillars, which were made for the Cimborio and Crossing, where the high altar was placed, and the Blessed Sacra- ment kept, and the conventual masses said ; and on one side, towards the Alumzara, a little sacristy was made, or a vestry for the ministers of the high altar, where they kept their boxes for the things necessary for the altar and choir. “ Likewise the walls were built, where the stalls of the Coro are placed for the divine offices, ornamented and made up with such additional seats as were required, in order that they might occupy the width of the principal nave ; and at the sides they made offices with their furniture for holding the singing and reading books for the divine offices of the said church, with doors at the sides for going out by at the sermon-time. “ Likewise they made high galleries on either side of the Coro, in which they placed the organs, finished and adorned, as, at present appears, for the service of our l^ord. “ Tdkewise the cloister was founded, which was that which stood in the old church, which Juan Campero, master of masonry. App. E. CONSTRUCTION OF SEGOVIA CATHEDP.AL. 49 ?) undertook by contract for the sum of 4000 ducats, according to the contract with wliich he took it ; and in the said buildings it was impossible to foresee, at the first, every necessary thing, because time and the work itself showed many things which at first were not known ; and so, beginning to feel the said cloister would be low, by agreement with the said John Campero, they gave him 400 ducats, in order that he should raise it a yard, which gave him grace enough ; and 70,000 maravedis, in order that he should do the door of the said cloister, which was not in his contract ; and likewise he made a condition that he should not be obliged to go more than five feet below the ground. “ In the same manner they made many other adornments in the said cloister beyond what was in the contract with the said Juan Campero, such as making many things of granite, and others of carpentry, which were to have been of common masonry ; which was all of much cost, so that the expenses mounted beyond the contract of the said Juan Campero another 4000 ducats, which was in all 8000, a little more or less, as apj)ears by the account-book which the said Juan Campero kept. ‘‘'•Item . — To the glory of God and the honour of His Blessed Mother the building of the tower was commenced, which is at the lower end of the said church, and which is a very solemn edifice. Its bulk without the walls is thirty-three feet, and it is square. The walls are four from base to summit, and each one ten feet thick ; and one of them which goes from the church is fifteen feet at the bottom. Item . — This tower is more lofty than that of the cathedral at Seville, measured by a line, more than once brought from thence. It is wider than that of Toledo by one-third part, as will be seen by those who like to measure it. This measures, as I say, 33 feet inside, and that of Toledo 22 feet. I say this in order that the goodness of this tower may be known. Outside the chapel and above it is another very gor>d chapel for the service of the church, in which necessary things can be kept; and over this chapel, and in the said tower, is another chamber, where is placed the man who attends to the bells, with all his family, and with all the offices necessary for his living ; and above this, in the said tower, is another chamber, which is where the bells are hung in their frames in their order. And above this chamber, at the four sides or corners of the said tower, there are four pillars, from which rise four flying buttresses, which support another building, after the fashion of a censer with its windows. The clock is here, &c.” “ I hold this building of the tower to be noble and important, just as I hold it to be certain that it would be difficult to build it now for 50,000 ducats.” “ Likewise there are three principal chambers which abut against one wall of the tower, and go as far as the Calle Mayor of Bariio- 494 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. E. rmevo, wliicli measure 80 feet or more. One of them below is all made with a vault of good mason’s work for the workmen’s tools, timber, scaffolding, ropes, and other instruments required for the prosecution of the works ; and when the said church is finished it will be kept for precious things of various kinds of which the church has need, for autos, &c., which take place in such churches, so as not to have to make them anew each time. This chamber has a very good door for entrance, and sufficient lights to enable them to keep everything that is required to be put there. “ Over this room, on the level of the cloister, is the cloister Chapter-room, which is 53 feet long, a little more or less, and 33 wide, with very good windows, and glazing, and wooden ceiling made with fretwork, admirably executed by the hands of good workmen ; quite an important room. It is of the height proper for a good room. There is no other painting in it than an inscription all round. The pavement is of white and black stone, the black from Aillon, and the white Otero de Ilerreros. The seats are tem- porary ; but a large quantity of walnut has been bought for them. The doors of the Chapter-room are all of walnut, made by very good workmen, and with frames of black elm. Before entering into the Chapter-house there is a staircase which has three landings for going to the library, with its steps of hard stone, and its breast-wall with the four Evangelists placed against the columns ; and in the four windows which light the staircase are the four principal doctors of the Church ; and below the said staircase is a room in a vacant space, whose windows look into the Calle de Barrionuevo, which is for the Secretary of the church to keep all the writings, and books, and bills of the said church, and is placed close to the Chapter-house, of which the said Secretary keeps the keys. This room is of the width of the stair- case, and its size from the wall of the Chapter-house is 27 feet, which are what remain of the 80 over and above the 53 which the Chapter- house measures. The third part, and last in order of the above- mentioned rooms, which is called the library, is the same width and length. It has four windows, two towards the street, and two towards the cloister, and in them medallions of SS. Peter and Paul, John Baptist, and John the Evangelist. “ And in order to answer satisfactorily any complaints of the Senores of the city, we may make a comparison with the Church of Salamanca, which is the same kind as this church, and commenced by the same Master, though this church is 100 feet broader than Salamanca, which was begun by the same Master a long time before that of Segovia was commenced anew. The said work at Salamanca had all the ground on which it was built, so that the site cost nothing, whereas at Segovia the wdiole site required was bought, and redeemed of rents which were heavy,” &c. &c. App. F. CAEYED SCREENS IN ^FOLEDO CATHEDI^AL. 495 (F.) LIST OF SUBJECTS CARVED ON THE SCREENS ROUND THE CORO OF TOLEDO CATHEDRAL. These screens extend across tlie west end of the Coro and along its northern and southern sides. The central subject over the western doorway, and two subjects on either side of it, have been destroyed in order to make space for a more modern sculpture. The side screens appear to have been cut off abruptly at the eastern end, so that possibly some subjects may have been removed from this part. The subjects are arranged as follows : Nos. 1 to 9, counting from the north-west angle of the screen to the western doorway; Nos. 12 to 19, from the central doorway to the south- west angle of the screen; Nos. 20 to 40 along the southern screen, going from west to east; and Nos. 41 to 61 along the northein screen, going from east to west. Some of the subjects are doubtful, and some unintelligible to me ; and I have marked all such in this list with a note of interrogation. The whole of the subjects illustrate the earlier passages in the Old Testament in chronological order. 1. Chaos. God looking at a broken ark, and fragments of rock on the ground. 2. Creation of the firmament. God standing with sea behind, and supporting an arc over His head. 3. Creation of fowls and fishes. Central figure of God, birds flying above, fishes and birds swimming below. 4. The creation of sun, moon, and stars. God with His hands extended. In the two upper corners (dexter side) the sun and four stars ; (sinister side) the moon and four other stars. There are clouds round the feet of God. 5. God reverenced by angels. A standing figure of much majesty, with four angels on either side, some kneeling, some standing.^ 6. Fall of Lucifer.^ In the centre God, and on either side, above, angels ; and below, figures falling headlong. 7. The Creation of Adam. God moulding a figure into the shape of a man. Nos. 8 and 9, the central subject over the doorway into the Coro, and 10 and 11 are destroyed. 1 This subject occurs iu the well- ^ This subject occurs iu the‘Biblia known illustrations of Queen Mary’s Pauperum/ with the following inscri[>- Psalter, 2 B. VIL, at the British Mu- tion Legitur in Apocalypsi xiP Cap® seum library. It is described as “ Here et in iii® Ysaya xiiii Cap® quod lucifer God reposes on His throne with His cecidit per superbiam de celo cum omni- angels.” bus suis adherentib\is.” 496 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. F. Nos. 12 and 13 are transposed. 13. God meeting Adam and Eve, and showing them the tree in the garden. 12. God meeting Adam and Eve in the garden after the Fall. They hold leaves in their hands. 14. The expulsion of Adam and Eve. On the left a tree, in front of it a hattlemented tower or gate, before which is an angel. Adam and Eve going away. 15. Adam tilling the ground. Eve with a child in her arms looking at him. 16. Cain killing Abel (?), or Adam finding the dead body of Abel. (?) A man half supporting a dead body of a younger man. 17. Adam digging a grave for Abel. A man digging in the ground. 18. God meeting Cain. 19. Two figures in a niche a.t the angle of the western and southern screens, both looking up as if in prayer. “ Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” South side, 20 . (?) A figure speaking to a boy ; behind, and half-concealed among trees, another figui'e of a man naked. 21 . (?) A man with an axe which he has let fall. He has been cutting branches from a tree, and lifts up his hands in prayer : behind him stands a woman. 22 . (?) A man with a long axe resting from his labour ; a woman stands behind, him, and they both look towards a young man who speaks to them. 23 . (?) The end of a building. On the left of it an angel and a young man who looks out from it to the right, where are trees, and below them the mouth of a whale swallowing a man. 24. The burial of Methuselah. (?) Five figures surrounding a tomb in which they bury a sixth. 25. Noah finds grace in the sight of the Lord. (?) Two figures in supplication, apparently, before the third. 26. N oah and one of his sons before the ark. Noah turns liis head towards God, who speaks from a cloud and desires him to go into the ark, 27. The ark on the waters. On one side of the roof a dove, and on the other one with a twig of a tree. The ark has three tiers of openings : beasts look out of the lowest, men and women from the next, and birds from the highest. A VP, F. (CARVED SCHEENS IN TOLEDO CATHEDRA!.. 497 28. The ark resting on the land, and the drunkenness of Noah. Above, Noah prays by a tree. Below, Earn lifts up the garment of Noah, who is lying on the ground, and Shem and Japheth, kneeling, cover their faces with their hands. 29. Probably the promise to Abraham that he should be the father of many nations. (?) On the left, two figures conversing; on the right, three tiers of figures. Dead bodies below, two seated figures above them, and one seated figure above again. 30. Lot and the Angels. Lot kneels before two angels. 31. Abraham’s sacrifice. Isaac bound and lying on the ground. Abraham behind him looks back to an angel, who speaks and points to the ram in a thicket. 32. Abraham and Isaac. Abraham binding the ram, Isaac standing looking on, with his hands in prayer. 33. Rebekah and Jacob. Rebekah speaking to Jacob, who shows her that his arms have no hair on them. 34. Isaac blessing Jacob. Isaac sits up in bed, turns his face away from Jacob, and feels his arms. The expression of blindness is extremely well conveyed. 35. Esau’s distress. Isaac supports himself on one arm on his couch ; with the other he gesticulates to Esau, who stands before him with his hand before his face, and evidently in grief. 36. Jacob’s dream. (?) A man seated before a tree with his hand up to his face. 37. Jacob wrestling with the Angel. 38. Joseph sold to the Ishmaelites. 39. Joseph’s brethren return to Jacob with his coat. 40. Joseph’s brethren bowing down before him. This is the last subject on the south side of the Coro. #It is possible that it may have been returned on the eastern side of the columns at this point, so as to allow of two more subjects being introduced on either side ; but if so, these subjects have been destroyed. The first six subjects on the screen on the north side, Nos. 41 to 46, are all very similar — a king seated, with generally many persons in various attitudes around him ; possibly these subjects, with the four which may have been destroyed, represented the ten plagues of Egypt. I cannot discover any other explanation for them. 47. The institution of the Passover. Figures marking the lintels and side posts of a house. 2 iv 498 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIX. Arp. F. 48. The institution of the Passover. The sacrifice of the lamb, several figures standing round an altar. 49. The smiting of the first-horn of the Egyptians. (?) Two subjects, one above the other; in each a dead body laid out, and people looking on. 50. The passage of the Eed Sea, The people are walking on th.e water. 51. The drowning of the Egyptians. 52. Moses stretching his hand out over the water. Moses stoops down and touches the water witli his hand. 53. Exodus xvi. 10-12. “ The glory of the Lord in the cloud.” God speaking to a crowd of kneeling figures. 54. Exodus xvii. 45-6. Moses at the rock in IToreh. (?) God (with a cruciform nimbus) speaking out of the clouds to Moses, who speaks to a group seated before him (probably the elders of Israel, v. 6). 55. Jethro, Zipporah, Gershom, and Eliezer coming to Moses. (?) Exodus xviii. TMoses kneeling on the right, three figures seated on the left, and another speaking from out of foliage above. I can think of no other subject which this sculpture can represent. 56. (?) The people giving their ear-iungs to Aaron to make Ihe molten calf. Exodus xxxii. 24. Three figures on either side of one who stands in the centre. They seem to be throwing things into the flames, in the midst of which is a serpent. 57. Moses’ hands stayed up. Exodus xvii. 12. (?) Three figures, two holding a book (apparently) under the hands of the fourth, who appears to be much fatigued. There are flames in the foreground, in the midst of which is a small head. 58. Exodus xix. 10. (?) The peoj)le washing their clothes at Moses’ order. A central figure pointing to a sort of well in the centre. 59. Massacre of the worshippers of the molten calf. 60. Exodus xxiv. 29. Moses holds the two tables of the Law, and is surrounded by other figures all touching the tables. 61. Exodus xxiv. 32, 33. The two tables held by two figures above a draped altar ; four figures kneeling before them. With this subject the series concludes. I have thought it quite worth while to give this short account of the work because it is rather rare to find so large a number of Old Testament subjects treated in this \vay. On the whole, too, I think App. F. CARVED SCREENS IN TOLEDO CATHEDRA!.. 491) that this is the most important work of the age in Sixain. The sculptured works of this period (the fourteenth century) are com- paratively rare. The most important of those which I have men- tioned in this book are the north doorway of Toledo, which has a series of subjects in all of which the Blessed V^irgin appears ; at Burgos the three western doors, which have — (1) the birth of the Blessed Virgin, (2) the Assumption, and (3) the Coronation; in the south door, our Lord with the evangelists, saints, and prophets ; and in the north door, the Last Judgment. At Leon, the three western doors, which have — (1) subjects from our Lord’s life, introducing the Blessed Virgin, (2) the Last Judgment, and (3) the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; the south transept, on one door our Lord, the evangelists and apostles, and on another the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; the north transept, our Lord surrounded by saints. Avila cathedral has, over its north door, our Lord in the centre, the Betrayal, Last Supper, and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and the Eesurrection of the Dead in the archivolt; and there ai e various other smaller works, which will be found by reference to the Catalogue of Sculptures in the index to this volume. I know no other example of the introduction of Old Testament subjects. In all these examples the character of the sculpture is very similar; the architectural framing of niches and canopies is of the best kind of Middle Pointed ; and the draperies, faces, and pose of the figures are very much the same as one sees in work of the first half of the fourteenth century at Bourges and elsewhere in France. The subjects round the Coro at Toledo are superior to the others in the facility which the regularity of the openings gave for the free treatment of the sculptures, and in the variety of treatment which the subjects naturally involve. But on the other hand, the artistic skill of the sculptors who were employed at Leon cathedral seems to me to have been greater than that of the sculptors of any other Spanish work of the same age. And though the character, mode of design, and manner of execution are all extremely French, 1 do not know why we should have any doubt about the ability of Spaniards to execute such work, when we consider how exceedingly skilful they were in the succeeding age, when they perhaps excelled any other sculptors of the same period. The French work to which this Spanish sculpture has most similarity, appears to me to be that of the three western doors of Bourges cathedral. Jn some respects, indeed, there is so much like- ness between the two that one can hardly avoid supposing that the sculptor at Leon had himself been at Bourges. And it is interesting therefore to observe that one of the most remarkable series of sculp- tures illustrating the earl}^ portion of the Old Testament is that which is carved in the spandrels of the arcade which is carried all round the lower part of the jambs of the Bourges doorways. 1 have, 2 K 2 500 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SRAIN. App. G. in the earlier part of this work, obseived that there is evidence of the same men having wrought at Burgos, Leon, Avila, and Toledo. (G.) AGREEMENT BETWEEN JAYME FABRE AND THE SUB-PRIOR AND BRETHREN OF THE CONVENT OF SAN DOMINGO, AT PALMA IN MALLORCA. Sit omnibus notum, quod ego magister Jacobus Fabre lapicida, civis Majoricarum, pra3senti stipiilatione convenio vobis fratri Petro Alegre, gerenti Vices-Prioris conventus fratrum Prmdicatorum Ma- joricarum antedicti etNotarij infra scripti stipulantis, vice et nomine dicti conventus ; quod quando Prior dicte domus fratrum Pracdica- torum Majoricarum, vel ejus locum tenens, voluerit, et requisiverit me, quod redeam ad banc civitatem Majoricarum ex Barchinona, quo iturus sum in prassenti, causa faciendi illuc aliqua opera, vel ea dirigendi cum licencia vestra, et fratrum dictm domus, ad pracces Illustrissimi Domini Eegis Aragonum, et venera- bilis Domini Barchinonensis Episcopi : ego illico recepta moni- tione vel requisitione vestra vel Prioris dictm domus, seu ejus locum tenentis, omnibus operibiis et negotiis postpositis, redeam ad banc civitatem Majoricarum, salvo justo impedimento et quod vobis et fratribus vestri conventus faciam, et consumabo opera vestri monasterij, et alia opera faciam prout pactus sum, et facere teneor, ut continetur in quodam publico instrumento, facto inter me et venerabilem Fr. Arnaldum Burgeti, dudum Priorem dictm domus ; quod instrumentum sit validum, et nihil pro prsedictis ille videatur innovatum, aut mutatum. Quod si per me steteritquod non redeam, cum citatus fuero, et non compleverim preedicta cum ea complere possim, tenear dare, et per validam, et solemnem stipjulationem dare promitto operi vestri dicti monasterij in manu et posse Notaiij infras(U'ipti, vice et nomine dicti operis stipulantis, pro pena, et nomine pense, quinquaginta libras regalium Majoricensium monetfe perpetse minutorum, qua3 pro damnis, et interesse computtantur, qua pena soluta, vel non, nihilominus rata maneant hsec prgedicta, et cetera contentain instrumento inter me et dictum fratrem Arnaldum Burgeti facto, et pro prgcdictis attendendis, et non contraveniendis, obligo vobis, et vestro conventui supradicto, et nomine infrascripti stipulantis, vice et nomine ejusdem monasterij me, et omnia bona mea, ubique habita, et habenda. Ad hmc ego Maymonus Peris civis Majoricarum,” &c. &c. Actum est hoc Majoricis octavo idus Junii, anno Domini millessimo ti-ecentessimo septimo decimo sig^num Magistri Jacobi Fabre,” &c. &c. App. 11. NAVE OF GERONA CATHEDRAL. 501 (H.) REPORTS OF ARCHITECTS ON THE PLAN FOR THE COMPLE- TION OF THE CATHEDRA!. AT GERONA— A.D. 1417. Junta of Twelve Architects, upon the mode which ought to he followed in the construction of the Cathedral of Gerorta, with the Reports of each of them, as they appear in the archives of the said Church. I. In nomine Sanctm ac indivi(lna3 'ITinitatis, Patris, et Filii, et Spiritiis Sancti. Amen. Etsi mansinnculas et demos profanas mnndanonim iisibiis dicatas fideles Domini erigunt et fabricant opere polimento, qnanto magis ipsi fideles veriqne zelatores fidei ortliodoxae circa templi Domini fabi'icam construendam devotins accelerare debeient ? Niimqnid prisci patres pro arclia Domini tabernacnlum opere deanrato miri- fice fabricavernnt ? Hodie namqne arclia ilia verissima, et sanctissi- mnm illnd Mamiia in temple Domini a catbolicis pimseryantur. Dignum quin imo et congrunm potest et debet a quolibet repntari ut domiis ilia quam orationis veritas nominavit, in qua etiam illud sacrum Cliristi fidelibus pignus datum reconditur et tenetur, arti- ficioso ex politis lapidibus opere construatur. lime enim domus rite noscitur pastori verissime dedicata, in ilia nempe populus Domini et oves ejus Pasclium cibum dulzoris assumunt. Sane in domo ista latices sacrosancti noxas perimunt, culpas diluunt et veternas cuilibet occurrenti. Heu igitur, quam dolendum sacrum Domini templum ecclesiam Sedis clarissimm Gerundensis imper- fectum opere minorari ! Idcirco cunctis pateat, quod reverendiis in Christo Hater et dominus dominus Dalmacius, Dei gratia episcopus Gerundensis, ipsius ecclesim tunc electus, et honorabile capitulum ecclesim Gerundensis prsedictse prmmissa omnia pio sidere aspec- tantes, considerantesque a quantis citra temporibus fabrica dictm Sedis cessavit ex diversorum controversia juxta opiniones varias artificum subsequentes, nonnulli enim asserebant opus dictm fabriem sub navi una debere congruentius consummari, affirmantes illud fore nobilius, quam si sub tribus navibus opus hujusmodi subsequatur. Alii autem a contraiio asserebant dictum opus sub prosecutione trium navium continuari debere, dicentesque, quod firmius et pro- portionabilius esset capiti jamqiie coepto, quam si cum navi una ipsa fabrica prosequatur, quoniam opus navis unius multum reddunt debile distantia parietum, ac etiam testudinis altitudo ; et quod terrsemotus, tonitrua, ventosque vagantes timebit apetentes etiam circa directionem operis dictm fabricn consummandm solertius vacare, ac de opinione praedictorum veridica infoimaii : et adeo ut controversia et opinip. H. NAVE OF GERONA CATHEDRAL. 503 mensis Jaimarii anno nativitatis Domini millesimo occc. sexto decimo magistri et lapiscidte seqnentes jnravernnt et deposnerunt apnd civitatem Gerundge infrascripti, preesentibus et interroganti- bus venerabilibus viris dominis Arnaldo de Gurbo, et Joanne de Pon- tonibns canonicis, et Petro de Bosclio prsesbitero de capitiilo diet as ecclesias Gerimdensis ad hoc per dictos reverendum dominiiin elec- tum in Episcopiim et capitulum Gerundense depiitatis super arti- culis prasinsertis et contentis in eisdem nt sequitur. IV. Paschasius de Xui.be lapiscida et magister opens sive fahricce ecdesioe sedis Dertiisensis super primo dictorum articulorum sibi lecto medio juramento interrogatus, dixit : — 1. That according to his knowledge and belief it is certain that the work of one nave of the cathedral of Gerona already commenced is secure, good, and firm ; and that the foundations or bases of the old work already made are also so, and that the rest will be so if they are constructed in the same manner, and that they will be sufficient to sustain the vault of the said work of one nave. 2. Supposing that the work of one nave is not carried out, it is certain that the one of three naves, already commenced in the said church, is good and firm. But in the event of the plan of three naves being adopted, he says, that it would be necessary that the vault which is over the Coro, towards the altar of the same church, should be pulled down, and that it should be unroofed, in order that it may be raised eight palms — a little more or less — above what it is now, so that it may correspond to its third in its mea- surements. 3. That the plan of three naves is more compatible and better proportioned to the Chevet of the church than that of one nave. Interrogatus. — Whether, in joining the lower voussoirs on the capital of the pillar over the pulpit, which corresponds to the other of the Coro, in case the work of three naves is carried out, there will be any risk of causing a settlement in the said pillar? — I answer, that there will be none, and that it can be done with safety. V. JoANXES DE XuLBE, lapiscida, films dicti Pascliasij de Xulbe, regens pro dicto pat re suo fahricam proedictam, sive opus dictce Ecclesice Dertiisensis, simili juramento a se corporaliter praescripto, interrogatus super proedictis articidis deposuit ut infra. Et primo super primo articido interrogatus, dixit : — 1. That the work of the nave already commenced can be con- tinued, and that it will be good, firm, and without danger; but 504 GOTHIC AECHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. H. that the arches must be made to the tierce point, and that the prin- cipal arch must be shored up. That the first abutments of the old work, situated on the south, are good and firm, and that, making the others like them, they will be so also, and sufficient to sustain the vault which has to be executed in the said church. 2. That if the plan of one nave is not to be followed, it is possible to continue that of three ; and that it will be more beautiful, stronger, and better than the other. But that the three naves ought to be carried on according to those in the choir of the church ; and then it will be more beautiful and admirable. And that the new vault which is contiguous to the Chevet ought to be taken down, because it is bastard, and because it does not correspond with the said Chevet. 3. That the work of three naves in the form which has just been explained is the most compatible and the best proportioned to the Chevet of the church. Interrogatus. — Whether in joining the lower voussoirs of the arch above the capital of the pillar which is above the pulpit, corre- sponding to the other of the choir, in case the work of three naves is carried out, there will be any risk of causing a settlement in the said pillar ? — I say no, provided that the arches are well shored, so that they can have no thrust. vr. Petrus de Yallfogona, lapiscida et magister fahricoe Ecclesioe Terra- conensis jarmnento prcedicto medio super dictis articulis interrogatus deposuit. Et primo super primo articMlo interrogatus dixit : — 1. That the work of the said church, already commenced, of one nave can be continued, aud that it will be good, safe, firm, and without risk. That the abutments and foundations of the old work are so, and that those which have to be made will be so if con- structed in the same way, and that they are sufficient to support the vault which such a work ought to have. But that the abut- ments made towards the campanile require to be strengthened more than those constructed on the south side. 2. That if the plan of one nave is not carried out, that of three is congruous and worthy to be continued, provided that the second bay of vaulting, as far as the capitals and lowest voussoirs inclusive, is taken down ; yet if above the principal arch a discharging arch is erected, it will not be necessary to move the lower voussoirs or the capitals, and it would be possible to raise the Cinssing of that vault all its width as much as is required ; and it could have a light in the gable, which could have a clear opening of fifteen or sixteen palms, which would be a notable work. He says further : that the lower voussoirs which are in the northern and southern angles ought to Ai*p. H. NAVE OE GEKONA CATHEDRAL. 505 be altered, and that they ought to be reconstructed in accordance with the plan of three naves. 3. That without comparison the plan of three naves, in the form which has just been explained, is more compatible and more pro- portioned to the Chevet of the church than the plan of one nave. Interrogatus . — Whether, in case the plan of three naves is carried out, there will be any danger in opening a hole in the pillar over the pulpit corresponding to the other of the Coro at the time of joining the voussoirs above the capital? — He said, that there would not ; and that it could be done with safety. VII. Postmodum die veneris vicessima quarta dictorum mensis et anni in manu et posse mei ejusdern Bernardi de Solerio, notarii subscripti, prmsentibus et interrogantibus dictis dominis Arnaldo de Gurbo, Joanne de Pontonibus, et Petro de Boscho, magistri et lapiscidae sequentes super prmdictis, medio simili juramento, deposuerunt ut sequitur. YIII. Guillermos de la Mota, lapiscida, sodas magistri in opere fahidcce Ecdesiae TerraconcB super proedictis articulis, medio juramento^ at supra interrogatus deposuit. Et pruno super primo articulo interrogatus, dixit : — 1. That he considers that the ]3lan of the church commenced with one nave could be well executed, and that the Crossing will be firm ; but that it is observed in old works, that bulky buildings, as that of one nave would be, sink with earthquakes or with great hurricanes, and for these causes he fears that the work of one nave might not be permanent. 2. That the plan of three naves is good, congruous, and one that deserves to be followed, provided that the second Crossing may be new to the lowest voussoirs ; and that its principals be demolished as far as the capitals, and that horizontal courses of stones be carried up to the height of fourteen or fifteen palms. That the springers which are towards the north and the south ought also to be taken down, and that they ought to be reconstructed in proper proportion to the plan of three naves. 3. That without comparison the plan of three naves is more com- patible and more proportioned to the Chevet of the church than that of one nave. Interrogatus. — If there will be danger in opening a hole in the pillar near the pulpit, to place the springers ? — He said that there would not be any risk. 500 GOTHIC AliCHlTECTUlIE IN SPAIN. Apr. H. IX. Bartolom.eus Geap, lapiscida et magister operis sedis Barchinonensis super prcedictis articulis, ut supra dicitur, inter rog at us, medio juramento proedicto deposuit. Et primo super primo articido interrogatus dixit : — 1. That the bases and abutments of the old work of one nave are sufficiently strong, making a wall over the capitals between the abutments, which may rise a “ cana ” ^ from the windows, and that from that wall a vault may spring, which will abut against each of the abutments, and in this way they would remain safe. No doubt the vault may remain firm over one nave, so that it may resist earthquakes, violent winds, and other mishaps which may occur. 2. That the plan of three naves is good, congruous, and such as deserves to be carried out ; but that the new vault of the second arch, the last done, ought to be taken down to the springing, and ought to be raised until there is room in that place for a circle (“una 0”) of fourteen palms of opening; and in that way there will be beautiful and notable work, and it will not be necessary to undo the wliole to the springing line. 3. That the plan of three naves is beyond comparison much better proportioned and more compatible to the Chevet of the church than that of one nave. Interrogatus. — Whether there will be any risk in making an opening in the pillars in order to join the springers of the arches ? — He said that there would not be ; but he counsels that, when the said arch is taken out, the foot of the arch voussoir in the pillar which has to be altered should be larger than the other, because that has not so much weight on it. X. Antoxius Canet, lapiscida, magister sive sculptor imaginum civitatis Barchinonoe, magister quefahricoe sedis Urgellensis super prcedictis articulis ut prcedicitur, interrogatus medio dicto juramento deposuit. Et primo super primo articulo interrogatus, dixit : — 1. That according to his knowdedge and conscience the plan of one nave, already commenced, can be continued with the certainty that it will be good, firm, and secure : and that the abutments which the said work has are good and firm for the suj^port of the vault, and all that is necessary in order to carry on the said work. 2. That the work already begun of three naves is good and well- proportioned, but that it is not so noble as that of one nave ; and that if the work of three naves is continued it w^ould be necessary that the vault of the second bay of the middle nave should be taken *• Cana,” a measure of two ells Flemish. App. H. NAVE OF GERONA CATHEDRAE. 507 down to the capitals ; and that the capitals as well should he taken down eight or ten conrses of stone, and so that the first pillar may he joined, which was constructed in the head of the grand nave, con- tignons to the Chevet of the cliurch, and that the opening shall not he made so low in the pillar, and the springing of the arch stones may he introduced in it better. And though it is trne that in this way the (triforium) gallery may he lost, it is worth more to lose it than the bright effect of light in the temple, which conld be secured by a round window in the said grand nave. But that, if the second nave is followed out as it was commenced, it will he most gloomy. For which reason he is sure that if the plan of three naves is to he good, it is necessary for it to he carried out working in the way he has desci ihed. 3. That the plan of one nave would he much more compatible and better proportioned to the Chevet of the church as it is already commenced and completed, than that of three naves, because the said Chevet was commenced low ; and that the plan of one nave will he executed with a third at least of the cost of three naves. That if the plan of one nave is followed, the galleries, which are beautiful, will not he lost, and the church will he beyond compari- son much more light. XI. Guilleumus Abiell, lapiscidaet magister operum seu fahricarum ecclesiarum Beatce Marm de Pinu et Beatce Marioe de Monte Carmelo, et de Monte Sion, et Sancti Jacobi BarchinoncB, et hospitalis Sanctce Crucis, civitatis ejusdem, sic etiani super prcedictis, dicto juramento medio, interrogatus, dixit : — 1. That according to his understandiug and good conscience the work already commenced of one nave can he continued, and will he good, firm, and secure ; and that the foundations which it has, the rest being made in the same way, are good and firm to support the work of one nave without danger. 2. That the plan of three naves is good, beautiful, and more secure than the other, wherefore it deserves to be continued. But that the vault of the second hay of the middle nave ought to he taken down to the springers, and he raised afterwards by its third, so that a fine round window may he had there, and to make an upper vault above the principal : and in this way the plan of three naves will he very beautiful. 3. That without any doubt the plan of three naves is more com- patible and adequate to the choir of the church as it is now, than that of one nave, because that of one nave would he so wide that it would have great deformity when compared with the Chevet of the church. 508 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. H. XII. Arn ALDUS DE Valleras, lapiscida et magister operis sedis MinoriscB super dictis articulis, prout alii, interrogatus deposuit medio dicto juramento ut sequitwr. Et primo super primo articulo interrogatus dixit : — • 1. That the work of one nave, already commenced, can very well he continued, and will be good, firm, secure, and without risk ; and that the foundations which the said work has, and the rest which may be made like them, are good, and sufficient to sustain the work of a single nave ; and that, though they might not be so strong, they would be firm and secure. He says further, that the work of the Church of Manresa is now being constructed, which is higher than this, which has not such great or strong foundations, and is not of so strong a stone. It is true, he says, that the Manresa stone is lighter, and combines better with the mortar than that of Gerona ; and that, if he could have to construct the latter church, he would make Hie vault of other stone which was lighter, and which combined better with the mortar, but that the vaulting ribs, the lower part of the walls, the abutments, and the rest of such work could be executed in Gerona stone. 2. That the plan of three naves is good,' congruous, and deserves to be carried out, provided that the vault of the second arch of the middle nave is taken down to the springers, and that they also are taken down, so that the woi-k may be raised by its dimensions ; so that it will be possible to have over the principal of the first arch a round window of twenty palms opening, with which it will look very well and not be disfigured. 3. That the plan of three naves in the manner which has been described is, without comparison, more fitting and better propor- tioned to the existing Chevet of this church than that of one nave ; because that of one nave would make the choir appear to be so small and mis-shapen, that it would always demand that it should be raised or made larger. Interrogatus. — Whether there would be any danger in opening a hole in the pillars in order to insert the abutments ? — He said that there would not ; and that if he, the deponent, should do the work, he would commence first by opening a hole in the pillars in order to join the abutments, since in that way they could not settle or give way, as certainly and without doubt might happen. That he was ready to come and continue this woi k in the manner which he had described ; obtaining the licence of the city of Manresa, with which he had contracted to construct the church there. App. H. NAVE OF GERONA CATHEDRAL. 509 XIII. Antonilts An tig ONI, magister major operis ecclesice villoe Castilionis Im- puriarum super prcedictis mterrogatus, dicto juramento medio deposuit, Et primo super primo articulo interrogatus dixit : — 1. That the plan of one nave, formerly commenced, could be con- tinued well and firmly without any risk ; and the foundations that it has, and the re.st which have to be made like them, are sufficient to sustain with all firmness the said work of one nave. Interrogatus. — Whether the work of one nave, in case it were made, wouldTun any risk of falling with hurricanes and earthquakes? — He said that there was no cause for fear. 2. That the work of three naves continued of late is not con- gruous, nor of such sort as that it>s plan could be followed, because in no way could it be constructed with the same dimensions. But it is true that if the vault of the bay last done is taken down to the springers, and raised afterwards fourteen or fifteen palms in its measurements, the plan of three naves would be more tolerable, though it could never be called beautiful or very complete. 3. That he has no doubt that the work of one nave would be for all time without comparison the most beautiful, more compatible and better proportioned to the Chevet of the church than that of three naves, since it will be always clear that the latter was not done carefully and with good taste. Interrogatus . — ^Vhether in case the work of three naves is carried out, there will be any risk in opening a hole in the pillars in order to join the abutments ? — He said that it could be done, but not without danger. XIV. Guillehmus Sagkeua, magister operis sive fabricce ecdesicB Sancti Joannis Perpigniani ut supra interrogatus dicto juramento medio deposuit. Et primo super primo articulo interrogatus dixit : — 1. That the plan of one nave, formerly commenced, can be con- tinued, and that it will be good, firm, and secure ; and that the foundations which it has, with the rest which must be made in the same way, are sufficient to sustain it. Interrogatus . — Whether if the one nave is adopted there will be risk by reason of earthquakes and violent winds ? — He said that with the earthquakes which he has seen, and the winds wdiich naturally prevail, there would be no danger that the said work should fall or become decayed. 2, That the work of three naves lately commenced is not con- gruous, and does not deserve to be carried on ; and in case it is continued, in the first place the vault of the second bay ought to 510 GOTHIC ARCHITECTUKE IN SPAIN. A?p. H. be taken down from tlie springers to the capitals ; in the second, also, the other pillars which were made afterwards ought to be taken down, in order that they may be raised fifteen palms or there- abouts ; and that with all this the work will not be completed well, but on the contrary will be mesquin and miserable. That the gallery, which would be lost, could not remain there ; that it would not be possible to place the series of windows due to the work between the chapels higher than they would be in a single nave, owing to the thrust or pressure of the arches, which would be to- wards the gallery, corresponding to the new pillars of the enclo- sure of the choir, and would come against the void of the gallery, wherefore the work would not have the firmness it ought to have. The deponent concludes, saying, that for these and other reasons the said work of three naves would not be good or advantageous. 3. That the plan of one nave would be beyond comparison more compatible and more proportioned to the Chevet of the church already built, commenced, and completed, than would one of three naves ; and he says it is the fact that the said choir of the church was made and completed with the intention that the remainder of the work should be made and carried out with a single nave. XV. Joannes de Guinguamps, lapiscida, hahitator civitatis NarhoncB super prcedictis articuUs, sicut alii praedicti inter rogatus medio dicto juramento deposuit ut sequitur. Et primo super primo articulo interrogatus dixit : — ■ 1. That the work already commenced of one nave could very well be made and continued; and that when it is doue it will be very good, firm, and secure, without any dispute ; and that the founda- tions which are already made in the old woik, and the others which will be made in the same way, are good, and have sufficient strength to maintain the work of a single nave. 2. That the plan of three naves latterly continued is not con- gruous or sufficient, and should not in any way be made or followed, because it never will have reasonable conformity with the Chevet. 3. That the plan of a single nave is beyond comparison more fit and proportioned to the choir of the said church, than would be that of three naves, for several reasons. 1st. That the de23onent knows that the j^lan of a single nave with the said choir would be more reasonable, more brilliant, better projoortioned, and less costly. 2nd. Because, if the work is carried on with one nave, there would not be the deformity or difference that disgusts. Aiid though some may sa}^ that the plan of a single nave would make the choir look low and small, the more on that account would no deformity be 2 )roduced, rather it would be more beautiful ; and the reason is, that Ai>i>. H. NAVE OF GERONA CATHEDRAE. 511 in the space which would be left between the top of the choir and the centre of the great vault, there woidd be so large a space that it would be possible to have there three rose windows : the first and principal in the middle, and another small one on each side : and these three roses would do away with all deformity, would give a grand light to the churcli, and would endow the work with great perfection. Jnterrogatus. — AYhelher, if the plan of three naves is adopted, it would be dangerous to open the pillars in order to join in them the springers corresponding to it? — He said that he would not do it or consent to it on any account, because great danger, great wrong, and great damage would result, since in no part could the woj-k be brought to perfection, and such a fissure could not be made without great risk. Xvl. Postmodum die Lunm, quae fuit vicesima octava mensis Septem- bris, anno jam dicto a Nativitate Domini millessimo coco, sexto decimo, ad instantiam dicti domini Petri de Boscho operarii hoc anno dictae ecclesiae Gerundensis, super ipsius regimine operis una et in solidum cum honorabili viro domino Francisco Sacalani canonico dictm ecclesiae electi et deputati apud domos Thesaurariae dictae ecclesiae Gerundensis coram dictis reverendo in Christo patre et domino domino Dalmacio Dei gratia episcopo et honorabili capi- tulo ejusdem ecclesiae Gerundensis ad factum cimbali, ut moris est, ibidem convocatis et congregatis ; ubi fuerunt praesentes dictus reve- rendus dominus dominus Dalmacius, episcopus, et honorabiles viri Dalmacius de Poseto, decretorum doctor, archidiaconus de Silva in dicta ecclesia Gerundensi, Arnaldus de Gurbo, Joannes de Pon- tonibus, Guillermus de Brongarolis, sacrista secundus, Joannes de Boscho Thesaurarius, Joannes Gabriel Pavia, Petrus de Boscho prae- dictus, Guillermus Marinerii, Petrus Sala, Francisciis Mathei, et Bartholomeus Vives, presbiteri capitulares et de capitulo ante dicto, capitulum ejusdem ecclesiae Gerundensis facientes, representantes et more solito celcbrantes : dicti articuli et dictae depositiones, et dicta a dictis artificibus super eisdem in scriptis redacta et continuata in dicto capitulo publice, alta et intelligibilli voce de verbo ad verbum lecta fuerunt, et publicata per me eundem Bernardum de Solerio, notarium, supra et infra scriptum. Et eis sic lectis et publicatis, illico dicti reverendus dominus episcopus et honorabile capitulum super concludendo et determinando per quern modum juxta opi- niones, depositiones et dicta dictorum artificum melius pulchrius et efficacius dictum opus praefatae ecclesiae Gerundensis sub prosecu- tione videlicet unins aut trium navium prosequatur et consumetur, retinuerunt sibi deliberationem et ad hujusmodi fuernnt pro testibus presentes et evocati discreti viri Fhanciscus Tabernerii et Petrus Puig presbiteri benefficiati in dicta ecclesia Gerundensi. 512 GOTHIC AECHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. App. H. XVII. Delude vero die Lunse octava mensis Martii anno a Xativitate Domini millessimo cccc. decimo septimo alius artifex lapiscida infra- scriptus juravit et deposuit in dicta civitate Gerundse in posse mei Bernardi de Solerio notarii supra et infra scripti, prsesentibus et interrogantibus venerabilibus viris dominis Arnoldo de Gurbo, canonico, et Guillermo Marinierii presbitero de capitulo dictae ecclesiae Gerundensis, ad hoc per dictos l everendum dominum Dal- macium episcopum et honorabile capitulum Gerundense, specialiter deputatis super articulis praeinsertis, et contends in eisdem ut sequitur. XVIII. Guillermus Boffiy, magister operis sedis dictce ecclesice Gerundensis simili jiiramento a se corporaliter prcestito super primo articulo dictorum arti- culorum interrogatus, dixit et deposuit : — 1. That the work of the nave of the church of Gerona, already begun, could be made and continued very well ; and that if it is continued it will be firm and secure without any doubt, and that the foundations, and others which may be made like them, are and will be good and firm enough to sustain the said work of one nave. And that it is true that the said foundations or abutments, even if they were not so strong, would be sufficient to maintain the said work of one nave, since they have a third more of breadth than is required : wherefore they are very strong, and offer no kind of risk. 2. That the work of three naves for the said church does not merit to be continued when compared with that of one nave, because great deformity and great cost will follow from it, and it would never be so good as that of one nave. 3. That the work of one nave is, without comparison, the most conformable to the choir of the church already commenced and made, and that the plan of three naves would not be so. And that, if the plan of one nave is carried out, it would have such grand advan- tages, and such grand lights, that it would be a most beautiful and notable work. XIX. Post praedicta autem omnia sic habita et secuta, videlicet die Lunae, intitulata quinta decima dicti mensis Martii, anno jam dicto a Xativitate Domini millesimo cccc. decimo septimo, mane videlicet, post missam sub honore beatae Marias Virgin is gloriosae in dicta Gerundensi ecclesia solemniter celebratam, dictis reverendo in Christo patre et domino domino Dalmacio episcopo, et honorabilibus App. H. NAVE OF GERONA CATPIEDRAL. 513 viris capitulo dictse ecclesioe Gerundonsis, hac de causa ad trinuin tactum cimbali, ut moris est, do mandate dicti domini episcopi apud domos praedictas Thesaurarit© dictm ecclesias Gerundonsis simul convocatis et congregatis ; ubi convenerunt, et fuerimt praesentes dictiis reverendus dominus Dalmacius episcopus, et honorabiles viri Dalraacius de Raseto, decretomm doctor, arcbidiaconiis de Silva, Arnaldus de Gurbo, Joannes de Pontonibus, canonici, Guillermus de Burgarolis, sarista secundus, Joannes de Bosebo, Tliesaiirarius, Joannes Gabriel Pavia, Petrus de Bosclio, Guillermus Marinerii, Petrus Sala, Bacallarii in decretis, Franciscus Mathei et Bartbolo- meus Vives licentiatus in decretis, presbiteri capitulares et de capitulo ante dicto, ipsi reverendus dominus episcopus et bonora- biles viri et capituluin pracnotati, sicut pracmititur capitulariter convocati et congregati, et capituluin dictae ecclesiae Gerundonsis facientes, representantes, et more solito celebrantes, visis et recogni- tis per eosdem, ut dixerunt, pracdictorum artificum et lapiscidarum depositionibus ante dictis in unum Concordes deliberaverunt, sub Navi una prossequi magnum opus antiquum Gerundensis ecclesice^ praslibatis rationibus qu^ sequuntur : turn quia ex dictis praemissorum artifi- cum dare constat, quod si opus trium navium supradictum opere continuetur jam ccepto, expedit omnino quod opus expeditum supra chorum usque ad capitellos ex ejus deformitate penitus diruatur et de novo juxta mensuras coepti capitis reformetur ; turn quia constat ex dictis ipsorum dare, eorum uno dempto, nomine discrepante, quod bujusmodi opus magnum sub navi una jam coeptum est firmum, stabile et securum si prosequatur tali mode et ordine, utest coeptum, et quod terraemotus, tonitrua nec turbinem ventorum timebit : turn quia ex opiniono multorum artificum praedictorum constat, dictum opus navis unius fore solemnius, notabilius et proportionabilius capiti dictae ecclesiae jam incepto, quam sit opus trium navium supradictum : turn quia etiam multo majori daritate fulgebit quod est laetius et jucundum : turn quia vitabuntur expensae, nam ad prosequendum alterum operum praedictorum mode quo stare viden- tur opus navis unius multo minor! praetio, quam opus trium navium, et in breviori tempore poterit consumari. Et sic rationum intuitu praemisarum dictus reverendus dominus episcopus et bonorabile capitulum supradictae ecclesiae Gerun- densis voluerunt, cupierunt, et intenderunt, ut dictum est, opus magnum unius navis praedictum, quantum cum Deo poterunt pro- sequi et deduci totaliter ac effectum. Et talis fuerunt intentionis domini episcopus et capitulum ante dicti praesente me eodem Ber- nardo de Solerio, notario supra et infra scripto et praesentibus vene- rabilibus viris, &c. &c. &c. 514 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN. App. I. (I-) CONTEACT OF GUILLEEMO SAGEERA FOE THE EXCHANGE AT PALMA. Contract entered into at Palma in Mallorca, March 11, 1426, hy which the Architect Guillermo Sagrera hound himself to construct or to continue the Construction of the Exchange of that City, according to Plans which he presented, and to the Conditions expressed, Eecites the names of the contracting parties for the erection of the fabric of the Exchange which is being built in the Place called “ del Boters,” outside the walls of the city. (The following conditions were written in the “ Lemosin ” or Mallorcan idiom.) Firstly . — That the said Guillermo Sagrera promises and agrees in good faith with the said honourable members of the Building Coun- cil (Fabriqueros), that, God helping, he will complete the building of the said Exchange, to the covering of its vaults, in the first twelve years from the date of the contract : the said Exchange to be eight “ canas^ of Monpeller ” in height, reckoning from the pavement to the keystone. Item . — That the said twelve years being passed, the said Guillermo Sagrera will be obliged in the three succeeding years to make and finish all the towers, turrets, and other works which pertain to the said Exchange above the roof. Item . — That the said Guillermo must and is bound to do all the said work at his own cost and charge, as well what may be neces- sary by reason of his art, as for wooden scaffolding and centering ; and also for paying for all the stone, lime, gravel, and all the instruments and tools necessary for the work ; and in the same manner for all the workmen, officials, and others working in the said Exchange and outside it ; and lastly all the other things neces- sary for its completion. Item . — That the said Guilleimo is obliged to continue and com- plete the said work of the Exchange in the form which was begun, and according to the designs given and put into the hands of the honourable Council of the Fabric by the said Guillermo. Item . — That the said Guillermo binds himself to build from the base and to complete all the pillars and keystones of the said Exchange in Santahi stone, fluted and according to the said design, and fo floor it with the same stone, and to lay the terrace with the mixture of burnt clay and fresh lime which they call “ Trespoll.” A “ cana ” equals two yards and three inches Spanish measure. App. I. ERECTION OF EXCHANGE AT PALMA. 515 Item. — That the said Guillermo binds himself to make the pen- dents of the said Exchange of Solleric stone. Item. — That the said Guillermo binds himself to make on the outside part of the said Exchange, and above the gable of the door- way which looks towards the Ixoyal castle of the said city of Mallorca, a solemn tabernacle with the figure of the modest Virgin our Lady Saint Mary. Item. — That the said Guillermo binds himself to make on the other three fronts of the same Exchange, that is on the outside of each one of them, a figure of an angel, each one with his taber- nacle over him ; and that each of the said angels have on one side the Koyal scutcheon, and on the other that of the said city of Mallorca, in the form and manner which may be pleasing to the said honourable Council of the Fabric. Item. — That the said Guillermo binds himself to make in each one of the four corners of the said Exchange on the outside a grand statue, each one in his tabernacle, similar to the angels : that is, in the corner which looks towards the Pi Gate, that of San Nicolas ; in that which looks towards the church of San Juan, that of St. John the Baptist ; in that which looks towards the Arsenal, that of Sta. Catalina ; and in that which looks towards the said Eoyal castle, that of Sta. Clara ; in the form and manner which may please the said honourable Council of the Fabric. Item. — ^That the said Guillermo binds himself to make in one of the four turrets of the corners of the said Exchange a room where a clock can be placed. Item. — That the said Guillermo binds himself to cover the abut- ments or buttresses with sharp-pointed stone weatherings, and in the top of each of the said weatherings there must be a great knop on which a flower-pot can stand ; and that the balustrade which surrounds all the top of the Exchange shall be pierced with openings. And all the things which are at present within the said Exchange shall belong to the said Guillermo ; and it is further declared that the aforenamed will not have to make gates nor iron screens in the said Exchange. Jtem. — That the said honourable Council of the Fabric are to give and pay to the said Guillermo, on account of all the things before said and specified, 22,000 pounds of Mallorcan money, in instalments, in the form and manner following : To wit. That the' said honourable Guardians and those who succeed them in the office of Guardians of the Merchants’ Affairs shall be obliged to pay each year to the said Guillermo the sum for which they may have alienated the right of dues on the merchandize imposed by the said Mercantile College upon all the stuffs and merchandize entering and sailing from the island of IMallorca, reserving to the said honourable Guardians in each year 2 L 2 516 GOTHIC AECHITECTUEE IN SPAIN. App. I. 150/. of the said money of Mallorca for the expenses and bnsiness of the College ; and the said price of the said dues, the 150/. already referred to being deducted, is to be reserved for the said Guillermo every year in payment and satisfaction of the said 22,000/.; and this for such time and until the abovementioned is wholly and completely paid and satisfied to the whole extent already mentioned. Declaring however and agreeing in which, the said Guillermo shall be bound to spend each year out of his own stock on the said work of the Exchange 500/. of the said money beyond that which he shall receive of the said price of the dues of mer- chandize. &c. &c. Signed March 11th, 1426, by Guillermo Sagrera, Francesco Anglada, and Juan Terriola, and by others. ‘ > Cean Bermudez, Arq. de Espana, i. pp. 276-279. ( &17 ) I N D E X. ABBEY. A. Abbey of Veriiela, 384. Abiell, Guillermo, 311 ; liis report on plan for completion of Gerona cathedral, 507. Acuna, Bishop Luis de, 25 and note, 26. Adam, Juan, bell-founder, 350. Agata, Sta., church of, at Barcelona, 312. Ajimez windows, meaning of term, 260 ; examples of, at Segovia, 103 ; at Va- lencia, 260, 270; at Tarragona, 280; at Barcelona, 316 ; at Gerona, 334, 335 ; near Manresa, 340 ; at Lerida, 361. Alagon, town of, 301. Alava, Juan de, architect, 86. Alcala de Henares : church of SS. Just y Pastor, 100 ; university, 201 ; church of San Ildefonso, 201 ; bishop’s palace, 201 . Alcantara, bridge of, 210, 211 note, 230. Alcazar, the, at Segovia, 187 ; at Toledo, 211 . Alfonso, son of Juan II., his monument in the chapel of Miratiores, 42. , Ilodrigo, architect, 251. Almansa, 250. Almudevar, castle of, 362 and note. Altar-frontals at Valencia, brought from St. Paul’s, London, 267 ; iu the col- legiata at Manresa, 344. Altars, old, 80, 240, 387. Amiens, cathedral at, date of, 100. x\na, Sta., collegiate church of, at Barce- lona, 205. Andino, Cristobal, worker in iron, 60, note, Antholin, San, cathedral of, at Palencia. 57 ; church of, at Medina del Campo, 161 ; at Segovia, 102. Antigoni, Antonio, his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathedral, 500. Antigua, la, church of, at Valladolid, 60 ; at Guadalajara, 202. Anton, San, church of, at Barcelona, 314. Aqueduct, Koman, at Segovia, 181 ; at Tarragona, 274 ; modern, near Tafalla, 402. A(]uitainc and Auvergne, type of church AKCHITECTS. common in, in the twelfth century* 415. Aragon, kingdom of, provinces composing it, 411. Arandia, Juan de, architect, 71. Aranjnez, 200, 250. ArcJjitects, Juntas of, at Salamanca, 85, 450; at Zaingoza, 266 note, 370; at Gerona, 320, 456 ; others, 460. , the old Spanish, their main object, 420. , Villanueva’s list of, employed on the cathedral at Gerona, 310, note. , Spanish, of the middle ages, 448- 464 ; Petrus de Deo, his work at San Isidoro, Leon, 448 ; Eaymundoof Mon- forte de Lemos, his contract with the Chapter of Lugo, 440 ; IMattheus, master of the works at Santiago cathe- dral, 440 ; Paymundo, a “ Lambardo,” employed on Urgel cathedral, 450; Pedi'O de Cumba, architect of Lerida cathedral, 451 ; Pedro de Pehafreyta, his successoi', 452 ; Maestro l^once, 452 ; Jayme Fabre, his works at Bar- celona and Palma, 453 ; l^edro Zacoma, employed on San Feliu, Gerona, 453 ; Juan Garcia de Laguardia, master- mason of Navarre, 454 ; Guillermo ^olivella, 454; Juan Franck, 455; Lucas Bernaldo de Quintana, his con- tract for rebuilding the church at Gijon, 455 ; Junta of, at Gerona, 456 ; Guillermo Sagrera, his works at IVr- 2 :)inan and Palma, 457 ; Guillermo Vila- solar, his agreement to complete work commenced by Sagrera, 457 ; ajipoint- ment of architect to Calahorra cathedral, 458; Juan Norman appointed to Seville cathedral. 45'J ; succeeded by Maestro Jimon, 459; Juan de Esct)bedo at Segovia, 459 ; Pedro Compte, his works at Valencia, 459 ; Anton Egas and Alfonso llodriguez, their jJan for a new cathedral at Salamanca, 459 ; Junta of at Salamanca, 459 ; Bodrigo Gil de Hontahoii appointed, 460; rei^ort on the state of the works by three archi- tects, 460 ; other Juntas of, 460 ; Bene- 518 INDEX. AKCHITECTS. dicto Oger and Domingo Urteaga, their contracts for erecting churches, 461 ; Felipe de Borgona, superintends works at Burgos, 461, note; Jayme Castayls, statues by, 461, note ; Berengario Por- tell and Gil de Siloe, works of, 462 ; few cases of competition among, 462 ; usual practice of, 462 ; question between ourselves and them, 463 ; clerical archi- tects, 464, Architects, sculptors, and builders of churches, catalogue of, 471. Architectural terms supplied by Arabs, 209. Argenta, Bart,, architect, 319. Arnoldo, Cardinal, 57. Artesinado work, meaning of, 220, note. Assas, Manuel de, quoted, 213, notes. Astorga, walls of, 129; cathedral, 129. Avila : situation, 162 ; walls and towers, 162; cathedral, 163; church of San Vicente, 170; San Pedro, 176; church and convent of San Tomas, 178. Aya, Martin de la, sculptor, 20, note. , Rodrigo, 20, note. B. Badajoz, Juan de, architect, 85, 126, 128. Balaguer, Pedro, ai-chitect, 265, 350. Baldachin, at Gerona, 327. Barbastro, cathedral of, 362. Barcelona, 291 ; convent and church of San Pablo del Campo, 292 ; church of San Pedro de las Puellas, 294 ; colle- giata of Sta. Ana, 295 ; cathedral, 296- 307 ; chapel of Sta. Lucia, 304 ; Bishop’s palace, 307 ; church of Sta. Maria del Mar, 307 ; Sta. Maria del Pino, 309 ; SS. Just y Pastor, 309; San Jayme, 311; Sta. Agata, 312; N. S. del Carmen, 313 ; San Mig-uel, 314 ; San Anton, 314 ; San Geronimo, 314 ; Casa Consistorial, 314 ; Casa de la Disputacion, 316 ; Lonja, 316; building intended for a cloth-hall, 317 ; the Mole, 317. Barcelonette, 292. Bartolome, Maestro, sculptor, 275, 285 note. , San, church of, at Toledo, 229. Bayonne, cathedral, 7. Bells, 251, 346, 350. , wheel of, at 4’oledo, 255 ; at Barce- lona, 306 ; at Gerona, 328 ; at Man- resa, 345. Benavente : appearance of the town, 102 ; church of Sta. Maria del Azogue, 102 ; San Juan del Mercador, 103; ruins of castle, 104. Benito, San, monastery and church of, at Valladolid, 71, 72. CARTAGENA. Bernardo, Archbishop of Toledo, 79. , Bishop of Toledo, 233, note. , Bishop of Sigiienza, 204. , Brother, architect, 275. de Vallfogona, architect, 285, note. Berruguete, name given to his work, 49, note; his so-called chef-d’oeuvre, 74; his work at Toledo, 253. Betanzos, town of, 136. Biarritz, 7. Bidart, church at, 8, note. Bishops, French, in Spain, 79, 92, 204, 235. , Junta of, at Leon, 108. Bias, San, chapel of, in Toledo cathedral, 251. Blay, Pedro, architect, 316. Boffiy, Guillermo, architect, 320, 322 ; his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathedral, 512. Boix, Bernardo, mason, 265. Bonife, Mafias, sculptor, 305, note. Borgona, Felipe de, architect, 24, 252, 461 note. , Juan de, painter, 20, 169 note. Bricks, employment of, in Spanish build- ings, 76, 2i6, 220, 227, 337, 371, 379, 385, 439; mostly used by the Moors, 440. Bridges : at Zamora, 92 ; at Toledo, 210, 211 note, 230, 232 and note; at Tudela, 398 note. Building materials used in Spain, 438. Bull-figlit at Madrid, 198; at Nimes, 199. Bin-gos, drive to, 7 ; approach to, 10; ca- thedral described, 12-34; churches of San Nicolas, 44 ; San Esteban, 46 ; San Gil, 50 ; San Lesmes, 52 ; San Juan, 52 ; San Lucas, 52 ; San Pablo, 53 ; La Merced, 53 ; convents of San Juan, 52; San Pablo, 52; La Merced, 53 ; domestic architecture, 54 ; gateway of Sta. Maria, 54 ; general character of the cathedral, 426. Butterfield, Mr., his church of St. Alban, London, 447, note. C. Campanas, las, old church near, 402. Campero, Juan, architect, 86, 184, 186. Canet, Antonio, his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathedral, 506. Oantarell, Giralt, architect, 343. Capilla mayor, meaning of, 17. Capuchins, clmrcli of the, at Lugo, 134. Carlos, architect, 370. Carmen, N. S. del, church of, at Barce- lona, 313 ; at Manresa, 345. Carpentry, Moorish, 443. Carpintero, IMacias, arcliitect, 71. Carreno, architect, 160. Cartagena, Bishop Alfonso de, 26. INDEX. 519 CASANDEO. Casandro, architect, 163. Cascaiite, pilgrimage church at, 876. Cashel, St. Oormack’s chapel at, an ex- ample of an edifice built for perma- nence, 421. Castaileda, Juan de, 24. Castayls, Maestro Jayme, sculptor, 275, 285 note, 461 note. Castile, kingdom of, provinces composing it, 411. Castles, Spanish, 437. Catalina, Sta., chapel of, in San Isidoro, Leon, 125 ; remarkable paintings in, 127. Catalogue of dated examples of Spanish buildings, 467 ; of architects, sculptors, and builders of churches, 471. Cataluha, its architecture and architects, 291 ; large churches of, 429. Cathedrals : Burgos, 12 ; Palencia, 57 ; Valladolid, 66; Salamanca, old, 78; new, 85 ; Zamora, 92 ; Leon, 105 ; Astorga, 129 ; Lugo, 131 ; Santiago de Compostella, 141 ; Avila, 163 ; Segovia, 181 ; Sigiienza, 204 ; Toledo, 233; Valencia, 261; Tarragona, 274; Barcelona, 296 ; Gerona, 318 ; Lerida, 347 ; Barbas tro, 362 ; Huesca, 363 ; Jaca, 367 ; Zaragoza, 369 ; Tarazona, 377 ; Tudela, 391 ; Pamplona, 402. Cementarius, meaning of the term, 450, note, Centellas, Maestro, carver, 58. Cerveia, churches at, 346. Cervia, Berenguer, artist, 326. Chapter-houses, 84, 266, 294, 296, 388, 406. Christians in Spain, their connexion with the Moors, 409 ; inferior in regard to civilization, 410; their warlike cha- racter, 410 ; dates of recovery of certain towns by, 410 ; early buildings of, 412. Churches, dimensions of some of the largest, 323, note. , Spanish, fm-niture of, 433 ; monu- ments in, 434 ; dependent buildings, 434; roofing of, 435. Church plate, 23, 343. Chiu-riguera, architect, 66. Cid, coffer of the, 32 and note. Cimborio, meaning of the word, 18 ; ex- amples of, 24, 35,80, 93, 174, 183, 188, 256, 263, 280, 295, 301, 331, 340, 357, 367, 370, 379. Cistercians, tlieir first house in Spain, 384. Clairvaux, convent of, compared with the abbey of Vcruela, 385. Clerical architects, belief in a race of, erroneous, 464. Clermont-Ferrand, church of Notre Dame at, 81, 416. DOMESTIC. Climate, adaptation of churches to, 87, 112, 187, 299, 369, 380, 389, 403. Cloisters, 30, 38, 40, 47, 67, 97, 117, 157, 169, 171, 187, 188, 190, 191, 202, 207, 251, 257, 296, 303, 322, 330, 338, 351, 367, 368, 381, 387, 397, 405, 408. Colivella, Guillermo, architect and sculp- tor, 349, 454. Colonia, Juan de, architect, 21, 23, 26, 43, 71. , Simon de, architect, 23, 43. Colom-s used in various seasons at Toledo, 255, note. Compte, Pedro, architect, 266, 270, 370, 459. Concepcion, la, church of, at Toledo, 227, 229 ; at Tarazona, 383. Constable, chapel of the, in Burgos ca- thedral, 21. Constantinople, Crimean memorial church at, 322, note. Corbie, Peter de, architect, 424. Coro, meaning of term, 16. , position of, 14, 41, 96, 300, 343, 382, 392. Coruna, la, situation of, 136 ; collegiata of Sta. Maria del Campo, 136 ; church of Santiago, 138. Council at Leon, 108. Covarrubias, Alonso de, architect, 86, 254 note. Creus, Sta., church of, near Poblet, 289 and note. Cristo de la Luz, church of, at Toledo, 215. Crockery-ware, good character of, at Tara- zona, 389. Crockets, 28, 69, 81, 94. Crowns, votive, collection of, found near Toledo, 212, note. Crucero, meaning of, 16. Cruz, Diego de la, sculptor, 43. , Santos, painter, 169. , Sta., college of, at Valladolid, 71 ; de los Seros, church at, 368 ; de Caugas, church of, 412. Cucufate, San, convent of, near Barcelona, 292 and note. Cumba, Pedro de, architect, 451. D. Deo, Petrus de, architect, 121 note, 448. Diligences, Spanish, 10. Domestic arcliitectiu'e, specimens of: at Bin-gos, 54 ; Zamora, 101 ; Santiago, 158 ; Segovia, 193 ; Alcala, 201 ; Gua- dalajara, 203 ; Toledo, 221 ; Valencia, 269 ; Barcelona, 31 5 ; Gerona, 334 ; Perpinan, 337 ; Lerida, 361 ; Zaragoza, 374 ; general, of Spain, 436, 520 INDEX. DOMICAL. Domical vaults, domes, and semi-domes, 81, 88, 93, 174, 229, 276, 294, 362, 365. Domingo, San, church of, at Lugo, 135. E. i Ebeo, church on the, opposite to Miranda, I 9 ; valley of the, 391. Ecclesiologist, the, quoted, 95. Egas, Anton, aiuhitect, 85, 459. , Enrique de, architect, 72, 370, 460. Ehie, church at, 337. Embroidery, carved imitations of, 89, 240. , remarkable specimens oh at La Coruna, 138; Valencia, 267; Mondo- nedo, 267 ; Manresa, 344 ; Durham, 345, note, England, commerce of, with the south of Spain, 427, note ; perfection of her village churches, 427, note ; scarcity of Large town churches in, 429. Engracia, Sta., church of, at Zaragoza, 374. Enrique of Narbonne, architect, 319. “ Era,” the, of Augustus Cmsar, 19, note. Escobedo, Juan de, architect, 459. Escorial, the, 179. Escudei-, Andres, architect, 298. Esla, valley of the, 105. Esteban, San, churches of, at Burgos, 46 ; at Segovia, 187. Eugenio, San, church of, at Toledo, 229. Eulalia, Sta., chapel of, in Barcelona cathedral, 299. Exchange at Palma, contract for, 514. F. Fabre, Jayme, architect, 297, 453; his agreement with the sub-Prior and brethren of San Domingo, at Palma, 500. Faisans, He de, 8. Fai m-labourers, Valencian, their costume, 200 . Favariis, Jacobo de, architect, 319. Fe, Sta., church of, at Toledo, 229. Feliu, San, church of, at Gerona, 331. Ferrandis, Martin, organ-builder, 307. Figueras, cathedral at, 336. Florentesi, Micer Domenico Alexandro, sculptor, 179. Fonda, the, 4. Font, Juan, architect, 343, 370. Ford, Mr., on the cathedral of Lerida, 347. Forment, Damian, sculptor, 364 and note, 373. Forncllcs, 335. GUAS. Fountains Abbey, Chapter-house at, 278, note. Francesco, San, church of, atPalencia, 63. Franck, Juan, architect, 265, 455. Freemasons, belief in peripatetic bodies of, probably erroneous, 464. French churches, list of the more remark- able, having the same general charac- teristics as the cathedral at Santiago, 146, note ; copies of, in Spain, 417. Fuenterrabia, distant view of, 8. Furniture of Spanish churches, 433. G. Gallegan peasantry, wretched state of, 140 ; at Santiago, on Sunday, 148. Gallego, Juan, architect, 185. Galleries in Spanish churches, 45, 49, 53, 68, 73, 178, 186, 256, 383, 406. Galtes, Carlos, de Euan, architect, 350. Garcia, Alvar, architect, 163. Gateways and walls of old towns : Burgos, 54 ; las Huelgas, 38 ; Zamora, 101 ; Leon, 109, 127 ; Astorga, 129 ; Lugo, 135 ; Avila, 163 ; Segovia, 192 ; Alcala, 201 ; Sigiicnza, 208 ; Toledo, 211, 230 ; Valencia, 268 ; Tarragona, 274 ; Ge- rona, 329; Hoslalrich, 335; Veruela, 384 ; Olite, 400 ; Pamplona, 402. Gelmirez, Diego, Ai'chbishop of Santiago, 143. Gerona : cathedral, 318-329 ; town walls, 329 ; church of San Pedro de los Galligans, 329 ; another church, 331 ; San Daniel, 331, note ; San Feliu, 331 ; domestic remains, 334. cathedral, reports on plan for com- pletion of, 501. Geronimo, San, church of, at Barcelona, 314. Gil, San, church of, at Burgos, 50. Gomar, Francisco, sculj)tor, 288. Gomez, Alvar, architect, 251. Gonzalez, Bishop, 108. Graiija, la, palace at, 180. Graiiollers, clmrcli at, 335. Grao, port of Valencia, 271. Gregorio, San, college of, at Valladolid, 71, 75. Guadalajara : church of Sta. Maria, 202 ; San Miguel, 202 ; la Antigua, 202 ; j^alace del Infantado, 203. Guadalupe, Pedro de, architect, 58. Guadairama, Sierra de, 5, 180, 195. , village, 195. Gual, Bartolomc, architect, 298; his report on plan for completion of Gerona calhedial, 506. Giuis, Bonifacio de, builder, 185. ■ , Juan de, builder, 185. INDEX. 521 GUINGUAJVirS. Guinguaraps, Joannes do, his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathe- dral, 510. Giimiel, Pedro, architect, 199. H. Hatton Garden, Italian church in, 45, note. Heraldry, love of, in Spain, 22, 75, 203, 250, 379. Herrera, architect, GO, 70, 179. Honecort, Wilars de, architect, 424. Hontahon, Juan Gil de, architect, 80, 182, 460. , Rodrigo Gil de, architect, 182, 201, 460. Host, perpetual exposition of the, at Leon, 120 ; at Lugo, 133. Hostalrich, 335. Huelgas, las : convent of, 34 ; village, 35 ; church, 35 ; solemnities at, 39 ; corpse of Juan II. at, 40. Hiiesca : college and palace, 362 ; cathe- dral, 363 ; church of San Pedro, 305 ; San Martin, 367 ; San Juan, 367. I. Iluefonso, San, church of, at Alcala, 201 ; chapel of, in Toledo cathedral, 250. Infantado, palace del, at Guadalajara, 203. Inns, Spanish, 3. Inquisition established at Toledo, 217 note, 219 note. Iron lectern, 50. pulpit, 51, 96. screens, 60, 73, 241, 253, 305, 404. Irun, church at, 8. Isabel, Sta., church of, at Toledo, 2^9. Isidore, San, church of, at Leoil, 121 ; miracles of, legend concerning, 122. J. Jaca, cathctlral at, 368. James, St., cathedral of, at Compostella, 141. , festival and tomb of the apostle, 157. Jayme, Sau, church of, at Barcelona, 311. Jews, spoliation of, at Avila, 178, note ; conversions and persecution of, at Toledo, 217 note, 219 note ; numerous bodies of them, 221. Jiinon, IMaestro, architect, 459. Joilucs, Juan, painter, 197, 443. LUGO. Joseph, S., chapel of, in the cathedral of Santiago, 147. Juan, Don, son of Ferdinand and Isabella, his tomb, 179. II., funeral of, 40. II. and Isabel, their monument in the chapel of Miraflores, 42. , San, cliui’ch and convent of, at Burgos, 52 ; church at Zamora, 100, note ; at Benavente, 103 ; at Segovia, 192 ; at Toledo, 256 ; at Perpinan, 337 ; at Lcuida, 347, 360 ; at Huesca, 367 ; monastery and church near Huesca, 368. Juni, Juan de, sculptor, 68. J unquera, la, Parroquia at, 336. Juntas of architects. See Architects. Just y Pastor, SS., churches of, at Alcala, 199 ; at Barcelona, 309. L. Laguardia, Juan Garcia de, “Master- Mason,” 454. Lambardo, meaning of the term, 450, note. Lasteyrie, Ferdinand, on votive crowns at Toledo, 212 note. Lavinia, Senor, architect, 106. Lectern, iron, in San Esteban, Burgos, 50 ; brass, in Toledo cathedral, 253. Leocadia, Sta., church of, at Toledo, 227, 228. Leon, road to, from Benavente, 105 ; cathedral described, 105-121 ; church of San Isidoro, 121-128 ; chapel of Sta. Catalina, 124; character of the cityq 128 ; convent of San Marcos, 128. Leonardo, San, church of, at Zamora, 100. Leuida : the town, 346 ; cathedral, 347- 359 ; fragment of defensive building, 359 ; church of San Lorenzo, 359 ; San Juan, 360; Romanesque house, 361; inn, 361, note ; date of recovery of, from the Moors, 410. Lesmes, San, church of, at Burgos, 52. Levi, Samuel, 219 and note, 221. Light, admission of, in Spanish churches, 34, 49, 81, 82, 87, 111, 129, 134, 152, 179, 183, 186, 300, 369, 403. Llobet, Martin, stone-cutter, 265. Lonja (Exchange), the, at Valencia, 270 ; at Barcelona, 316. Loquer, Miguel, sculptor, 305, note. Lorenzo, San, church of, at Segovia, 192, note ; at Le'rida, 347, 359. Lucas, San, church of, at Burgos, 52. Lucia, Sta., chapel of, in Toledo cathedral, 246 ; in Barcelona cathedral, 304. Lugo: wall, 131; cathedral, 131; church of the Capuchins, 134; San Domingo, 135 ; walls and fuimtains, 135. 522 INDEX, LUINE. Luine, San, church of, at Segovia, 191. Luna, Don Alvaro de, tomb of, and his wife, in Toledo cathedral, 252. M. Madrid: entrance to,»195; palace, 195; Armeria, 196 ; Museo, pictures, 196 ; bull-fight, 198. Magdalena, la, churches of : at Valladolid, 71, 72; at Zamora, 97; at Toledo, 226 ; at Tarazona, 382 ; at Tudela, 397. Mahomedan buildings in Toledo, list of, 213, note. Mallorca, influence of an artist of, on mediaeval architecture, 429. Manresa, situation of, 340 ; the Collegi- ata, 340 ; altar-frontal in, 344 ; church del Carmen, 345. Manrique, Bishop of Leon, 107. Manta, the, described, 271. Mantilla, instance of the national love for the, 272. Maravedi, value of, in middle ages, 449, note. Marcos, San, church of, at Salamanca, 90 ; convent at Leon, 128. Maria, Sta., churches of : at Burgos, 13 ; de las Huelgas, 34 ; at Valladolid, 67 ; at Zamora, 100 ; at Benavente, 102 ; at la Coruna, 136 ; at Guadalajara, 202 ; at Toledo, 217 ; at Barcelona, 307, 310 ; at Cervera, 346 ; at Tudela, 391 ; at Olite, 398 ; de Naranco, near Oviedo, 413. Martin, San, bridge of, at Toledo, 232 ; story concerning, 232, note. , churches of : at Valladolid, 70 ; at Salamanca, 91 ; at Segovia, 190 ; at Huesca, 367. Martinez, Gregorio, painter, 20, note. Masons, Spanish, 438. Matienzo, Garci Fernandez de, architect 43. Matteo, San, church of, at Salamanca, 91. Mattheus, architect, 144, 153, 449 ; war- rant of Ferdinand II. in his favour, 488. Maurice, Bishop, account of, 18. Medina del Campo : castle, 160 ; church of San Antholin, 161. del Bio Seco, 159. Merced, la, convent of, at Burgos, 53. Micalete, the, at Valencia, 264; docu- ments relating to, 265. Miguel, Don, priest of Medina del Campo, donation of, 79, 84 note. , San, churches of : at Palencia, 61 ; at Zamora, 99 ; at Segovia, 1 92 ; at NORMAN. Guadalajara, 202 ; at Toledo, 227 ; at Barcelona, 314 ; at Tarazona, 383. Millan, San, church of, at Segovia, 187. Miranda del Ebro, 9. Miraflores, funeral of Juan II. at, 40 ; convent and church of, 40 ; chapel of, 41. Moncada, Guillen Eamon de, architect, 380. Moncayo, Sierra de, 376. Monistrol in Cataluna, church near, 340. in France, 417, note. Monjuic, rock and fortress of, 292. Monserrat, mountain-range, 339. Monte Aragon, monastery of, 362. Monteacadeo, tower at, 376. Montmajeur, cemetery at, 50, note. Monuments in Spanish churches, 31, 48, 83, 98, 119, 179, 207, 250, 251, 252, 306, 397, 434. Monzon, town of, 362. Moors, their influence in Spain, 194 ; their toleration, 213 ; their architectural skill, 216; numerous in Toledo, 221; dm-ation of their rule, 409 ; examples of their architecture in the period comprised in this work, 409 ; their superiority to the Christians in regard to civilization, 410 ; some of their public works, 412 ; their use of bricks in architecture, 440; their influence on Christian art, 441. Moorish battlement, 38, 167, 232. houses in Toledo, 221. vaulting, 84, 215. and Moresque work, at Valladolid, 76 ; at Segovia, 193 ; at Guadalajara, 202 ; at Toledo, 213-232, 246 ; at Tarra- gona, 283, 285 ; at Lerida, 359 ; at Huesca, 365. Moresque, a variety of Moorish architec- ture, 440 ; examples of, 441. Mosques in Toledo, 215, 216. Mota, castle de la, at Medina del Campo, 160. , Guillermo de la, his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathe- dral, 505. Mozarabic cliapel at Salamanca, 84; at Toledo, 237, note. Mugaguren, Juanes de, architect, 182. Museum, at Valladolid, 76 ; at Madrid, 196. N. Neale, Dr., quoted, 95, 100, 101, notes. Nicolas, San, churches of : at Burgos, 44 ; at Segovia, 191 ; at Gerona, 331, note ; at Pamplona, 407. Norman, Juan, architect, 459. INDEX. 523 OGEE. 0 . Ogee, Benedicto, arcliitect, 461. Olite : remains of castle, 398, 399 ; clmrch of Sta. Maria, 398 ; San Pedro, 400. Olotzaga, Juan de, architect, 363. Ona, river, 318. Operarius, office of, 454. Organs, old, 37, 49, 73, 161, 200, 288, 306, 337, 345. Orientation of churches, 234. Orozco, Juan, architect, 86. Ortiz, Pablo, architect, 252, note. P. Pablo, San, church and convent of, at Burgos, 52 ; church at Valladolid, 71, 74; convent and church at Barcelona, 292 ; at Zaragoza, 373. Painters and their works in Spain, 443. Paintings in churches, 83, 117, 127, 128, 162, 169, 192, 220, 226, 254, 304, 306, 343, 382, 396. Palencia, journey to, and arrival at, 56 ; cathedral, 57 ; church of San Miguel, 61 ; San Francesco, 63 ; other churches, 64 ; walls, 64 ; plain surrounding the city, 64. Palma, contract for Exchange at, 514. Pamplona : cathedral, 402 ; church of San Saturnino, 406 ; San Nicolas, 407 ; views from walls, 408. Pancorho, 10. Parador, the, 4. Parcerisa, Don F. J., quoted, 303. Pasage, harbour of, 8. Pavements, ancient, 218, 226, 285, 288. Pedro, San, chapel of, in Toledo cathedral, 241. , churclies of : at Zamora, 100, note ; at Avila, 176 ; at Toledo, 227; at Bar- celonn, 294 ; at Gerona, 329 ; at Huesca, 365 ; at Olite, 400. Pelayo, D., Bishop of Oviedo, 163. Pefiafreyta, Pedro de, architect, 349, 452. Permanence the main object of old Spanish architects, 420 ; neglected in England now, 421. Perpifian, capture of, 336, note; church of San Juan, 337 ; old house, 337. Picture-gallery at Madrid, 196. Pisa, Francisco de, quoted, 256 note. Pituenga, Florin de, architect, 163. Plans of early churches, whence derived, 414. Plans, original, of Medimval architects, 85, 303, 460. Plastering, at Segovia, 192, 194 ; Toledo, 217. ROMANESQUE. I Plateresque work, explanation of, 49, note. Poblet, monastery and cliurch of, 289 and note. Polido, Pedro, architect, 185. Ponce, Maestro, 452. Ponferrada, 130. Portell, Berengario, architect, 462. Posada, the, described, 3. Prescott, historian, quoted, 213, note. Prie-dieu, 59. Puerta del Cuarte, Valencia, 269. del Sol, Toledo, 231. de Serranos, Valencia, 269. de Visagra, Toledo, 231. Pulgar, Hernando del, quoted, 256 note. Pulpits, iron : in San Gil, Burgos, 51 ; at Dm-ham,51,note; in Zamora cathedral, 96. Q. Quintana, Lucas Bernaldo de, architect, 455. K. Railways, Spanish, 56. Raymundo, a “ Lambardo,” 450. , Maestro, of Monforte de Lemos, architect, 131, 449. Reims, cathedral at, date of, 109. Reja, meaning of, 17. Renaissance school in Spain, works of the, little to be admired, 432. work, specimens of : in San Este- ban, Burgos, 49; cloister at Santiago, 151 ; tomb in San Tomas, Avila, 179 ; in Sigiienza cathedral, 205, 207 ; in Barce- lona cathedral, 305 ; in Figueras cathe- dral, 336 ; in collegiata at Manresa, 344 ; at Lerida, 361 ; at Zaragoza, 374 ; at Veruela, 388 ; at Pamplona, 403. “Restoration,” 27, note; little practised in Spain, 432. Reus, 273, 289, 461. Ribero-Rada, Juan de, architect, 88. Rodrigo, Archbishop, quoted, 233, notes. , Maestro, wood-carver, 252. Rodriguez, Alfonso, architect, 85, 147, 459. , D. Ventura, architect, 404. , Gaspar, architect, 60, note. , Juan, Canon of Segovia, his account of the cathedral, 182, 489. , Jusepe, illuminator, 18, note. Romanesque work, specimens of : near Miranda, 9 ; at Santiago, 153 ; at Tar- ragona, 278 ; at Barcelona, 307 ; at Elne, 337 ; near Tarrasa, 340 ; at Manresa, 341 ; at Lerida, 361 ; at Jaca, 368 ; at Sta. Cruz de los Seros, 368 ; at Veruula, 387 ; at I’amplona, 407. 524 INDEX. KOMAN. Roman, San, church of, at Segovia, 191 ; at Toledo, 216, 224. Roofing of Spanish churches, 168, 239 and note, 302, 342, 354, 435. Roque, Maestro, architect, 298. Round churches, Salamanca, 90 ; Segovia, 184. Riiesga, Juan de, builder, 57 note, 186. Ruiz, Martin, architect, 88. S. Sagrera, Guillermo, arcliitect, 324, 337, 457 ; his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathedral, 509 ; his contract for tlie Exchange at Palma, 514. Salamanca: arrival at, 78 ; the old cathe- dral, 79 ; new cathedral, 85 ; walls and dilapidated buildings, 90 ; church of San Marcos, 90 ; San Martin, San Matteo, 91 ; documents relating to the construction of the new cathedral at, 482. Salas, church at, 367. Sahjrzano, Martin de, 57, note. Salvador, San, cathedral of, at Avila, 163. Sanchez, Martin, wood-carver, 40, 41, note. , I’edro, 46, note. Sancii, architect, 332, Santa Maria, Bishoi) Pablo de, account of, 52. Santiago, church of, at la Coruna, 138 ; at Toledo, 228 ; chapel of, in Toledo cathe- dral, 252 ; chapel of, in Tarazona ca- thedral, 382. de Oompostella, journey to, 140 ; situation of the city, 141 ; cathedral described, 141-158 ; compared with S. Sernin, Toulouse, 145 ; festival of S. James, 157 ; Mass in the cathedral, 158 ; other churches, streets, hospital, | 158. , warrant of Ferdinand II. concern- ing cathedral of, 489. Santianes de Pravia, church at, 41 3. Santillana, Juan de, painter on glass, 42. Saravia, Rodrigo de, architect, 86. ■Saturnino, San, church of, at Pamplona, 406. Screens in Toledo cathedral, subjects carved on, 495. Sculpture in Spain, 436 ; in modern buildings, 446. of subjects and figures in churches : Burgos, 18, 20, 28, 30, 3l,_33, 42, 47, 52 ; Palencia, 63 ; Valladolid, 75 ; Za- mora, 95; Benavente, 103; Leon, 115, 116, 119, 120, 125; Lugo, 134; la Coruna, 137 ; Santiago, 151, 154; Avila, 167, 172, 175 ; Segovia, 186, 189 ; To- STEERLES. ledo, 248-252, 257 ; Valencia, 262, 263 ; Tarragona, 282, 286 ; Barcelona, 294, 306, 310, 315, 316 ; Lerida, 355 ; Hu- esca, 364, 365, 367 ; Tarazona, 383 ; Tudela, 395, 396, 397, 398 ; Olite, 399, 401 ; Pamplona, 404, 405, 407. Sebastian, San, 8 ; church of San Vicente at, 9. Segre, river, 346. Segovia; Roman aqueduct, 181; cathe- dral, 181 ; church of the Templars (Vera Cruz), 184 ; convent of El Parral, 185 ; the Alcazar, 187 ; walls and gates, 187; church of San Esteban, 187 ; San Millan, 187 ; San Martin, 190 ; San Roman, 191 ; San Facundo, 191 ; Sta. Trinidad, 191 ; San Nicolas, 191 ; San Luine, 191 ; San Antholin, 192 ; San Juan, 192 ; San Miguel, 192 ; San Lorenzo, 192, note; specimens of plaster-work, 192, 193 ; Moresque tower, 193. , memoir of the Canon Juan Rodri- guez on the cathedral of, 490. Sernin, S., church of, at Toulouse, com- pared with cathedral of Santiago, 145. Sen, the, at Zaragoza, 369. Seville, date of its recovery from the Moors, 410. Siloe, Diego de, 28. , Gil de, architect, 22, 42, 43, 462. Sigiienza : cathedral, 204 ; gardens, 208. Smith’s work in Spanish churches, 305. Spain : the north of, little explored, 1 ; drawbacks to travelling in, exaggerated, 1 ; fitting season for travelling in, 2 ; inns and food, 2 ; scenery, 5 ; places visited by author, 5 ; increased facilities for travelling in, 6 ; characteristic of landscapes in, 92; duration of Visi- gotliicride in, 409 ; duration of Moorish nile in, 409 ; Moors and Christians in, 409, 410 ; subdivision of the country, 410 ; portions of, not conquered by Moors, 410; states in, in the fifteenth century, 411 ; early Moorish and Chris- tian buildings in, 412 ; commerce of, with England, 427, note ; sculpture of, 436 ; domestic architecture of the middle ages in, 436 ; castles of, 437. Spanish architects of the middle ages, 448. buildings, catalogue of dated ex- amples of, 4b7. Stained glass in church at Miraflores, 42 ; in Leon cathedral, 120 ; in Avila cathedral, 170; in Segovia cathedral, 183 ; in Toledo cathedral, 248, 254 ; in Gerona. cathedral, 328 ; in Pamplona catliedral, 404. Steci)les, exain])les of : Bingos, 26 ; las Huelgas, 38 ; San Esteban, Burgos, 47 ; INDEX, 525 STEErLES. Palencia, G2, G4 ; Valladolid, G8, 70 ; | Salamanca, 88 ; Zamora, 93, 99, 100 ; j Denaveiite, 103 ; Leon, 111, 127 ; Lugo, | 131 ; la Coruna, 137 ; Santiago, 116 ; Avila, 167, 172, 171; Segovia, 183, 187, 191, 192 ; Sig-uenza, 20G ; Toledo, 225, 226, 251 ; Valencia, 261 ; Tarragona, 281; Barcelona, 302, 310, 312, 311; (Terona, 321, 325, 333, 339 ; Fornelles, 335; Granollers, 335; Figueras, 336; i la Junquera, 336 ; Elne, 337 ; Tarrasa, j 310 ; Mauresa, 312 ; Cervera, 316 ; Le'- I rida, 265, 352 ; Huesca, 367 ; Sta. [ Cruz de los Seros, 368 ; Zaragoza, 373, | 371 ; Montcacadeo, 376 ; Tarazona, 380, 382, 383 ; Alagoii, 391 ; Tudela, 393, 397 ; Olite, 100. Steei3les of mixed arcliitectural character in Toledo, 221. Summary of remarks on Gothic buildings in Spain, necessity for, 109 ; Visigothic period, 109 ; duration of Moorish rule, 109 ; effects of the antipathy of Moors and Clnistians, 409 ; superior civiliza- tion of the former, 410 ; subdivision of the country, portions never conquered by Moors, 410 ; dates of Cliristian successes, 110 ; provinces included in tlie two kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, 411 ; relics of the Goths, 411 ; of the Moors, 112 ; early Christian buildings extant, 112 ; plans of cliurclies of the tenth century, 411 ; of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, 415 ; influence of French types, 415; copies of French churches, 417 ; Spanish system of internal arrangement — adopted in Westminster Abbey, 418 ; plan of abbey church at Veruela, 119 ; group of churches illustrating the slow development of art in Spanish build- ings, 419 ; permanence the great object of the builders, 420 ; cathedrals of Sigiienza and Avila, 421; of Toledo, Burgos, and Leon, 422-426 ; design by Wilars de Honecort, 421 ; fourteenth- century art, 126 ; fifteenth-century art. 427 ; Catalan churches, 129 ; Segovia and Salamanca cathedrals, 131 ; the later styles, 431 ; the Renaissance school, 432 ; church furniture, 433 ; monuments, 431 ; dependent buildings, 131 ; church-roofing, 435 ; sculpture, 436 ; domestic architecture of the middle ages, 436 ; ajimez windows, 437 ; castles, 437 ; building materials, 438 ; masons, bodies of, 438 ; brick- work, 439; Moresque art, 440; influ- ence on each other of Moorish and Christian art, 441 ; instances of Moorish influence, 441-443 ; Spanish painters and paintings, 443; sculpture in i TOMAS. modern buildings, 446 ; object of the study of ancient art, 447. Synagogues converted into churches, 217, ‘ 219. T. Tafalla, churches at, 402. Tagus, inundation of the, 211, note. Taller del More, at Toledo, 223. Tarazona : situation and appearance, 376; cathedral, 377; chapel of Sant- iago, 382 ; church of la Magdalena, 382; la Concepcion, 383 ; San Miguel, 383 ; crockery-ware at, 389. Tarragona, the old and new cities, 273 ; views, 273 ; Roman remains, 274 ; cathedral, 274-289 ; other churches, 289 ; date of recovery of, from the Moors, 410. Tarrasa, churches at, 340 ; Romanesque church near, 340. Tartana, the Valencian, 260. Templars’ church (la IMagdalena) at Za- mora, 99 ; (Vera Cruz) at Segovia, 184. Temple church, London, 424, note. Tenorio, Pedro, Archbishop of Toledo, 251 and note. Tiles, encaustic, 43, 218, 372, 379, 383, 386. Toledo : approach to, 209 ; view of the city, 210; bridge of Alcantara, 211, note; interest of the buildings, 212; group of votive crowns, 212, note; Moorish toleration, 213 and notes; buildings which illustrate the Maho- medan architecture, 213, note ; frag- ments possibly Visigothic, 214; churcli of Cristo de la Luz, 215 ; mosque called De las Toruerias, 216 ; church of San Roman, 216, 224; Sta. Maria la Blanca, 217 ; del Transito, 219 ; the Juderia, 221 ; Moorish houses, 221 ; the Taller del More, 223 ; church of Sta. Magdalena, 226 ; steeples of several churches, 227 ; Santiago, 228 ; Sta. Leocadia, and other churches, 229 ; walls, 229 ; bridges and gateways, 230 ; Puerta de Visagra, 231 ; bridge of San Martin, 232 and note ; cathedral, 233- 256 ; chapel of San Ildefonso, 250 ; of San Bias, 251 ; of Santiago, 252 ; church of San Juan de los Reyes, 256 ; great artistic interest of the city, 257 ; date of its recovery from the Moors, 410. , further notice of the cathedral, 423 ; list of subjects carved on screens in, 495. Tomas, San, church and convent of, at Avila, 178. 526 INDEX. TOME. Tome, San, churcli of, at Toledo, 227. Tornerias, de las, Moorish mosque, 216. Tornero, Juan, architect, 86. Toro, collegiate church at, 101. Torre, village of, 130. Torre Nueva, at Zaragoza, 373. Toulouse, ehurch of S. Sernin at, 416. Transito, church del, at Toledo, 219. Trascoro, meaning of, 16. Travelling in Spain, its drawbacks ex- aggerated, 1 ; season for, 2 ; improved facilities for, 6. Trinidad, Sta., church of, at Segovia, 191. Tudela : cathedral, 391 ; church of la Magdalena, 397. Tufa, use of, for vaulting. 111. Tuy, Don Lucas de, quoted, 107. U. University, at Valladolid, 76 ; of Ximenes at Alcala de Henares, 201. Urbina, Juan de, painter, 20 note. Ursula, Sta., church of, at Toledo, 229. Urteaga, Domingo, architect, 461. V. Valdivieso, Juan de, painter on glass, 42. Valdomar, architect, 266. Valencia : anival at, 260 : cathedral, 261 ; the Micalate, 264 ; embroidered altar frontals, 267 ; walls and gates, 268 ; domestic remains, 269 ; ajimez windows, 269 ; features of the city, 271 ; date of its recovery from the Moors, 410. Valent, Bartolome, builder, 265. Valladolid : amval at, 65 ; great Plaza and town-hall, 65 ; cathedral, 66 ; church of Sta. Maria la Antigua, 67 ; San Martin, 70; San Pablo, 71, 74; San Benito, 71, 72 ; la Magdalena, 72, 75 ; college of San Gregorio, 71, 75 ; of Sta. Cruz, 71 ; Moorish archway, 76 ; museum, library, university, 76. Vallbona, monastery and chiu’ch of, 289 and note. Vallejo, Juan de, architect, 24. Valleras, Arnaldo de, architect, 340; his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathedral, 508. Vallfogona, Petrus de, his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathedral, 504. Vall-llebrera, Pedro de, architect, 346. Valmeseda, Juan de, sculptor, 59. ZAMORA. Velasco, Constable, palace of the, at Bur- gos, 54. Vergara, 9. Veruela, ride from Tarazona to, 383 ; abbey at, 384. Vicente, San, churches of; at San Sebas- tian, 9 ; at Zamora, 99 ; at Avila, 170. , his tomb at Avila, 175. Vilasolar, Guillermo, architect, 457. Villa- Amil, M., quoted, 95. Villafranca del Vierzo, 130. de Panades, 273. Villalba, 180. Villia Espepa, chancellor of Navarre, monument to him and his wife in Tudela cathedral, 396. Viollet le Due, M., value of his writings, 242 note. Vique, city of, 339. Visigoths in Spain, remains of their works in Toledo, 214 ; votive crowns of their king Eeccesvinthus, 212 ; duration of their rule, 409. Visquio, Geronimo, Bishop of Salamanca, 79. Vitoria, 9. W. Wages of architects, &c., in the middle ages, 20, 41, 42, 58, 60, 61, 71, 72, 131, 144, 169, 185, 186, 265, 266, 270, 297, 298 and note, 305 note, 319, 332 note, 349, 449-462. Waring, Mr., his view of the cloister at las Huelgas, 38 note. Westminster Abbey, example of the in- ternal arrangement of a Spanish church offered by, 418. Windows in churches, undue number of, 111 , 112 . Wren, Sir Christopher, 67 ; anecdote of, 370 note. X. XuLBE, Joannes de, architect, 304 ; his report on plan for completion of Ge- rona cathedral, 503. , Paschasius de, architect, 324 ; his report on plan for completion of Gerona cathedral, 503. Z. Zacoma, Pedro, architect, 333, 453. Zamora : entrance to, 92 ; cathedral, 92 ; INDEX, 527 ZAMORA. ZARAGOZA. church of San Isidore, 97 ; la Magda- lena, 97 ; San Miguel, 99 ; San Vicente, 99 ; San Leonardo, 100 ; Sta. Maria de la Horta, 100 ; ruined church, 100 ; San Juan, San Pedro, 100 note; walls, 101; bridge, 101; Gothic house, 101. Zaragoza : old cathedral, 369 ; church of San Pablo, 373; Torre Nueva, 373; another church, 374; Eenaissance build- ings, 374 ; church of Sta. Engracia, 37 4 ; date of its recovery from the Moors, 410. THE END. LONDON : PRINTED BY AVILLIAM CLOAVIiS AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS, - ' *i^r * ;■- .. .^, * , ?r‘ ;r3^ ‘ :r:r^ ^ . •*• *t» •- ,r r m- ■ •* i’ •■•^^•^ ^•.»- # 4 ^ V f ■ :>>. # ^*7 '*' ' ik- »* ; .•' ■■■■'^ .'■ 4 « * ^ ' :►■ 'I’/v-' ' • ’ . . • r *. ♦!:,.. - • • 'W •> %"» ■ % V 4 L " ■' T M* 4y