The Cathedrals of Northern Spain / Their History and Their Architecture; Together with Much of Interest Concerning the Bishops, Rulers and Other Personages Identified with Them

{333}

The apse is well developed, and the croisée surmounted by a cupola; the tower which flanks the western front is massive; it is decorated with blind arches and ogival arabesques.

The ground plan of the building is Latin Cruciform; the aisles are but slightly lower than the nave and join in the apse behind the high altar in an ambulatory walk. The crypt, reached by two Renaissance doors in the trasaltar, is spacious, and contains the bodies of San Justo and San Pastor.

The general impression produced on the mind of the tourist is sadness. The severity of the structure is heightened by the absence of any distracting decorative elements, excepting the fine Mudejar ceiling to the left upon entering.

In the reigning shadows of this deserted temple, two magnificent tombs stand in solitude and silence. They are those of Carillo and Cardinal Cisneros, the latter one of the greatest sons of Spain and one of her most contradictory geniuses. His sepulchre is a gorgeous marble monument of Renaissance style, surrounded by a massive bronze grille of excellent workmanship, a marvel of Spanish metal art of the sixteenth century. The{334} other sepulchre is simple in its ogival decorations, and the prostrate effigy of Carillo is among the best to be admired by the tourist in Iberia.

Carillo's life was that of a restless, ambitious, and worldly man. When he died, he was buried in the Convent of San Juan de Dios, where his illegitimate son had been buried before him, "for," said the archbishop-father, "if in life my robes separated me from my son, in death we shall be united."

But he reckoned without his host, or rather his successor, the man whose remains now lie beside his own in the shadows of the great ruin. "For," said Cisneros, "the Church must separate man from his sin even in death." So he ordered the son to be left in the convent, and the father to be brought to the temple he had begun to erect.

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V

It is believed that in the reign of Alfonso VI., he who conquered Toledo and the region to the south of Valladolid and as far east as Aragon, Sigüenza was repopulated, though no mention is made of the place in the earlier chronicles of the time. All that is known is that a bishop was immediately appointed{336} by Alfonso VII. to the vacancy which had lasted for over two hundred years, during which Sigüenza had been one of the provincial capitals of the Kingdom of Toledo. The first known bishop was Don Bernardo.

The history of the town was never of the most brilliant. In the times of Alfonso VII. and his immediate successors it gained certain importance as a frontier stronghold, as a check to the growing ambitions of the royal house of Aragon. But after the union of Castile and Aragon, its importance gradually dwindled; to-day, if it were not for the bishopric, it would be one historic village more on the map of Spain.

In the reign of Peter the Cruel, its castle—considered with that of Segovia to be the strongest in Castile—was used for some time as the prison palace for that most unhappy princess, Doña Blanca, who, married to his Catholic Majesty, had been deposed on the third day of the wedding by the heartless and passionate lover of the Padilla. She was at first shut up in Toledo, but the king did not consider the Alcázar strong enough. So she was sent off to Sigüenza, where it is{337} popularly believed, though documents deny it, that she died, or was put to death.

The city belonged to the bishop; it was his feudal property, and passed down to his successors in the see. Of the doings of these prelate-warriors, the first, Don Bernardo, was doubtless the most striking personality, lord of a thousand armed vassals and of three hundred horse, who fought with the emperor in almost all the great battles in Andalusia. It is even believed he died wielding the naked sword, and that his remains were brought back to the town of which he had been the first and undisputed lord.

The strong castle which crowns the city did not possess, as was generally the case, an alcalde, or governor; it was the episcopal palace or residence, a circumstance which proves beyond a doubt the double significance of the bishop: a spiritual leader and military personage, more influential and wealthy than any prelate in Spain, excepting the Archbishops of Toledo and Santiago.

During the French invasion in the beginning of the nineteenth century, Sigüenza had already lost its political significance. The invaders occupied the castle, and, as was their custom, threw documents and archives{338} into the fire, to make room for themselves, and to spend the winter comfortably.

Consequently, the notices we have of the cathedral church are but scarce. The fourth bishop was Jocelyn, an Englishman who had come over with Eleanor, Henry II.'s daughter, and married to the King of Castile. He (the bishop) was not a whit less warlike than his predecessors had been; he helped the king to win the town of Cuenca, and when he died on the battle-field, only his right arm was carried back to the see, to the chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury, which the dead prelate had founded in the new cathedral, and it was buried beneath a stone which bears the following inscription:

"Hic est inclusa Jocelini præsulis ulna."

From the above we can conclude that the cathedral must have been begun previous to the Englishman's coming to Spain, that is, in the beginning of the twelfth century. Doubtless the vaulting was not closed until at least one hundred years later; nevertheless, it is one of the unique and at the same time one of the handsomest Spanish monuments of the Transition period.{339}

The city of Sigüenza, situated on the slopes of a hill crowned by the castle, is a village rather than a town; there are, however, fewer spots in Spain that are more picturesque in their old age, and there is a certain uniformity in the architecture that reminds one of German towns; this is not at all characteristic of Spain, where so many styles mix and mingle until hardly distinguishable from each other.

The Transition style—between the strong Romanesque and the airy ogival—is the city's cachet, printed with particular care on the handsome cathedral which stands on the slope of the hill to the north of the castle.

Two massive square towers, crenelated at the top and pierced by a few round-headed windows, flank the western front. The three portals are massive Romanesque without floral or sculptural decoration of any kind; the central door is larger and surmounted by a large though primitive rosace. The height of the aisles and nave is indicated by three ogival arches cut in relief on the façade; here already the mixture of both styles, of the round-arched Romanesque and the pointed Gothic, is clearly visible—as it is also in the windows of the aisles, which are{340} Romanesque, and of the nave, which are ogival—in the buttresses, which are leaning on the lower body, and flying in the upper story, uniting the exterior of the clerestory with that of the aisles. (Compare with apse of the cathedral of Lugo.)

The portal of the southern arm of the transept is an ugly addition, more modern and completely out of harmony with the rest. The rosace above the door is one of the handsomest of the Transition period in Spain, and the stained glass is both rich and mellow.

The interior shows the same harmonious mixture of the stronger and more solemn old style, and the graceful lightness of the newer. But the hesitancy in the mind of the architect is also evident, especially in the vaulting, which is timidly arched.

The original plan of the church was, doubtless, purely Romanesque: Roman cruciform with a three-lobed apse, the central one much longer so as to contain the high altar.

In the sixteenth century, however, an ambulatory was constructed behind the high altar, joining the two aisles, and the high altar was removed to the east of the transept.

What a pity that the huge choir, placed{341} in the centre of the church, should so completely obstruct the view of the ensemble of the nave and aisles, separated by massive Byzantine arches between the solid pillars, which, in their turn, support the nascent ogival vaulting of the high nave! Were it, as well as the grotesque trascoro—of the unhappiest artistic taste—anywhere but in the centre of the church, what a splendid view would be obtained of the long, narrow, and high aisles and nave in which the old and the new were moulded together in perfect harmony, instead of fighting each other and clashing together, as happened in so many Spanish cathedral churches!

One of the most richly decorated parts of the church is the sacristy, a small room entirely covered with medallions and sculptural designs of the greatest variety of subjects. Though of Arabian taste (Mudejar), no Moorish elements have entered into the composition, and consequently it is one of the very finest, if not the very best specimen, of Christian Arab decoration.

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VI

Of the origin of the city nothing is known. In the tenth and the eleventh centuries Conca{343} was an impregnable Arab fortress. In 1176 the united armies of Castile and Aragon, commanded by two sovereigns, Alfonso VIII. of Castile and Alfonso II. of Aragon, laid siege to the fortress, and after nine months' patience, the Alcázar surrendered. According to the popular tradition, it was won by treachery: one Martin Alhaxa, a captive and a shepherd by trade, introduced the Christians disguised with sheepskins into the city through a postern gate.

As the conquest of Cuenca had cost the King of Castile such trouble (his Aragonese partner had not waited to see the end of the siege), and as he was fully conscious of its importance as a strategical outpost against Aragon to the north and against the Moors to the south and east, he laid special stress on the city's being strongly fortified; he also gave special privileges to such Christians as would repopulate, or rather populate, the nascent town. A few years later Pone Lucio III. raised the church to an episcopal see, appointing Juan Yañez, a Tolesian Muzarab, to be its first bishop (1183).

Unlike Sigüenza, a feudal possession of the bishop, Cuenca belonged exclusively to the monarch of Castile; the castle was consequently{344} held in the sovereign's name by a governor,—at one time there were even four who governed simultaneously. Between these governors and the inhabitants of the city, fights were numerous, especially during the first half of the fifteenth century, the darkest and most ignoble period of Castilian history.

The story is told of one Doña Inez de Barrientos, granddaughter of a bishop on her mother's side, and of a governor on that of her father. It appears that her husband had been murdered by some of the wealthiest citizens of the town. Feigning joy at her spouse's death, the widow invited the murderers to her house to a banquet, when, "después de opípara cena (after an excellent dinner), they passed from the lethargy of drunkenness to the sleep of eternity, assassinated by hidden servants." The following morning their bodies hung from the windows of the palace, and provoked not anger but silent dread and shivers among the terror-stricken inhabitants.

With the Inquisition, the siege by the English in 1706, the invasion of the French in 1808, Cuenca rapidly lost all importance and even political significance. To-day it{345} is one of the many picturesque ruins that offer but little interest to the art traveller, for even its old age is degenerated, and the monuments of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries have one and all been spoilt by the hand of time, and by the less grasping hand of restauradores—or architect-repairers.

The Byzantine character, the Arab taste of the primitive inhabitants, has also been lost. Who would think, upon examining the cathedral, that it had served once upon a time as the principal Arab mosque? Entirely rebuilt, as were most of the primitive Arab houses, it has lost all traces of the early founders, more so than in other cities where the Arabs remained but a few years.

The patron saint of Cuenca is San Julian, one of the cathedral's first bishops, who led a saintly life, giving all he had and taking nothing that was not his, and who retired from his see to live the humble life of a basket-maker, seated with willow branches beneath the arches of the high bridge, and preaching saintly words to teamsters and mule-drivers as they approached the city, until his death in 1207.

In the same century the Arab mosque was{346} torn down and the new cathedral begun. It is a primitive ogival (Spanish) temple of the thirteenth century, with smatterings of Romanesque-Byzantine. Unlike the cathedral of Sigüenza, it is neither elegant, harmonious, nor of great architectural value; its wealth lies chiefly in the chapels, in the doors which lead to the cloister, in the sacristy, and in the elegant high altar.

The cloister door is perhaps one of the finest details of the cathedral church: decorated in the plateresque style general in Spain in the sixteenth century, it offers one of the finest examples of said style to be found anywhere, and though utterly different in ornamentation to the sacristy of Sigüenza, it nevertheless resembles it in the general composition.

The nave, exceedingly high, is decorated by a blind triforium of ogival arches; the aisles are sombre and lower than the nave. On the other hand, the transept, broad and simple, is similar to the nave and as long as the width of the church, including the lateral chapels. The croisée is surmounted by a cimborio, insignificant in comparison to those of Salamanca, Zamora, and Toro.

The northern and southern extremities of{347} the transept differ from each other as regard style. The southern has an ogival portal surmounted by a rosace; the northern, one that is plateresque, the rounded arch, delicately decorated, reposing on Corinthian columns.

The eastern end of the church has been greatly modified—as is clearly seen by the mixture of fifteenth-century styles, and not to the advantage of the ensemble. Byzantine pillars, and even horseshoe arches, mingle with Gothic elements.

Of the chapels, the greater number are richly decorated, not only with sepulchres and sepulchral works, but with paintings, some of them by well-known masters.

Taken all in all, the cathedral of Cuenca does not inspire any of the sentiments peculiar to religious temples. Not the worst cathedral in Spain, by any means, neither as regards size nor majesty, it nevertheless lacks conviction, as though the artist who traced the primitive plan miscalculated its final appearance. The additions, due to necessity or to the ruinous state of some of the parts, were luckless, as are generally all those undertaken at a posterior date.

The decorative wealth of the chapels,{348} which is really astonishing in so small a town, the luxurious display of grotesque elements, the presence of a fairly good transparente, as well as the rich leaf-decoration of Byzantine pillars and plateresque arches, give a peculiar cachet to this church which is not to be found elsewhere.

The same can be said of the city and of the inhabitant. In the words of an authority, "Cuenca is national, it is Spanish, it is a typical rural town." Yet, it is so typical, that no other city resembles it.

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VII

Madrid usurped all her civic honours under the reign of Philip II., he who lost the Armada and built the Escorial. Since then Toledo, like Alcalá de Henares, Segovia, and Burgos, has dragged along a forlorn existence, frozen in winter and scorched in summer, and visited at all times of the year by gaping tourists of all nationalities.{350}

Even the approach to the city from the mile distant station is peculiarly characteristic. Seated in an old and shaky omnibus, pulled by four thrashed mules, and followed along the dusty road by racing beggars, who whine their would-be French, "Un p'it sou, mouchieur," with surprising alacrity and a melancholy smile in their big black eyes, the visitor is driven sharply around a bluff, when suddenly Toledo, the mysterious, comes into sight, crowning the opposite hill.

At a canter the mules cross the bridge of Alcántara and pass beneath the gateway of the same name, a ponderous structure still guarding the time-rusty city as it did centuries ago when Toledo was the Gothic metropolis. Up the winding road, beneath the solemn and fire-devastated walls of the Alcázar, the visitor is hurriedly driven along; he disappears from the burning sunlight into a gloomy labyrinth of ill-paved streets to emerge a few minutes later in the principal square.

A shoal of yelling, gesticulating interpreters literally grab at the tourist, and in ten seconds exhaust their vocabulary of foreign words. At last one walks triumphantly off beside the newcomer, while the others, with{351} a depreciative shrug of the shoulders and extinguishing their volcanic outburst of energy, loiter around the square smoking cigarettes.

It does not take the visitor long to notice that he is in a great archæological museum. The streets are crooked and narrow, so narrow that the tiny patch of sky above seems more brilliant than ever and farther away, while on each side are gloomy houses with but few windows, and monstrous, nail-studded doors. At every turn a church rears its head, and the cheerless spirit of a palace glares with a sadly vacant stare from behind wrought-iron rejas and a complicated stone-carved blazon. Rarely is the door opened; when it is, the passer catches a glimpse of a sun-bathed courtyard, gorgeously alive with light and many flowers. The effect produced by the sudden contrast between the joyless street and the sunny garden, whose existence was never dreamt of, is delightful and never to be forgotten; from Théophile Gautier, who had been in Northern Africa, land of Mohammedan harems, it wrung the piquant exclamation: "The Moors have been here!"

Every stick, stone, mound, house, lantern,{352} and what not has its legend. In this humble posada, Cervantes, whose ancestral castle is on yonder bluff overlooking the Tago, wrote his "Ilustre Fregona." The family history of yonder fortress-palace inspired Zorilla's romantic pen, and a thousand and one other objects recall the past,—the past that is Toledo's present and doubtless will have to be her future.

Gone are the days when Tolaitola was a peerless jewel, for which Moors and Christians fought, until at last the Believers of the True Faith drove back the Arabs who fled southward from whence they had emerged. Long closed are also the famous smithies, where swords—Tolesian blades they were then called—were hammered so supple that they could bend like a watchspring, so strong they could cleave an anvil, and so sharp they could cut an eiderdown pillow in twain without displacing a feather.

Distant, moreover, are the nights of capa y espada and of miracles wrought by the Virgin; dwindled away to a meagre shadow is the princely magnificence of the primate prelates of all the Spains, of those spiritual princes who neither asked the Pope's advice nor received orders from St. Peter at Rome.{353} Besides, of the two hundred thousand souls proud to be called sons of Toledo in the days of Charles-Quint, but seventeen thousand inhabitants remain to-day to guard the nation's great city-museum, unsullied as yet by progress and modern civilization, by immense advertisements and those other necessities of daily life in other climes.

The city's history explains the mixture of architectural styles and the bizarre modifications introduced in Gothic, Byzantine, or Arab structures.

Legends accuse Toledo of having been mysteriously founded long before the birth of Rome on her seven hills. To us, however, it first appears in history as a Roman stronghold, capital of one of Hispania's provinces.

St. James, as has been seen, roamed across this peninsula; he came to Toledo. So delighted was he with the site and the people—saith the tradition—that he ordained that the city on the Tago should contain the primate church of all the Spains.

The vanquished Romans withdrew, leaving to posterity but feeble ruins to the north of the city; the West Goths built the threatening city walls which still are standing, and, having turned Christians, their King Recaredo{354} was baptized in the river's waters, and Toledo became the flourishing capital of the Visigothic kingdom (512 A.D.).

The Moors, in their northward march, conquered both the Church and the state. Legends hover around the sudden apparition of Berber hordes in Andalusia, and accuse Rodrigo, the last King of the Goths, of having outraged Florinda, a beautiful girl whom he saw, from his palace window, bathing herself in a marble bath near the Tago,—the bath is still shown to this day,—and with whom he fell in love. The father, Count Julian, Governor of Ceuta, called in the Moors to aid him in his righteous work of vengeance, and, as often happens in similar cases, the allies lost no time in becoming the masters and the conquerors.

Nearly four hundred years did the Arabs remain in their beloved Tolaitola; the traces of their occupancy are everywhere visible: in the streets and in the patios, in fanciful arabesques, and above all in Santa Maria la Blanca.

The Spaniards returned and brought Christianity back with them. They erected an immense cathedral and turned mosques{355} into chapels without altering the Oriental form.

Jews, Arabs, and Christians lived peacefully together during the four following centuries. Together they created the Mudejar style tower of San Tomas and the Puerta de Sol. Pure Gothic was transformed, rendered even more insubstantial and lighter, thanks to Oriental decorative motives. In San Juan de los Reyes, the Mudejar style left a unique specimen of what it might have developed into had it not been murdered by the Renaissance fresh from Italy, where Aragonese troops had conquered the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

With the first Philips—and even earlier—foreign workmen came over to Toledo in shoals from Germany, France, Flanders, and Italy. They also had their way, more so than in any other Spanish city, and their tastes helped to weld together that incongruous mass of architectural styles which is Toledo's alone of all cities. Granada may have its Alhambra, and Cordoba its mosque; Leon its cathedral and Segovia its Alcázar, but none of them is so luxuriously rich in complex grandeur and in the excellent—and yet frequently grotesque—confusion of{356} all those art waves which flooded Spain. In this respect Toledo is unique in Spain, unique in the world. Can we wonder at her being called a museum?

The Alcázar, which overlooks the rushing Tago, is a symbol of Toledo's past. It was successively burnt and rebuilt; its four façades, here stern and forbidding, there grotesque and worthless, differ from each other as much as the centuries in which they were built. The eastern façade dates from the eleventh, the western from the fifteenth, and the other two from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

But other arts than those purely architectural are richly represented in Toledo. For Spain's capital in the days following upon the fall of Granada was a centre of industrial arts, where both foreign and national workmen, heathen, Jews, and Christians mixed, wrought such wonders as have forced their way into museums the world over; besides, Tolesian sculptors are among Spain's most famous.

As regards painting, one artist's life is wrapped up in that of the wonderful city on the Tago; many of his masterworks are to be seen in Toledo's churches and in the{357} provincial museum. I refer to Domenico Theotocopuli, he who was considered a madman because he was a genius, and who has been called el Greco when really he ought to have been called el Toledano.

If Toledo is the nation's architectural museum, the city's cathedral, the huge imposing Gothic structure, is, beyond a doubt, an incomparable art museum. Centuries of sculptors carved marble and berroqueña; armies of artisans wrought marvels in cloths, metals, precious stones, glass, and wood, and a host of painters, both foreign and national, from Goya and Ribera to the Greco and Rubens, painted religious compositions for the sacristy and chapels.

Consequently, and besides the architectural beauty of the primate church of Spain, what interests perhaps more keenly than the study of the cathedral's skeleton, is the study of the ensemble, of that wealth of decorative designs and of priceless art objects for which the temple is above all renowned.

Previous to the coming of the Moors in the eighth century, a humble cathedral stood where the magnificent church now lifts its three-hundred-foot tower in the summer{358} sky. It had been built in the sixth century and dedicated to the Virgin, who had appeared in the selfsame spot to San Ildefonso, when the latter, ardent and vehement, had defended her Immaculate Honour before a body of skeptics.

The Moors tore down or modified the cathedral, and erected their principal mosque in its stead. When, three hundred years later, they surrendered their Tolaitola to Alfonso VI. (1085), they stipulated for the retention of their mezquita, a clause the king, who had but little time to lose squabbling, was only too glad to allow.

The following year, however, King Alfonso went off on a campaign, leaving his wife Doña Constanza and the Archbishop Don Bernardo to look after the city in his absence. No sooner was his back turned, when, one fine morning, Don Bernardo arrived with a motley crowd of goodly Christians in front of the mosque. He knocked in the principal door, and, entering, threw out into the street the sacred objects of the Islam cult. Then the Christians proceeded to set up an altar, a crucifix, and an image of the Virgin; the archbishop hallowed his work, and in an hour was the smiling possessor{359} of his see. Strange to say, Don Bernardo was no Spaniard, but a worthy Frenchman.

The news of this outrage upon his honour brought Alfonso rushing back to Toledo, vowing to revenge himself upon those who had seemingly made him break his royal word; on the way he was met by a committee of the Arab inhabitants, who, clever enough to understand that the sovereign would reinstate the mosque, but would ever after look upon them as the cause of his rupture with his wife and his friend the prelate, asked the king to pardon the evil-doers, stating that they renounced voluntarily their mosque, knowing as they did that the other conditions of the surrender would be sacredly adhered to by his Majesty.

Thanks to this noble (cunning) attitude on the part of the outraged Moors, the latter were able to live at peace within the walls of Toledo well into the seventeenth century.

Toward the beginning of the thirteenth century Fernando el Santo was King of Castile, and his capital was the city on the Tago. The growing nation was strong and full of ambition, while the coming of the Cluny monks and Flemish and German{360} artisans had brought Northern Gothic across the frontiers. So it occurred to the sovereign and his people to erect a primate cathedral of Christian Spain worthy of its name. In 1227 the first stone was laid by the pious warrior-king. The cathedral's outline was traced: a Roman cruciform Gothic structure of five aisles and a bold transept; two flanking towers,—of which only the northern has been constructed, the other having been substituted by a cupola of decided Byzantine or Oriental taste,—and a noble western façade of three immense doors surmounted by a circular rosace thirty feet wide.

The size of the building was in itself a guarantee that it would be one of the largest in the world, being four hundred feet long by two hundred broad, and one hundred feet high at the intersection of transept and nave.

It took 250 years for the cathedral to be built, and even then it was not really completed until toward the middle of the eighteenth century. In the meantime the nation had risen to its climax of power and wealth, and showered riches and jewels upon its great cathedral. Columbus returned from America, and the first gold he brought was handed over to the archbishop; foreign{361} artisans—especially Flemish and German—arrived by hundreds, and were employed by Talavera, Cisneros, and Mendoza, in the decoration of the church. Unluckily, additions were made: the pointed arches of the façade were surmounted by a rectangular body which had nothing in common with the principle set down when the cathedral was to have been purely ogival.

The interior of the church was also enlarged, especially the high altar, the base of which was doubled in size. The retablo of painted wood was erected toward the end of the fifteenth century, as well as many of the chapels, which are built into the walls of the building, and are as different in style as the saints to whom they are dedicated.

As time went on, and the rich continued sending their jewels and relics to the cathedral, the Treasury Room, with its pictures by Rubens, Dürer, Titian, etc., and with its sagrario,—a carved image of Our Lady, crowning an admirably chiselled cone of silver and jewels, and covered over with the richest cloths woven in gold, silver, silk, and precious stones,—was gradually filled with hoarded wealth. Even to-day, when Spain has apparently reached the very low{362} ebb of her glory, the cathedral of Toledo remains almost intact as the only living representative of the grandeur of the Church and of the arts it fostered in the sixteenth century.

Almost up to the beginning of the nineteenth century the building was continually being enlarged, modified, and repaired. Six hundred years since the first stone had been laid! What vicissitudes had not the country seen—and how many art waves had swept over the peninsula!

Gothic is traceable throughout the building: here it is flamboyant, there rayonnant. Here the gold and red of Mudejar ceilings are exquisitely represented, as in the chapter-room; there Moorish influence in azulejos (multicoloured glazed tiles) and in decorative designs is to be seen, such as in the horseshoe arches of the triforium in the chapel of the high altar. Renaissance details are not lacking, nor the severe plateresque taste (in the grilles of the choir and high altar), and neither did the grotesque style avoid Spain's great cathedral, for there is the double ambulatory behind the high altar, that is to say, the transparente, a circular chapel of the most gorgeous ultra-decoration to be found anywhere in Spain.{363}

Signs of decadence are unluckily to be observed in the cathedral to-day. The same care is no longer taken to repair fallen bits of carved stone; pigeon-lamps that burn little oil replace the huge bronze lamps of other days, and no new additions are being made. The cathedral's apogee has been reached; from now on it will either remain intact for centuries, or else it will gradually crumble away.

Seen from the exterior, the cathedral does not impress to such an extent as it might. Houses are built up around it, and the small square to the south and west is too insignificant to permit a good view of the ensemble.

Nevertheless, the spectator who is standing near the western façade, either craning his neck skyward or else examining the seventy odd statues which compose the huge portal of the principal entrance, is overawed at the immensity of the edifice in front of him, as well as amazed at the amount of work necessary for the decorating of the portal.

The Puerta de los Leones, or the southern entrance giving access to the transept, is perhaps of a more careful workmanship as regards the sculptural decoration. The door{364} itself, studded on the outside with nails and covered over with a sheet of bronze of the most exquisite workmanship in relief, is a chef-d'œuvre of metal-stamping of the sixteenth century, whilst the wood-carving on the interior is among the finest in the cathedral.

The effect produced on the spectator within the building is totally different. The height and length of the aisles, which are buried in shadows,—for the light which enters illuminates rather the chapels which are built into the walls between the flying buttresses,—astonishes; the factura is severe and beautiful in its grand simplicity.

Not so the chapels, which are decorated in all manner of styles, and ornamented in all degrees of lavishness. The largest is the Muzarab chapel beneath the dome which substitutes the missing tower; except the dome, this chapel, where the old Gothic Rite (as opposed to the Gregorian Rite) is sung every day in the year, is constructed in pure Gothic; it contains a beautiful Italian mosaic of the Virgin as well as frescoes illustrating Cardinal Cisneros's African wars, when the battling prelate thought it was his duty to bear the crucifix and Spanish rights{365} into Morocco as his royal masters had carried them into Granada.

The remaining chapels, some of them of impressive though generally complex structure, will have to be omitted here. So also the sacristy with its wonderful picture by the Greco, and the chapter-room with the portraits of all the archbishops, the elegant carved door, and the well-preserved Mudejar ceiling, etc. And we pass on to the central nave, and stand beneath the croisée. To the east the high altar, to the west the choir, claim the greater part of our attention. For it is here that the people centred their gifts.

The objects used on the altar-table are of gold, silver, jasper, and agate; the monstrance in the central niche of the altar-piece is also of silver, and the garments worn by the effigy are woven in gold, silk, and precious stones. The two immense grilles which close off the high altar and the eastern end of the choir are of iron, tin, and copper, gilded and silvered, having been covered over with black paint in the nineteenth century so as to escape the greedy eyes—and hands!—of the French soldiery. The workmanship of these two rejas is of the most sober Spanish{366} classic or plateresque period, and though the black has not as yet been taken off, the silver and gold peep forth here and there, and show what a brilliancy must have radiated from these elegantly decorated bars and cross-bars in the eighteenth century.

The three tiers of choir stalls, carved in walnut, are among the very finest in Spain, both as regards the accomplished craftsmanship and the astonishing variety in the composition. The two organs, opposite each other and attaining the very height of the nave, are the best in the peninsula, whilst the designs of the marble pavement, red and white in the high altar, and black and white in the choir, only add to the luxurious effect produced by statues, pulpits, and other accessories, either brilliantly coloured, or else wrought in polished metal or stone.

The altar-piece itself, slightly concave in shape, is the largest, if not the best, of its kind. It is composed of pyramidically superimposed niches flanked by gilded columns and occupied by statues of painted and gilded wood. The effect from a distance is dazzling,—the reds, blues, and gold mingle together and produce a multicoloured mass reaching to the height of the{367} nave; on closer examination, the workmanship is seen to be both coarse and naïve,—primitive as compared to the more finished retablos of Burgos, Astorga, etc.

To conclude: The visitor who, standing between the choir and the high altar of the cathedral, looks at both, stands, as it were, in the presence of an immense riddle. He cannot classify: there is no purity of one style, but a medley of hundreds of styles, pure in themselves, it is true, but not in the ensemble. Besides, the personality of each has been lost or drowned, either by ultra-decoration or by juxtaposition. A collective value is thus obtained which cannot be pulled to pieces, for then it would lose all its significance as an art unity—a complex art unity, in this case peculiar to Spain.

Neither is repose, meditation, or frank admiration to be gleaned from such a gigantic potpourri of art wonders, but rather a feeling—as far as we Northerners are concerned—of amazement, of stupor, and of an utter impossibility to understand such a luxurious display of idolatry rather than of faith, of scenic effect rather than of discreet prayer.

But then, it may just be this idolatry and{368} love of scenic effect which produces in the Spaniard what we have called religious awe. We feel it in a long-aisled Gothic temple; the Spaniard feels it when standing beneath the croisée of his cathedral churches.

The whole matter is a question of race.

THE END.

{369}

Appendices

Archbishoprics and Bishoprics of Northern Spain

II

Dimensions and Chronology

ASTORGA

• See dedicated to Saviour and San Toribio.
• Legendary (?) erection of see, 1st century (oldest in peninsula).
• First historical bishop, Dominiciano, 347 A. D.
• During Arab invasion see was being continually destroyed and rebuilt.
• {370}
• 1069, first cathedral (on record) was erected.
• 1120, second cathedral was erected.
• XIIIth century, third cathedral was erected.
• 1471, fourth (present) cathedral was begun; terminated XVIth century.
• XVth and XVIth century ogival; imitation of that of Leon.
•  
• Chief attractions: Northern front, plateresque retablo.

AVILA

• Dedicated to San Salvador.
• First bishop (legendary?), San Segundo, in Ist century.
• See destroyed during Arab invasion.
• First bishop after Reconquest, Jeronimo in XIth century.
•  
• Date of foundation and erection unknown.
• Legendary foundation, 1091; finished in 1105 (?).
• Late XIIth century Spanish Gothic fortress church.
• Apse XIIth century; transept XIVth century.
• Western front XVth century; tower late XIVth century.
•  
• Width of transept and of nave, 30 feet.
• Width of aisles, 25 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: Exterior of apse, nave and transept with rose windows, tomb of Bishop Tostada.

BURGOS

• See dedicated to the Holy Mary and Son.
• Bishopric erected, 1075; archbishopric, 1085.
• First bishop, Don Simón; first archbishop, Gomez II.
•  
• Present cathedral begun, 1221.
• First holy mass celebrated in altar-chapel, 1230.
• Building terminated 300 years later (1521).
• XIIIth-XIVth century Spanish ogival.
•  
• Length (excluding Chapel of Condestable), 273 feet.
• Length of transept, 195 feet; width, 32 feet.
• Height of lantern crowning croisée, 162 feet.
• Height of western front, 47 feet.{371}
• Height of towers, 273 feet; width at base, 19 feet.
• Width of nave, 31 feet; of aisles, 19 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: The ensemble, interior decoration, lantern on croisée, the Chapel of the Condestable, choir, high altar, etc. (With that of Toledo, the richest cathedral in Spain.)

CALAHORRA

• See dedicated to San Emeterio and San Celedonio, martyrs.
• Bishopric erected Vth century; first bishop, Silvano.
• Daring Arab invasion see removed to Oviedo (750).
• Removed to Alava in IXth century; in Xth century, to Nájera.
• In 1030, moved again to Calahorra; first bishop, Don Sancho.
• Since XIXth century, one bishop appointed to double see Calahorra-Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
• This double see to be removed to Logroño.
•  
• Cathedral begun in XIIth century; terminated in XIVth century.
• XIIIth century Gothic (body of church only).
• Western front of a much later date.
•  
• Chief attraction: Choir-stalls.

CIUDAD RODRIGO

• See dedicated to the Virgin and Child.
• Origin of bishopric in Calabria under Romans (legendary?).
• Foundation of city in 1150; erection of see, 1170.
• First bishop, Domingo, 1170.
• See nominally suppressed in 1870; in reality the suppression has not taken place as yet.
•  
• Cathedral church begun toward 1160.
• XIIth century Romanesque-Gothic edifice.
• Tower and western front date from XVIIIth century.
• Lady-chapel from XVIth century.
• Building suffered considerably from French in 1808.
•  
• Chief attractions: Romanesque narthex, cloister, choir-stalls, Romanesque doors leading into transept.{372}

CORIA

• See dedicated to Santa Maria.
• Date of erection, 338.
• First known bishop, Laquinto, in 589.
• During Moorish domination the bishopric entirely destroyed.
• See reëstablished toward beginning XIIIth century.
•  
• Cathedral church begun in 1120.
• Terminated in XVIth century.
•  
• Is an unimportant village church rather than a cathedral.
• One aisle, 150 feet long, 52 feet wide, 84 feet high.
•  
• Chief attractions: Paseo, or cloister walk; in lady-chapel, sepulchre of XVIth century.

CUENCA

• See dedicated to the Virgin.
• Erected in 1183.
• First bishop, Juan Yañez.
•  
• XIIIth century ogival church greatly deteriorated, in a ruinous state.
• Tower which stood on western end fell down recently.
•  
• Length of building, 312 feet; width, 140 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: Cloister door, chapels.

LEON

• See dedicated to San Froilan and Santa Maria de la Blanca.
• Date of erection not known.
• First known bishop, Basilides, 252 A.D.
• During Arab invasion, see existed on and off.
•  
• First stone of present cathedral laid in 1199.
• The building did not begin until 1250; terminated end of XIVth century.
• XIIth century French ogival.
• Vaulting above croisée fell down in 1631.
• Southern front rebuilt in 1694.{373}
• Whole cathedral partly ruined in 1743.
• Closed to public by government in 1850.
• Reopened in 1901.
•  
• Total length, 300 feet; width, 130 feet; height of nave, 100 feet.
• Height of northern tower, 211 feet; of southern, 221 feet.
• Length of each side of cloister, 97 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: The ensemble, windows, choir-stalls, cloister.

LOGROÑO

• See dedicated to the Holy Virgin.
• Compare Calahorra.
•  
• Santa Maria raised to collegiate church in 1435.
• Old building torn down in same year, excepting some few remains.
• Present church begun in 1435; not terminated yet.
• Enlargements being introduced at the present date.
• Belongs to Spanish-Grotesque.
•  
• Chief attractions: Western front, trascoro, towers.

LUGO

• See dedicated to the Mother and Child.
• Bishopric erected in Vth century; first bishop, Agrestio, in 433.
•  
• Cathedral began in 1129; completed in 1177.
• XIIth century Galician Romanesque spoilt by posterior additions.
• Building greatly reformed in XVIth to XVIIIth centuries.
•  
• Chief attractions: The ensemble (interior), western portal, exterior of apse.

MADRID-ALCALÁ

• See erected in 1850.

MADRID

• Temporary cathedral dedicated to San Isidro.
• Seventeenth century building of no art merit.{374}
• New cathedral dedicated to the Virgen de la Almudena.
• In course of construction; begun in 1885.

ALCALÁ

• Dedicated to Santos Justo and Pastor; called la Magistral.
• In a ruinous state; closed, and see temporarily removed to Jesuit temple.
• Constructed in XVth century, and raised to suffragan in same century.
• Severe and naked (gloomy) Spanish-Gothic.
• Interior of building cannot be visited.

MONDOÑEDO

• See dedicated to the Virgin.
• Bishopric removed here from Ribadeo, late XIIth century.
• First (or second) bishop, Don Martin, about 1219.
•  
• Foundation of cathedral dates probably from XIIth century.
• XIIIth century Galician Romanesque structure.
• Greatly spoilt by posterior additions.
• Ambulatory dates from XVth or XVIth century.
•  
• Rectangular in form; 120 feet long by 71 wide.
• Height of nave, 45 feet; of aisles, 28 feet.

ORENSE

• See dedicated to St. Martin of Tours and St. Mary Mother.
• Bishopric erected previous to IVth century (?).
•  
• Erection of present building begun late XIIth century.
• Probably terminated late XIIIth century.
• XIIIth century, Galician Romanesque with pronounced ogival mixture.
•  
• Chief attractions: Portico del Paraiso, western portal, decoration of the interior.

OSMA

• See dedicated to San Pedro de Osma.
• Legendary (?) erection of see in 91 A. D.{375}
• First bishop, San Astorgio.
• First historical bishop, Juan I, in 589.
• Destruction of see during Arab invasion.
• See restored, 1100; first bishop, San Pedro de Osma.
•  
• XIIth century cathedral destroyed in XIIIth century, excepting a few chapels.
• Erection of new cathedral begun in 1232; terminated, beginning XIVth century.
• XIIIth century Romanesque-Gothic (not pure).
• Ambulatory introduced in XVIIth century.
•  
• Chief attractions: Retablo, reliefs of trasaltar.

OVIEDO

• See dedicated to the Mother and Child.
• Bishopric erected, 812; first bishop, Adulfo.
•  
• Until XIIth century cathedral was a basilica; destroyed.
• Romanesque edifice erected in XIIth century; destroyed 1380.
• Present edifice begun 1380; completed 1550.
• XVth century ogival (French?).
• Decoration of the interior terminated XVIIth century.
• Tower and spire, XVIth century.
• Camara Santa dates from XIIth century; a remnant of the early Romanesque edifice.
•  
• Total length, 218 feet; width, 72 feet.
• Height of nave, 65 feet; of aisles, 33 feet.
• Height of tower, 267 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: Flèche, decoration of the interior, rosaces in apse, Gothic retablo, cloister, Camara Santa.

PALENCIA

• See dedicated to Mother and Child and San Antolin, martyr.
• Date of erection unknown; IId or IIId century.
• One of the earliest bishops, San Toribio.
• During the Arab invasion city and see completely destroyed.
• First bishop after Reconquest, Bernardo, in 1035.
•  
• XVth century florid Gothic building.
• Erection begun in 1321.{376}
• Eastern end finished prior to 1400.
• Century later western end begun on larger scale.
• Temple completed in 1550.
•  
• Total length, 405 feet.
• Width (at transept), 160 feet.
• Height (of nave), 95 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: The ensemble (interior and exterior), Bishop's Door, choir-stalls, trascoro.

PLASENCIA

• Dedicated to the Holy Virgin.
• Erection of see 12 years after foundation city (1190).
• First bishop, Domingo; second, Adam; both were warrior prelates.
•  
• Old cathedral (few remains left) commenced in beginning XIVth century.
• Partially destroyed to make room for—
• New cathedral, commenced in 1498.
• XVIth century Renaissance-Gothic edifice.
• Ultra-decorated and ornamented in later centuries.
•  
• Chief attractions: Choir-stalls, western entrance, decorative motives, sepulchres.

SALAMANCA

• Bishopric existed in Vth century. First known bishop, Eleuterio (589).
• VIIIth century, devoid of notices concerning see.
• Xth century, 7 bishops mentioned—living in Leon or Oviedo.
• XIth century, no news, even name of city forgotten.
• First bishop de modernis, Jeronimo of Valencia (1102).
•  
• Old cathedral still standing; city possesses therefore two cathedrals.

OLD CATHEDRAL

• Dedicated to St. Mary (Santa Maria de la Sede).
• In 1152 already in construction; not finished in 1299.
• XIIth or XIIIth century, Castilian Romanesque with ogival mixture.{377}
• Nave, 33 feet wide, 190 feet long, 60 feet high.
• Aisles, 20 feet wide, 180 feet long, 40 feet high.
• Thickness of walls, 10 feet.
• Part of cathedral demolished to make room for new in 1513.
•  
• Chief attractions: Cimborio, central apsidal chapel, and retablo.

NEW CATHEDRAL

• Dedicated to the Mother and Saviour.
• Begun in 1513; not completed until XVIIIth century.
• Originally Late Gothic building. Plateresque, Herrera and grotesque additions.
• Compare churches of Valladolid and Segovia.
•  
• Rectangular in shape; 378 feet long, 181 feet wide.
• Height of nave, 130 feet; that of aisles, 88 feet.
• Width of nave, 50 feet; of aisles, 37 feet.
• Length (and width) of chapels, 28 feet; height, 54 feet.
• Height of tower, 320 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: Western façade, decorative wealth, ensemble.

SANTANDER

• See dedicated to San Emeterio, martyr, and to the Virgin.
• Monastical church of San Emeterio raised to collegiate in XIIIth century.
• Bishopric erected in 1775.
•  
• Cathedral church built in XIIIth century.
•  
• Chief attraction: Crypt, fount.

SANTIAGO

• See dedicated to St. James, patron saint of Spain.
• Bishopric erected previous to 842; first bishop, Sisnando.
• Archbishopric erected XIIth century; first archbishop, Diego Galmirez.
•  
• Cathedral church begun, 1078; terminated, 1211.
• XIIth century Romanesque building.
• Exterior suffered grotesque and plateresque repairs, XVIIth century.
• Cloister dates from 1530.{378}
•  
• Length, 305 feet; width (at transept), 204 feet.
• Height of nave, 78 feet; of aisles, 23 feet; of cupola, 107 feet; of tower (de la Trinidad), 260 feet; of western towers, 227 feet.
• Length of each side of cloister, 114 feet; width, 19 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: The ensemble (interior), Portico de la Gloria, crypt, cloister, southern portal.

SANTO DOMINGO DE LA CALZADA

• See dedicated to Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
• Bishopric dates from 1227.
• Compare Calahorra.
•  
• Cathedral church begun toward 1150.
• Terminated, 1250.
• XIIth-XIIIth century Romanesque-Gothic structure.
•  
• Chief attraction: The retablo, XVth and XVIth sepulchres.

SEGOVIA

• See dedicated to San Fruto and the Virgin.
• First bishop (legendary?), San Hierateo, in Ist century.
• See known to have existed in 527.
• First historical bishop, Peter (589).
• During Arab invasion only one bishop mentioned, Ilderedo, 940.
• First bishop after the Reconquest, Don Pedro, in 1115.
•  
• First stone of present cathedral laid, 1525.
• Cathedral consecrated, 1558; finished in 1580.
• Cupola erected in 1615.
• Gothic-Renaissance building.
• Tower struck by lightning and partly ruined, 1620.
• Rebuilt (tower) in 1825.
•  
• Total length, 341 feet; width, 156 feet.
• Height of dome, 218 feet.
• Width of nave and transept, 44 feet; aisles, 33 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: Old cloister, apse, tower.{379}

SIGÜENZA

• See dedicated to Mother and Child.
• First known bishop, Protogenes, in VIth century.
• During Arab invasion no mention is made of see.
• First bishop after Reconquest, Bernardo (1195).
• Fourth bishop an Englishman, Jocelyn.
•  
• Date of erection of the cathedral unknown.
• Probably XIIth or XIIIth century Romanesque-Gothic edifice.
• Ambulatory added in XVIth century.
•  
• Length of building, 313 feet; width, 112 feet.
• Height of nave, 68 feet; of aisles, 63 feet.
• Circumference of central pillar, 50 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: Western front, sacristy, rose window in southern transept arm.

SORIA

• See to be moved here from Osma.
• Church dedicated to St. Mary.
• Raised to suffragan of Osma in XIIth century.
•  
• XVIth century, Gothic-plateresque building.
• XIIth century, western front; Castilian Romanesque.
• XIIth century, Romanesque cloister.
•  
• Chief attractions: Western front, cloister.

TOLEDO

• See dedicated to the Virgin Mother and her Apparition to San Ildefonso.
• Bishopric erected prior to 513 A. D.
• One of first bishops is San Ildefonso.
• During Arab domination see remains vacant.
• First archbishop, Don Bernardo (1085).
• Primate cathedral of all the Spains since XVth century.
•  
• First stone of present building laid in 1227.
• Church completed in 1493.{380}
• Additions, repairs, etc., dating from XVIth-XVIIIth century.
•  
• Length, 404 feet; width, 204 feet; height of tower, 298 feet.
• Height of nave, 98 feet.
• Height of principal door, 20 feet; width, 7 feet.
• Diameter of rose window in western front, 30 feet.
•  
• Chief attractions: The ensemble, decorative and industrial accessories, chapter-room, sacristy, paintings, bell-tower, etc. (The richest cathedral in Spain.)

TORO

• Collegiate Church dedicated to St. Mary.
•  
• Existence of bishopric cannot be proven, though believed to have been erected during first decade of Reconquest in Xth century.
• Is definitely made a suffragan of Zamora in XVIth century.
•  
• Cathedral—or collegiate—erected end of XIIth or beginning of XIIIth century.
• Castilian Romanesque building.
•  
• Chief attractions: Military aspect of building, height of walls, massive cimborio.

TUY

• See dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
• Bishopric erected in VIth century.
•  
• Cathedral erected in first half XIIth century.
• Suffered greatly from earthquakes, especially in 1755.
• XIIth century Galician Romanesque in spoilt conditions.
• Western porch or narthex dates from XVth century.
•  
• Chief attractions: Western front, northern portal, cloister.

VALLADOLID

• Santa Maria la Antigua raised to suffragan of Palencia, 1074.
• Church built in XIIth century, Castilian Romanesque.{381}
• Ruins still to be seen to rear of—
• Santa Maria la Mayor. Seat of archbishopric since 1850.
• Bishopric established, 1595; first bishop, Don Bartolomé.
•  
• Cathedral begun in 1585 by Juan de Herrera.
• Continued XVIIth century by Churriguera.
• Escorial style spoilt by grotesque decoration.
• Tower falls down in 1841; new one being erected.
•  
• Rectangular in shape; length, 411 feet; width, 204 feet.
• Transept half-way between apse and western front.
• Croisée surmounted by cupola.
• Only one of four towers was constructed.

VITORIA

• See dedicated to Santa Maria.
• St. Mary erected to collegiate, XVth century.
• Bishopric erected in XIXth century.
•  
• Cathedral church erected in XIVth century.
• XIVth century Late Gothic structure of no art interest.
• Tower of XVIth and XVIIth centuries.
•  
• Chief attraction: In sacristy a canvas called Piety.

ZAMORA

• See dedicated to San Atilano and the Holy Mother.
• Bishopric established 905; first bishop, San Atilano.
• Destroyed by Moors in 998; vacancy not filled until 1124.
• First bishop de modernis, Bernardo.
•  
• Cathedral commenced 1151; vaulting terminated 1174.
• XIIth century Castilian Romanesque.
•  
• Chief attractions: The cimborio, southern entrance.{382}

III

A List of the Provinces of Spain and of the Middle Age States or Kingdoms from which they have evolved.

NOTES

The star (*) indicates the provinces treated of in this volume; the remainder will be treated of in Volume II.

Two provinces have not been mentioned: that of the Balearic Isles (belonged to the old kingdom of Aragon), and that of the Canary Isles (belonged to the old kingdom of Castile).

Dates have not been indicated. For so complicated was the evolution of the different states (regions) throughout the Middle Ages, that a series of tables would be necessary, as well as a series of geographical maps.

The above list, however, shows Spain (minus Portugal) at the death of Fernando (the husband of Isabel) in 1516, as well as the component parts of Castile and Aragon. The division of Spain into provinces dates from 1833.

A bishopric does not necessarily coincide with a province. Thus, the Province of Lugo has two sees (Lugo and Mondoñedo); on the other hand, three Basque Provinces have but one see (Vitoria).

Excepting in the case of Navarra, whose capital is Pamplona, the different provinces of Spain bear the name of the capital. Thus the capital of the Province of Madrid is Madrid, and Jaen is the capital of the province of the same name.

{384}

{385}

Bibliography

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