Front matter

THE CATHEDRALS OF NORTHERN SPAIN

Preface Contents List of Illustrations Appendices Bibliography Index

The Cathedral Series

The following, each 1 vol., library 12mo, cloth, gilt top, profusely illustrated. $2.50

The Cathedrals of Northern France BY FRANCIS MILTOUN

The Cathedrals of Southern France BY FRANCIS MILTOUN

The Cathedrals of England BY MARY J. TABER

The following, each 1 vol., library 12mo, cloth, gilt top, profusely illustrated. Net, $2.00

The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine BY FRANCIS MILTOUN

The Cathedrals of Northern Spain BY CHARLES RUDY

L. C. PAGE & COMPANY New England Building, Boston, Mass.

LEON CATHEDRAL (See page 154)

Copyright, 1905 By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED) —— All rights reserved Published October, 1905 COLONIAL PRESS Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston, U. S. A.

TO ALL TRUE LOVERS OF SPAIN, OTHERWISE CALLED HISPANÓFILOS

PREFACE

It is à la mode to write prefaces. Some of us write good ones, others bad, and most of us write neither good nor bad ones.

The chapter entitled "General Remarks" is the real introduction to the book, so in these lines I shall pen a few words of self-introduction to such readers as belong to the class to whom I have dedicated this volume.

My love for Spain is unbounded. As great as is my love for the people, so great also is my depreciation for those who have wronged her, being her sons. Who are they? They know that best themselves.

Spain's architecture is both agreeable and disagreeable, but it is all of it peculiarly Spanish. A foreigner, dropping as by accident across the Pyrenees from France, can do nothing better than criticize all architectural monuments he meets with in a five days' journey across Spain with a Cook's ticket in his pocketbook. It is natural he should do so. Everything is so totally different from the pure (sic) styles he has learned to admire in France!

But we who have lived years in Spain grow to like and admire just such complex compositions as the cathedrals of Toledo, of Santiago, and La Seo in Saragosse; we lose our narrow-mindedness, and fail to see why a pure Gothic or an Italian Renaissance should be better than an Iberian cathedral. As long as harmony exists between the different parts, all is well. The moment this harmony does not exist, our sense of the artistically beautiful is shocked—and the building is a bad one.

Personality is consequently ever uppermost in all art criticism or admiration. But it should not be influenced by the words pure, flawless, etc. Were such to be the case, there would be but one good cathedral in Spain, namely, that of Leon, a French temple built by foreigners on Spanish soil. Yet nothing is less Spanish than the cathedral of Leon.

Under the circumstances, it is necessary, upon visiting Spain, to discard foreignisms and turn a Spaniard, if but for a few days. Otherwise the tourist will not understand the country's art monuments, and will be inclined to leave the peninsula as he entered it, not a whit the wiser for having come.

To help the traveller to understand the whys and wherefores of Spanish architecture, I have written the "Introductory Studies." I hope they will enable him to become a Spaniard, or, at least, to join the enthusiastic army of Hispanófilos.

C. Rudy.

Madrid, July, 1905

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Part I. Introductory Studies

I.General Remarks13

II. Historical Arabesques18

III. Architectural Arabesques35

IV. Conclusion66

Part II. Galicia

I. Santiago de Campostela75

II. Corunna89

III. Mondoñedo95

IV. Lugo102

V. Orense110

VI. Tuy120

VII. Bayona and Vigo131

Part III. The North

I. Oviedo137

II. Covadonga145

III. Leon150

IV. Astorga167

V. Burgos174

VI. Santander188

VII. Vitoria192

VIII. Upper Rioja196

IX. Soria209

Part IV. Western Castile

I. Palencia219

II. Zamora230

III. Toro244

IV. Salamanca251

V. Ciudad Rodrigo269

VI. Coria278

VII. Plasencia284

Part V. Eastern Castile

I. Valladolid293

II. Avila302

III. Segovia312

IV. Madrid-Alcalá321

V. Sigüenza335

VI. Cuenca342

VII. Toledo349

Appendices369

Bibliography385

Index387

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Leon Cathedral (See page 154)Frontispiece

Cloister Stalls in a Monastic Church at Leon48

Typical Retablo (Palencia)50

Mudejar Architecture (Sahagun)64

Santiago and Its Cathedral82

Church of Santiago, Corunna92

General View of Mondoñedo96

Mondoñedo Cathedral98

Northern Portal of Orense Cathedral116

Tuy Cathedral128

Oviedo Cathedral140

Cloister of Oviedo Cathedral144

Apse of San Isidoro, Leon164

Burgos Cathedral180

Crypt of Santander Cathedral190

Cloister of Nájera Cathedral202

Santa Maria la Redonda, Logroño204

Western Front of Calahorra Cathedral207

Cloister of Soria Cathedral212

Palencia Cathedral226

Zamora Cathedral238

Toro Cathedral248

Old Salamanca Cathedral260

New Salamanca Cathedral266

Cuidad Rodrigo Cathedral272

Façade of Plasencia Cathedral288

Western Front of Valladolid Cathedral300

Tower of Avila Cathedral310

Segovia Cathedral316

San Isidro, Madrid326

Alcalá de Henares Cathedral332

Toledo Cathedral360