Part 12 (1/2)

On the south side a cloister door corresponds to this last-nah the latter is plateresque, cold and severe, the forards sculptural details; the carving of the panels is also of the finest workmanshi+p Beside it, the southern front of the cathedral coincides perfectly with the northern; like the Puerta de la Plateria in Santiago, it is rendered soht and by the archbishop's palace to the left, bethich it is reached by a paved series of terraces, for on this side the street is lower than the floor of the cathedral The i, unique in Spain

Neither is the situation of the temple exactly east and west, a rare circuhly Catholic country like Spain It is Roman cruciforh altar; the aisles are prolonged behind the latter in an aed here and there to ular outline to the building which has been partly re buttresses, and pinnacles

The first i in either of the aisles is that of size rather than beauty; a close examination, however, of the wealth of statues and tombs, and of the sculptural excellence of stone decoration, will draw froht Further, the distribution of light is such as to render the interior of the teay rather than solasses of the sixteenth century see were all destroyed by a powder explosion in 1813, when the French soldiers deht of the choir mars the ensemble of the interior; the stalls are lavishly carved, but do not inspire the sa of wonderful beauty as do those of Leon and Toledo, for instance; the _reja_ or grille which separates the choir from the transept is one of the finest pieces of work in the cathedral, and, though ant

The _retablo_ of the high altar, richly gilt, is of the Renaissance period; the statues and groups which fill the niches are marvellously drawn and full of life In the ambulatory, imbedded in the wall of the _trascoro_, there are six plaques in low relief; as sculptural work in stone they are unrivalled in the cathedral, and were carved, beyond a doubt, by the hand of a master The _croisee_ and the Chapel of the Condestable are the two chief attractions of the cathedral church

The last naonal addition to the apse Its walls from the exterior are seen to be richly sculptured and surh pinnacles and spires placed on the angles of the polygon base The _croisee_ is siht, appears even ether with these original octagonal lanterns with their pinnacles, lend an undescribable grace, elegance, and majesty to ould otherwise have been a rather unwieldy edifice

The Chapel of the Condestable is separated frorille of the sixteenth century, and by a profusely sculptured door The s above the altar are the only ones that retain painted panes of the sixteenth century A the other objects contained in this chapel--which is really a connoisseur's collection of art objects of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries--can be mentioned the two marvellously carved tombs of the Condestable and of his wife

The _croisee_, on the other hand, has been called the ”cathedral's cathedral” Gazing skyward froh _ci the harmony of its details, the wealth of decorative eleinal structure of the dome, whose vault is formed by an immense star, one can understand the epithet applied to this e to say, the primitive cupola which crowned the _croisee_ fell down in the sixteenth century, the date also of Burgos's growing insignificance in political questions Consequently, it was believed by many that the same fate produced both accidents, and that the downfall of the one necessarily involved the decadence of the other

To conclude: The Gothic cathedral of Burgos is, with that of Leon and perhaps that of Sevilla, the one which expresses in a greater ival architecture

Less airy, light, and graceful than that of Leon, it is, nevertheless, more Spanish, or in other words, ards size and weight From a sculptural point of view--stone sculpture--it is the first of all Spanish Gothic cathedrals, and ranks a the most elaborate and perfect in Europe

VI

SANTANDER

The foundation of Santander is attributed to the Romans who baptized it Harbour of Victory Its decadence after the Roman dominion seems to have been complete, and its name does not appear in the annals of Spanish history until in 1187, when Alfonso, eighth of that na of Castile, induced the repopulation of the deserted hae At that time a monastery surrounded by a few miserable huts seems to have been all that was left of the Roman seaport; this monastery was dedicated to the martyr saints Emeterio and Celedonio, for it was, and still is, believed that they perished here, and not in Calahorra, as will be seen later on

The name of the nascent city in the times of Alfonso VIII was Sancti Emetrii, from that of the monastery or of the old town, but within a few years the nen eclipsed the forave its name to the present city (San-t-Andres, Santander)

As a maritime town, Santander beca Castile, and later by Philip II, against England

Kings, princes, princess-consorts, and an lands caos and Valladolid; from Santander and the immediate seaports the fleet sailed which was to travel up the Guadalquivir and conquer Sevilla; in 1574 the Invincible Armada left the Bay of Biscay never to return, and from thence on until now, Santander has ever remained the most important Spanish seaport on the Cantabric Sea

Its ecclesiastical history is uninteresting--or, rather, the city possesses no ecclesiastical past; perhaps that is one of the causes of its flourishi+ng state to-day In the thirteenth century the iate and in 1775 to a bishopric

The same unimportance, from an art point of view, attaches itself to the cathedral church No one visits the city for the sake of the heavy, cluularly built tehest part of the town On the contrary, the great attraction is the fine beach of the Sardinero which lies to the west of the industrial town, and is, in suhton of Spain The coast-line, deeply dentated and backed by the Cantabric Mountains, is far htful and attractive than the Gothic cathedral structure of the thirteenth century

Consequently, little need be said about it In the interior, the height of the nave and aisles, rendered ives the building a somewhat aerial appearance that is belied by the view from without

[Illustration: CRYPT OF SANTANDER CATHEDRAL]

The square tower on the western end is underh which the Calle de Puente passes To the right of the saht of steps, stands the entrance to the crypt, which is used to-day as a most unhealthy parish church This crypt of the late twelfth century or early thirteenth shows a decided Roeneral appearance: it is low,reposing on gigantic pillars whose capitals are roughly sculptured The hich let in the little light that enters are ogival, proving the Transition period to which the crypt belongs; it was originally intended as the pantheon for the abbots of the monastery But unlike the Galician Romanesque, it lacks an individual _cachet_; if it reses in San Isidoro in Leon, though in point of view of beauty, the two cannot be compared