the Catholic Sovereigns built the church and convent of Santa Cruz, on
the site of the first monastery of the order. The church has been truly
described as a debased copy of El Parral. The western doorway is
elaborate. Over the door, enclosed within a trefoil arch, is a
Deposition from the Cross, with Ferdinand and Isabel kneeling on either
side. Above, their escutcheons are displayed on either side of the
crucifix. The retablo by Herrera, with which Philip II. endowed the
church, was burnt in 1809, the fire irretrievably damaging the whole
interior. Santa Cruz has now been converted into a charitable asylum.
Following the line of the city wall, we pass the church of San
Lorenzo--a good example of the local style--once surrounded by thriving
looms, and re-enter the town by the Plaza del Azoguejo, a picturesque
space where the citizens love to forgather in the shadow of the mighty
aqueduct.
IV
ZAMORA
Zamora on the Duero is one of the most picturesque towns in Spain, and
one of the most celebrated in its annals. It is not well known to
foreigners, probably on account of it being so difficult of approach.
Few places bring back so vividly the stirring past of Castile.
The town stands above the Duero on a rocky ridge, the castle and
cathedral occupying the western extremity. The river is spanned by a
bridge of seventeen arches, defended near either end by a high
gate-tower. If the approach is quaint and mediæval, the view from this
point is even more so. Towards sundown, the spirit of the Middle Ages
seems to inform the town--all is sombre, fierce, strong, and venerable.
The country round seems little better than a desert. From the walls
above eyes seem to be scanning the horizon for the first gleam of
hostile lances. Zamora belongs to the days when towns, like men, always
wore armour. To-day she is broken and war-worn and old; but if her
sword is rusted and her shield broken, she may well boast it was in the
service of Spain.
As we jolt over the old bridge, above the weirs of the Duero, and climb
the steep street that leads into the town, we need no consultation of
the records to tell us that we are here in the old Castile of the
knightly days, that we shall find few memories of artists and poets, few
of statesmen and great rulers, but many of hard fighters and holy
priests. Zamora is constantly mentioned in the _Romancero_. We can
imagine that it was a town towards which Don Quixote would have been
drawn, but he only spoke of it as famous for bagpipes. Like Burgos and
Valladolid and Salamanca, it was the creation of the mediæval time, and
we hear first of it in the ninth century. Alfonso I., or his son Froila,
took the town from the Moors. Thereafter, for many years, it continued
to change hands. The Day of Zamora, famous in Spanish song and story
(July 9, 901), when nearly seventy thousand Moors were slain or
captured, assured the possession of the town to the Christians. In this
terrific engagement Bernardo del Carpio is supposed to have won his
spurs, though (if he ever existed, or the battle really took place) he
must have been a hundred years old at the time! Soon after this victory
the citizens clamoured for a spiritual shepherd, and a hermit named
Atilanus was given them as bishop. Certain episodes of his youth began
to trouble the prelate’s mind, and at the end of ten years he laid aside
the pastoral staff, and declared himself unworthy of his office. He went
on a pilgrimage, having thrown his episcopal ring into the Duero,
proclaiming that he would not return till it was restored to him as a
sign that God had pardoned him. All in the least familiar with folklore
will, of course, know what happened next. Like the ring of Polycrates,
like the ring in the arms of Glasgow, the bishop’s amulet was found in
the body of a fish served up to him at supper. The relief of the good
man at this unmistakable evidence of the Divine forgiveness, his return
to his See, and the rejoicings of the inhabitants may be inferred and
imagined. Atilanus was canonised by Urban II. in the eleventh century.
Of another tremendous victory said to have been won before the walls of
Zamora in 939 over the pertinacious Moors we need not speak further, for
it is more than probable that the fight never occurred here at all, but
at Simancas. There can, however, be no doubt that the place fell before
the irresistible Al Mansûr in 981, in spite of the brave resistance of
the commandant, Domingo Sarracino. The Moors repeopled the town, which
was governed by one Abu-l-Was el Tojibita. It was labour wasted so far
as they were concerned, for Zamora was soon, and finally, recovered by
the Spaniards. And now we come to the episode which has secured the town
so prominent a place in the annals and legendary lore of the country.
Fernando I., King of Leon and Castile, in response to the importunities
of his children, on his deathbed divided his dominions between them. To
his eldest daughter, Urraca, he gave Zamora, to her sister, Toro. The
disposition of his estates made, the dying king invoked the vengeance of
Heaven on whomsoever should disturb it; and all present, except his
eldest son Sancho, responded, Amen. It was not long before this prince
(now King of Leon and Castile) showed his dissatisfaction with what
Ford, with a touching faith in the sanctity of primogeniture, calls this
unjust division. Toro was soon surrendered by Doña Elvira, and, very
shortly after, the stout-hearted Urraca beheld from these walls the
hosts of Castile beleaguering her little principality. With Sancho’s
army was the Cid. With him, the chroniclers assure us, the Infanta was
in love. If so, these tender sentiments were not allowed to interfere
with the vigour of the attack and defence, which were both conducted
with ferocious determination. The siege had lasted seven months when a
personage called Bellido Dolfos, the son, delightfully enough, of Dolfos
Bellido, sought an audience of the king. He had fled from Zamora, he
said, to escape the vengeance of Urraca’s minister, Arias Gonzalo; and
he would show the king the secret postern in the walls by which he had
escaped, and by means of which the town could be taken. This audience
appears to have taken place very close to the walls, for we are told
that the citizens cried out to Sancho, adjuring him to have nothing to
do with Dolfos, who had committed four acts of treason already. These
well-meant hints, naturally enough, confirmed Sancho’s confidence in the
stranger. On the morning of the 7th October 1072 the two went forth to
reconnoitre the walls. Dolfos took advantage of the king in an unguarded
moment, and stabbed him in the back. He then promptly ran towards the
postern. The Cid, seeing him run, suspected something amiss, and
mounting Babieca gave chase; but alas! he had forgotten his spurs, and
the assassin made good his escape. Sancho was carried back to the camp,
and before he expired attributed his destruction to his father’s curse.
The siege was prosecuted with greater vigour than ever by his captains.
Don Diego Ordoñez denounced the citizens, without exception of persons,
as felon knaves. Arias Gonzalo and his four sons took it upon themselves
to vindicate the honour of the town in five successive duels with the
Castilian. Three of the Zamoran champions were slain by Ordoñez, but he
was jerked out of his saddle by his dead adversary’s wounded horse, and
the combat was declared by the judges to be at an end. The venerable
Arias Gonzalo thus preserved one of his sons, and Castile her champion.
The accession of Alfonso VI. to his murdered brother’s throne restored
peace to the distracted kingdom, and left the Infanta in enjoyment of
her little state.
Zamora is still encircled with massive walls, strengthened with numerous
round towers. The name of Urraca’s Palace is given to a house, old
enough to all seeming, close to one of the gates opening near the
northern end of the Paseo de Valorio; this gateway is flanked by two
bastions, and above it may be seen the bust of Princess Urraca, with
the inscription much defaced--
‘Afuera, afuera Rodrigo
El soberbio castellano!
Acordórsete debiera
De aquel buen tiempo pasado,’ etc.
These verses from the _Romancero_ are supposed to have been addressed by
the Princess to the Cid, and allude, presumably, to the love-passages
between them. The postern through which Dolfos escaped may be seen in
the wall farther towards the west. The site of the Cid’s house is also
pointed out. The tiny hermitage of Santiago in the Vega marks the spot
of the assassination, and a battered cross on a pillar some distance
outside the town commemorates Sancho’s exclamation that he would never
be king till he was lord of Zamora.
The castle from which perhaps Urraca and Arias Gonzalo looked across at
Sancho’s camp is at the western extremity of the town. During the civil
wars that disturbed the reign of Alfonso el Sabio, it was held for the
king by Doña Teresa Gomez, wife of Garci Perez Chirino. Her youngest
child was captured by the rebels, and to save his life she surrendered
the fortress. At the time of the disputed succession following the
demise of Enrique IV., the castle was held by the Portuguese in the
interests of Juana ‘la Beltraneja,’ who held her court here for a brief
season. The garrison resisted many determined assaults, and capitulated
on honourable terms only after the battle of Toro, February 1476. In
after years, and especially during the Peninsular War, the stronghold
was adapted to the requirements of modern warfare, and has lost, in
consequence, much of its mediæval character.
Hard by is the cathedral, far away from the centre of the town. When the
See was restored by Alfonso VI., Gerónimo, the Cid’s confessor, was
appointed to it; but he was soon translated to Salamanca (or else Zamora
was carved out of that See), and was succeeded by another Frenchman,
Bernard, a namesake and countryman of Bernard, Archbishop of Toledo.
These foreigners introduced the Romanesque style, of which Zamora must,
in its primitive state, have been a noble example. The building was
completed in 1174. To that period belongs the grand square tower at the
west end of the north aisle--the most conspicuous landmark of the
vicinity--with its three upper stories pierced on each side with one,
two, and three windows respectively. The tower was designed for defence
as well as ornament. Over the crossing rises a dome of beautiful
construction, very Oriental in character, with turrets surmounted by
smaller cupolas and pierced with rounded windows at its angles. Seen
from within, this dome is of the ‘half-orange’ type, the ribbing of the
vault giving it very much the appearance of the sections of the fruit.
In the sharp fringe of ornament at the angles, Street saw the very
earliest kind of suggestion of a crocket, and was of opinion that ‘we
have in England no monument of the middle ages which is one whit more
precious.’
The cathedral has no west front, and its exterior is, it must be
confessed, a veritable patchwork of different styles. The Puerta del
Obispo, facing the Episcopal Palace, in the south transept probably
dates from the twelfth century. The main entrance is through a
four-ordered arch with three shafts in each jamb. The capitals are
roughly moulded and have abaci. Over the lateral doorways (now closed
up) are rudely-carved reliefs, with dragons and floral devices
introduced into the decoration. The two odd-looking rosette-like
ornaments above seem to be models of the interior of the dome. Above the
three doors runs a gallery of five recessed arches, and over this again
a blocked-up window.
The northern entrance, surmounted by a modern clock-tower, is,
incongruously enough, in the classical style, with a rounded arch. The
interior of this interesting little cathedral is impressive. We are at
once struck with the width of the piers (seven feet across) as compared
with that of the nave, which is only twenty-three feet. The arches here
are in the Pointed style. The aisles are lower than the nave, and
supported by broad massive buttresses. There being no western portal,
that end of the church is occupied by chapels, which give a very
singular effect to the building.
The High Altar and chancel are in the Gothic style, and owe their
construction to the absentee bishop Diego Meléndez Valdés, who ruled the
See between 1496 and 1506. His arms, five fleurs-de-lys, may be seen on
the railings. The retablo, with its jasper columns and gilded capitals,
is modern. The subject is the Transfiguration. In the precinct of the
High Altar is buried Count Ponce de Cabrera, one of the Emperor
Alfonso’s most distinguished lieutenants. The Altar is in the late
Gothic style, and must have been erected three centuries after the
Count’s death. There are good wrought-iron pulpits on each side of the
chancel.
The choir was also the work of Bishop Valdés. It occupies the bays west
of the crossing as usual in Spanish churches, but the bad effect of that
position is here greatly relieved by the piercing of the western screen
or _trascoro_ with two elliptical doorways, between which is a painting
representing Christ surrounded by the Blessed. The fittings of the choir
are very interesting, and of the same age as the screens. The backs of
the lower range of stalls are carved with low reliefs of thirty-eight
personages of the Old Dispensation, from Abel to Nebuchadnezzar,
Caiaphas, and the Centurion. In their hands are scrolls containing
texts, very cleverly chosen, of which a list is given in Neal’s
_Ecclesiologist_, and reprinted in Street’s _Gothic Architecture in
Spain_. The execution is rude, but expressive and painstaking. The upper
stalls are adorned with full-length reliefs of saints, confessors, and
martyrs of the New Dispensation, which are more delicately designed and
finished. Above runs a canopy, sculptured with animal forms. The
enormous metal lectern and the Bishop’s Throne, with its tapering spire,
are fine examples of Gothic work.
The chapels are not of special interest. That on the middle of the
western wall is dedicated to San Ildefonso, but is more generally known
as the Capilla del Cardenal, after its founder, Don Juan de Mella, who
died in 1467. This prelate’s brother, Alonso de Mella, was the founder
of a sect which seems to have resembled the Anabaptists of Westphalia;
he was expelled from Castile, and took refuge at Granada, where he was
put to death by the Moors. The retablo, by Gallegos, is in six
divisions, the subjects being: San Ildefonso receiving at Toledo the
chasuble from the hands of the Blessed Virgin, the Discovery of the
Relics of St. Leocadia, the Veneration of the Relics, and (above) the
Crucifixion, the Baptism of Christ, and the death of John the Baptist.
This chapel contains the tombs of the Romero family. In the adjoining
sacristy are some interesting battle-scenes from Old Testament history.
The chapel of San Juan Evangelista was built with funds bequeathed by
Canon Juan de Grado (1507), whose fine alabaster tomb is surmounted by
his recumbent effigy, accompanied by a priest and an angel. Above the
canopy is an exquisitely chiselled composition representing the
Crucifixion, with expressive statues of the Apostles Peter and Paul;
within is a curious but admirable genealogy of the Blessed Virgin, at
the base of which is the recumbent figure of an old man, wearing a
crown, and representing possibly one of the early patriarchs. The
Capilla de San Miguel is of less interest. It contains the
sixteenth-century tombs of the canons de Balbas. Of the side-chapels,
the most notable is that of San Bernardo, rebuilt in the sixteenth
century.
In the sacristy is preserved a remarkable silver monstrance, six feet
high, attributed by Ford to Enrique de Arfe. The stand is of later
construction, and dates from 1598. On the upper part the local saint,
Atilanus, may be seen, seated with the Saviour and the Virgin.
The original cloisters were burnt in 1591, and rebuilt in the present
Doric style in 1621 by Juan de Mora.
Under the town walls, close to the cathedral, is the little Romanesque
church of San Isidoro, noticeable for its extremely narrow windows, some
mere slits in the masonry.
We pass down the long lane-like street which leads into the town, and
which in the sixteenth century was the scene of desperate conflicts
between the Mazariegos and Monsalves, the Montagues and Capulets of
Zamora. The first church passed is that of San Pedro, rebuilt by Bishop
Meléndez Valdés, and containing the revered ashes of St. Ildefonso,
which were discovered here under miraculous circumstances in the year
1260. The relics of St. Atilanus are also preserved here. Nothing
remains of the primitive Romanesque structure, except a little apse on
the Epistle side, and a closed-up doorway in the left wall. The
originally-distinct nave and aisles were thrown into one at the
restoration, and form overhead one immense span. The sacristy contains
some interesting objects--sacred vessels and altarpieces of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Presently we reach the second most interesting church in the town, La
Magdalena, a small Romanesque work, said on rather doubtful authority to
have been built by the Templars about 1312. The southern doorway is very
large in comparison with the edifice. It is deeply recessed between
massive buttresses, and formed by a rounded arch with shafts curiously
moulded and twisted. Street speaks of this as a very grand example of
the latest and most ornate Romanesque work. The carving on the arches is
very rich. Above is a large rose window, resembling those in our own
Temple church. The interior of the church is architecturally but not
æsthetically more interesting than the exterior. The nave has a flat
wooden ceiling. The apse is groined, and the chancel has a waggon-vault.
The stone pulpit against the north wall is a notable piece of work, but
attention at once becomes riveted on the large canopied tombs at the
entrance to the chancel. Both are square-topped, with round arches and
capitals very purely and vigorously carved. They are generally asserted
to date from the thirteenth century, but an inscription over one
describes it as the sepulchre of one Acuña and his wife, who died in the
fifteenth century. ‘The effect of this monument,’ says Street, ‘filling
in as it does the angle at the end of the nave, is extremely good; its
rather large detail and general proportions giving it the effect of
being an integral part of the fabric rather than, as monuments usually
are, a subsequent addition.’
Another canopied tomb against the north wall undoubtedly dates from the
earlier period. The capitals of the three twisted shafts are carved with
the forms of wyverns fighting. The tomb is closed by a stone on which is
a large cross. The occupant--believed by some to have been a Templar--is
shown on his deathbed, while above him his soul--represented by a winged
head--is borne away by angels. This interesting work may be attributed
to a native sculptor acquainted with the art of France and Italy.
Santa Maria la Horta (or de la Huerta), near the river, was modelled,
like the Magdalena, on the cathedral. Apart from its architectural
peculiarities--the western tower, narrow windows, waggon-vaulting of the
chancel, etc.--it is of interest on account of the retablos and
paintings in its chapels. Here, as at the very similar church of San
Leonardo, the roofing of the nave is not flat but arched, which goes to
support Don J. M. Quadrado’s belief (opposed to Street’s) that the flat
roof of La Magdalena is an innovation.
The church of San Juan in the Plaza Mayor is in the Flamboyant style.
Its most curious feature is a Christ Crucified near the west door,
surrounded by human skulls built up in the form of a cross. Hard by is
the early Gothic church of San Vicente, with a noble square tower in
three stages, and a fine west front.
In a town like Zamora only two kinds of buildings were
esteemed--churches and fortresses. Time has spared few important civil
monuments. The only ancient house of note is that styled the Casa de
los Momos, of which I give an illustration. The heavy stones forming the
arch suggest a Castilian architect. The building dates from the
sixteenth century, as the enormous coat-of-arms over the entrance might
have prepared us to expect. The Ayuntamiento, or Town Hall, in itself
devoid of interest, contains some good paintings by Ramon Pedro y
Pedret, illustrating the history of the city. It will be seen that
Zamora, like almost every other Spanish town, is entitled ‘most noble
and loyal’ (_muy noble y leal_). It is a sombre, fascinating place,
where the past is more easily recoverable by the fancy than in many
cities more richly endowed with ancient monuments.
V
AVILA
Like Stratford-on-Avon, like Assisi, this sombre city in the mountains
of Castile is the shrine of a single pre-eminent personality. To the
Spaniard Avila is essentially the city of the great saint--of Santa
Teresa, the greatest, perhaps, of Spain’s many great women. And the fame
of the saint and, therefore, of the city, has spread far beyond the
limits of the country in which she was born, and indeed outside of the
church to which her every faculty was devoted. To those (and they are in
the large majority) who approach Avila as pilgrims, it may seem idle to
tell anything of its story unconnected with her. At Assisi you wish to
hear only of Francis, and who cares aught for the Stratford of an
earlier day than Shakespeare’s?
But Teresa was the product of Avila, and to the making of her character
all the experience and emotion of her ancestors had contributed. Those
who would rightly understand her must know something of the breed from
which she sprang.
The city is one of the forty-three said to have been founded by
Hercules. It is mentioned, indeed, by Ptolemy, but we know nothing of
its history previous to the reconquest of this part of Castile by
Alfonso VI. Avila, like Salamanca and Segovia, arose from the ashes of
the Moorish empire, and was repeopled and probably rebuilt by the Count
Raymond of Burgundy. To him we owe those venerable walls, stern yet
beautiful in their ruddy granite, that girdle the city round. But these
served, at a very early date, to keep out other than the infidels. The
annalists tell us that the knights of Avila, returning one day from a
foray, found that the Moors had ravaged the neighbouring country and
carried off a multitude of prisoners and much booty. Without hesitation
the enraged gentlemen gave chase, and though the enemy were in vastly
superior numbers, they overtook and routed them at Barbacedo, recovering
most of the spoil and a good deal of additional treasure. But, on their
return to Avila, the ungrateful commons closed the gates against them,
and refused admittance to the deliverers of their own wives and children
unless they were given a large share of the booty. The indignant
knights refused to surrender the guerdon of their swords, and entrenched
themselves in the suburbs. Peace was restored only on the intervention
of Count Raymond, who expelled the churlish townsmen and intrusted the
government of the city to the knights. During the whole of the twelfth
century the bitterest animosity continued to prevail between the
descendants of these antagonists.
Heroines are common in Spanish history. When the town was unexpectedly
besieged by the Almoravides in the absence of nearly the whole male
population, the women garrisoned the walls wearing the men’s helmets,
and compelled the enemy to withdraw. The leader of these Amazons was
Jimena Blásquez, wife of the governor, Fernán Lopez. Her female
descendants were privileged, in remembrance of this event, to speak and
to vote at the council board in the same way as men.