fortunate in war. One day he saw Ayesha Galiana, the beautiful daughter
of the late Moorish king of Toledo. Desperately enamoured, he forgot his
own betrothal to Galinda Arias, and that the fair infidel had been
promised to her countryman, Jenina Yahya. With the favour of the king he
overcame all these obstacles, and made Ayesha his wife. But she could
forget neither her old faith nor her old love. Nalvillos’ deeds of
prowess failed to win her heart; and one day he returned to Avila from a
victorious expedition to find that the bird had flown. She had returned
to her first love, Yahya, who had raised the standard of revolt at
Talavera. The furious Castilian stormed the town, slew the Moor, and
penetrated to his faithless wife’s bower, only to find her expiring from
a self-inflicted wound. Nalvillos lived many years after, and fought and
won many battles. He rose to great distinction in the service of his
sovereign, but we never hear of his marrying again.
It was in this town, that styles itself _del rey_, _de los leales_, _de
los caballeros_, that the boy king Alfonso VIII. was placed by the
Regent, Don Manrique de Lara, to protect him from his uncle, Fernando of
Leon. But the class rancour of Avila was not unknown to Fernando, who
stirred up the people of the suburbs against the _serranos_, or
aristocratic townsfolk, promising them a share in his new town of Ciudad
Rodrigo. The knights were victorious, and do not seem to have conducted
themselves with great generosity towards the vanquished.
The inveterate hostility of the commons did not tend, as it might be
expected to have done, to unite the threatened ranks of the patricians.
These prosecuted bitter feuds among themselves, different families
striving desperately for the mastery. One faction, on being expelled
from the town, took refuge in a neighbouring castle, where they were
surprised and cut to pieces by the Moors.
The place was regarded, notwithstanding, as the safest asylum for the
boy-kings who so often appear in the pages of Castilian history. During
his minority, Alfonso XI. remained in the custody of the bishop till the
pretenders to the regency had adjusted their claims to his lordship’s
satisfaction. In the Civil War of 1367 Avila was on the right side--that
of Enrique II.--and suffered severely in consequence at the hands of the
Black Prince’s marauding hordes. Here at the Puerta del Alcazar took
place, at the instance of Carrillo, Archbishop of Toledo, the mock
deposition and degradation of Enrique IV., represented by an effigy, and
the proclamation of his eleven-year-old son as king. Yet in 1474 the
fickle city displayed every sign of grief and remorse on the
unfortunate monarch’s death.
In the disputed succession that ensued Avila sided with Queen Isabel.
Possibly as an expression of royal gratitude, the convent of Santo Tomás
was chosen for the first seat of the Tribunal of the Inquisition; and in
1491 three Jews, professing the faith of their fathers to the last, were
roasted to death in the Mercado Grande.
Avila was the seat of the Supreme Junta of the Comunidad from July to
September 1520. The rebellious temper of her citizens found expression
in Philip II.’s reign in some anonymous placards, posted in the streets,
reflecting on the king’s policy. The royal vengeance was indiscriminate
and drastic. The Vicar of Santo Tomás was stripped of his sacerdotal
functions, Don Enrique Davila was imprisoned for life in the castle of
Turegano, and Don Diego Bracamonte perished on the scaffold. This king’s
successor inflicted the _coup de grâce_ on the luckless town by
expelling its large and industrious Morisco population. Avila never
recovered her prosperity. She remains an example of the wholly
destructive policy of the Spanish Hapsburgs. Not only was the country
ruined by the expulsion of the Jews and Moriscos, but these exiles were
not able to transplant their industry to some other clime. With their
expulsion so much productive and industrial power was absolutely lost to
the world. The wealth acquired by the Inquisition at the expense of its
victims, or rather what was left of it, ultimately found its way into
the State coffers on the establishment of the new order of things a
century ago.
Avila ‘of the Knights’ was, before all else, a fortress. When the walls
were built, churches and suburbs were left outside the enclosure, that
the military advantages of the height on which the old town stands might
not be lost. These walls of dark-red granite girdle Avila to-day,
unbroken, formidable, intact. They rise so high that they shut out from
view all that they enclose, except the towers of the cathedral. Near San
Vicente the masonry is fourteen feet thick, and forty-two feet in
height. Flanking defence is provided by eighty-six elliptical
towers--thirty on the north, twelve on the west, twenty-five on the
south, twenty-one on the east. These rise above the crenellated parapet
at places by eighteen feet. The ten gateways are formed by two towers
being brought together and connected with arches. The most impressive
gates are the Puertas del Mercado and de San Vicente, the former
admitting to the scanty remains of the old Alcazar, the latter facing
the church of San Vicente. In both cases the flanking towers are
connected at the level of their platforms by a high, arched and
crenellated gallery. The actual gateway is defended by a portcullis, and
the usual apertures for thrusting out lances, beams, etc. One of the
gates, now walled up, was known as the Puerta de la Mala Ventura, in
memory of a baseless tradition that it was the scene of the massacre by
Alfonso el Batallador of certain Avilese nobles who had been given him
as hostages for the little King Alfonso VII. of Castile. Nearly all the
gates open on to squares or places of arms. A leisurely walk round these
grand old walls is one of the most agreeable experiences of a journey in
Spain, and carries the mind back to the days when knighthood was in
flower. From their strength it is easy to see how the town could have
been held by a limited number of Caballeros against the commoners of the
suburb outside. There seems no reason to doubt that the walls were, as
tradition avers, built by Raymond of Burgundy in the last decade of the
eleventh century. Eight hundred men were employed upon them daily
during nine years, under the direction of a Roman, Cassandro, and a
Frenchman, Florin de Ponthieu.
* * * * *
Built into the city wall at its eastern end is the noble cathedral of
San Salvador, founded according to some by Fernán Gonzalez, Count of
Castile, and begun a second time in 1091 by Alvár Garcia of Estella in
Navarra. It is, perhaps, the finest example extant of the
fortress-church of the Middle Ages. The oldest part is the apse, which
makes a pronounced bastion or projection in the city wall. The external
walls probably date from Alvár Garcia’s time, but the rest of the church
must be from one to two centuries later.
The church consists of a nave, aisles, projecting transepts and a
chevet, which has semicircular chapels built into the town wall and
double aisle. The chevet is, architecturally, perhaps the most
interesting part of the structure. Nothing at all is to be seen without
of the chapels, over which is carried the ordinary rampart walk or
allure; behind this rises a second battlemented wall, from which we look
down on to the aisle roof of the chevet and clerestory of the central
apse. This end of the cathedral appears from the exterior simply as an
unusually massive round tower projecting from the wall. The west front
is flanked by two towers, only one of which--the northern--is completed.
This is a notable and fortresslike structure, recalling similar work in
England. The strongly-defined buttresses finish in pinnacles, and are
outlined at the angles with a ball enrichment, which is also to be seen
on the pointed arches over the belfry windows. The windows themselves
are round-arched, as are also those now filled up in a lower stage of
the tower. The entrance is comparatively modern. On either side is the
figure of a wild man with shield and mace--strange guardians of a
church! On the spandrils of the arch are the figures of Saints Peter and
Paul. The middle stage of this front is occupied by a curious
retablo-like composition. In the various compartments are the figures of
Christ and different saints, sheltered by ugly canopies; and surmounting
this work is an extravagant and tasteless acroterium, displaying the
arms of the Chapter. Behind and above this is the older and infinitely
more graceful west window within an elliptical arch, and with delicate
though elaborate traceries.
Very much finer is the north porch, admitting not to the transept but to
the nave. The elliptical arch has on each side six jambs, each of which
is adorned with the figure of an apostle resting on the capital of a
pilaster and sheltered beneath a canopy. The five orders of the arch are
sculptured with reliefs of angels and prophets, alternating with
wreaths. In the centre of the tympanum is the seated figure of Christ;
and around Him, arranged in four horizontal divisions, are compositions
representing the Betrayal and Last Supper, the Coronation of the Virgin,
and the Angelic Choir. Street recognises in this doorway the work of the
architect of the portals of the cathedrals of Leon and Burgos. Before it
are two lions couchant on pedestals, chained to the walls. The porch
dates from the fourteenth century. Above it is a canopy begun in 1566,
and intended to form a kind of triumphal arch. Crowning all is seen the
figure of the Redeemer.
The north transept is pierced by a fine wheel-window of sixteen
divisions. The windows of the clerestory are very large, and placed
between great double flying buttresses. Since 1772 the upper and lower
traceries have been blocked up, for a reason not apparent to the modern
observer. The windows of the transept escaped this treatment, and are
filled with good stained glass.
The nave is 130 feet long and 28 feet broad. The arches are supported
by piers of four pilasters, the capitals of which show Romanesque
influence. The aisles are only about half the height of the nave, and
are 24 feet wide. Their pitched roof formerly admitted light into the
nave through the triforium, now blocked up.
The outer walls of the chevet, as we have seen, are the most ancient
part of the fabric, but the seven chapels formed within the thickness of
the wall are of later date. The extraordinary beauty of this part of the
church is due to the division of the ambulatory into two by a series of
tall, slender columns carrying some excellent groining. The outer or
recessed aisle is narrower than the inner, an inequality corrected very
skilfully at the opening into the south transept by an imperceptible
deviation in the line of columns. Very little light penetrates through
the narrow slits in the chapel walls into this sombre, beautiful arcade.
Behind the reredos of the High Altar sleeps the learned bishop, Don
Alonso Fernández de Madrigal, surnamed el Tostado and el Abulense, who
died in 1455. The prelate, who was one of the most prolific writers that
ever lived, is shown in alabaster writing at a desk. The framework of
the tomb is adorned with reliefs of the Adoration of the Magi and
Shepherds, of the Divine and Cardinal Virtues, and of the Eternal
Father. This noble work has been variously ascribed to Berruguete and to
Domenico Fancelli, whose more famous performance we shall see in the
church of Santo Tomás.
In the chapel of Santa Ana is buried Don Sancho Davila, Bishop of
Plasencia, who died in 1625. Most of the tombs in the chapels of the
chevet belong, however, to the thirteenth century, though the dates on
most of them are merely conjectural, and were inscribed in the sixteenth
century by a prebendary of the cathedral.
The High Altar is backed by an elaborate retablo of the age of the
Catholic Kings. It is divided into three stages, and was painted by
Pedro Berruguete (father of the more famous Alonso), Santos Cruz, and
Juan de Borgoña (father of Felipe). To the two first-named may be
attributed the ten panels of the lowest stage, representing Saints Peter
and Paul, the Four Evangelists, and Four Doctors of the Church, and the
Transfiguration, Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, and
Presentation in the Temple, in the second stage. To Borgoña we may
ascribe the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging, Crucifixion, Descent
into Hell, and Resurrection, in the third stage. To the right and left
of the church are two beautiful Renaissance retablos in alabaster,
illustrating the lives of Saints Secundus and Catharine, and two
tasteful gilt iron pulpits. The light reaches the High Altar through two
rows of thirteen windows, the lower ‘round-arched, of two
horseshoe-headed lights divided by a shafted monial,’ and the upper
‘round-headed, broadish windows, with jamb-shafts and richly-chevroned
arches.’ The fine stained glass is the work of Albert of Holland
(1520-1525).
The choir was placed in the easternmost bay of the nave in 1531. The
_trascoro_ or back of the choir is adorned with reliefs of the Adoration
of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Presentation;
smaller panels represent other scenes from the history of Christ and the
Blessed Virgin. The frieze with its fourteen figures of prophets is the
finest part of the work. The choir stalls were begun in 1527 by Juan
Rodrigo, and completed by Cornelius of Holland in 1536. The carving is
of varying merit. The upper panels appear to portray the martyrdoms of
different saints, episodes in whose lives are shown on the panels below.
The ornamentation of the columns and friezes is profuse and delicately
done.
In the south transept is the fine tomb of Don Sancho Davila, Bishop of
Sigüenza, who died in 1534, and near him that of a namesake, whose
effigy is clad in armour. This knight died before the walls of Alhama in
a combat so furious that his scattered limbs had afterwards to be
collected and pieced together by his friends. A curious tomb is to be
seen near by: the figures of a knight in armour and an ecclesiastic
repose on black coffins, the sides of which are sculptured with
escutcheons upheld by woolly-haired savages; a monkey is seen pulling
the negroes’ hair. In the chapel of San Miguel, at the north-west end of
the nave, is an interesting tomb of the thirteenth century, representing
a funeral, whereat the anguish of the mourners contrasts strikingly with
the stoical indifference of the clergy.
The gorgeous chapel of San Segundo at the south-east of the apse,
outside the town wall, was founded in 1595 by Bishop Manrique, on the
model, it is said, of the Escorial. Magnificence, rather than good
taste, characterises this chapel and its furniture. Frescoes by
Francisco Llamas illustrate the life of the saint, whose ashes are
contained in a Churrigueresque tabernacle. On the opposite side of the
apse, but within the wall, is another excrescence, the Velada chapel,
completed in the eighteenth century.
The sacristy is an ornate Renaissance structure, richly gilded and
painted. The alabaster retablo over the altar of St. Barnabas is the
work of a genius whose name unfortunately has not been handed down. The
chamber also contains some curious fifteenth-century paintings relating
to the life of St. Peter. Here may be seen the superb monstrance of Juan
de Arfe, dated 1574, and therefore among his earliest works.
The cloister on the south side of the cathedral was built in the early
sixteenth century on the site of an earlier one. There was an attempt
made at the same time to restore, more or less at haphazard, all the
tombs and epitaphs left from earlier times. At the angles are chapels,
one of which, the Piedad, contains some good stained glass and
iron-work. East of the cloister is the spacious apartment called the
Cardinal’s Chapel, after Cardinal Davila y Mujica, whose tomb it
contains. Here met the Junta of the Comuneros. The fine stained glass in
the windows shows the skill of Juan de Santillana and Juan de
Valdevieso, two famous glass-workers of Burgos.
In some respects more interesting than the cathedral, and probably more
ancient, taken as a whole, is the Romanesque church of San Vicente,
outside the walls, near the Segovia gate. It marks the site of the
martyrdom of Vicente and his sisters, Sabina and Cristeta, who had taken
refuge here to escape the persecution of Dacian, at the beginning of the
fourth century. Their religion having been discovered, they were again
apprehended, and put to death by their skulls being battered against the
rocks. Their bodies were left unburied, but a great serpent came out of
a hole near by and protected them from insult. A Jew approached the
spot, led by spiteful curiosity, and was seized by the monster, which
wound its coils about him. The terrified Hebrew invoked the name of
Christ and was released. He was baptized, and secretly gave the martyrs
honourable burial, subsequently raising a church over the scene of their
martyrdom. So runs the tradition. These dissenters from the state
religion of the Roman Empire are remembered and revered to this day, and
magnificent fanes are rightly raised over their graves. Their ashes are
preserved in reliquaries more costly than royal thrones, and kings kneel
before their shrines. But no monuments are erected, no reverence paid
to the equally high-minded and courageous dissenters from the state
religion of the Spanish monarchy, who perished in the flames kindled by
the Inquisition. The very city which delighted to honour Vicente and his
sisters, and recorded its detestation of the lawful authority that put
them to death, was the seat of the dreadful tribunal of Torquemada and
the scene of cruelties worse than any perpetrated by the Romans.
The basilica raised by the converted Jew was swept away by the Moors,
and the relics of the martyrs seem to have been transported elsewhere.
They were recovered, at least in part, at the time of the resettlement
of the city, and the present church was built by St. Ferdinand in 1252
to contain them; though parts of the fabric certainly seem, despite the
absence of documentary evidence, to date from a century earlier. The
church is built on sloping ground, the difficulties of the site being
admirably overcome. The plan is cruciform, the nave and aisles
terminating in apses. The crossing is surmounted by a square lantern,
and the western front flanked by steeples. An open cloister runs along
the outside of the south aisle.
The western front is very beautiful. The southern tower or steeple wants
a third or upper story, which was added to the north tower only in the
fifteenth century. The second stories are arcaded, and splayed at their
angles. On the third gable-like story of the north steeple are hung the
bells, one of which bears the date 1158. These towers open only into the
westernmost bay of the nave, which forms the porch of the church,
opening on the outside with a high-pointed arch, and into the interior
through a superb double doorway. Street speaks of this porch as follows:
‘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 architecture 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.’ The shaft dividing the
doors is sculptured with a figure of Christ seated on a pedestal.
Statues of the twelve Apostles occupy the jambs. Over each door a round
arch springs from luxuriantly carved capitals, flanked by the heads of
bulls and lions. The tympana are occupied with representations of Dives
and Lazarus, and the Release of a Blessed Spirit. The round arch which
encloses the whole portal exhibits a marvellous profusion of delicate
and rich ornamentation. A Spanish writer truly observes that the foliage
looks as if the faintest breeze would stir it; the beasts seem ready to
spring, and the birds as if, with the least effort, they might
disentangle themselves and fly from the branches. Over the arch is a
parapet and string-course, and a round-arched window opening into the
nave.
The church is usually entered by the south door opening into the aisle
beside the transept. The seven orders of the archivolt are almost devoid
of ornament, but the capitals are carved with curious figures of wild
beasts fighting. The monogram of Christ on the keystone of the innermost
arch is rare in Castilian churches, and the rude sculptured figures on
the capitals are very primitive and unsymmetrical. On one of the jambs
the Virgin and the Angel Gabriel are sculptured; on another a curious
mitred personage representing, it is believed, one of the ancestors of
the Messiah.
This porch is older by two centuries than the cloister running along the
south side of the church. It is in twelve semicircular arches, with a
buttress between every three. Made of purple granite, it contrasts
strikingly with the sandstone of the main edifice.
The north front is very plain and severe. The massive buttresses excited
the enthusiasm of Street. The north door is of corresponding simplicity.
Beside it, as at the side of the south door, are a couple of tombs,
which seem to prove that the space round the church was at one time used
as a burial-ground.
The eastern end is the most interesting part of the building. The
central apse is larger and loftier than the adjoining apses. All three
are divided perpendicularly by slender engaged shafts, terminating in
capitals under the eaves; and horizontally by carved or moulded
string-courses. The central apse has three round-headed windows; the
lateral apses, two each. The capitals and corbels are everywhere very
finely carved. There are few better examples of Romanesque work in the
Peninsula. The square lantern is pierced on each side with a three-light
window of Gothic design. At its angles it is surmounted by stone
crosses.
The interior is impressive and thoroughly Romanesque. The piers are
square, and rest on round bases. The capitals are carved with oak
leaves. The arches are semicircular, and the vaulting pointed. Between
two string-courses runs a triforium of round-arched openings, the
windows of the clerestory being likewise rounded and of one light. The
windows of the aisles have been closed up. The church is undergoing
extensive repairs. The piers of the lantern seem to be of later date
than the foundation of the church, and seem to indicate that the
original lantern had at one time fallen in. The interior is octagonal,
and pierced with four lancet stained-glass windows. On the chancel side
is a fine fourteenth-century painting of the Crucifixion, with the
Virgin and Disciples.
The interior of the central apse is occupied by the High Altar, with an
ugly baroque retablo which unfortunately conceals the graceful windows.
The shrine of San Vicente and his brethren is placed on the south side
of the crossing. In the ages of faith this was an object of
extraordinary sanctity. Men were sworn on the tomb, and it was
universally believed that the arms of those who bore false witness
thereon withered away. The practice was forbidden by law under Ferdinand
and Isabel. Notwithstanding, grave doubts existed as to the actual
whereabouts of the martyrs’ bodies. To set the matter at rest, the
Bishop Martin de Vilches, in the reign of Enrique III., decided on a
thorough examination of the tomb. Having celebrated Mass, he caused the
sarcophagus to be opened. Dense vapour immediately issued forth, and the
bishop thrust in his hand, to withdraw it a second later, convulsed with
a violent pain, and covered with blood. He proceeded no further with the
investigation, and ordered the tomb to be closed, satisfied that it
contained the holy relics. The imprint of his blood-stained hand was
left on a tablet placed inside the arches on which the sarcophagus
rests. This appears to date from the thirteenth century, and is carved
with interesting reliefs. The baldachino covering it is carried on four
bold columns, and was added by Bishop de Vilches, whose arms it bears.
The figure at the apex appears to represent San Vicente.
In the south transept is a tablet with an inscription declaring that
there lie the remains of the Jew who gave the martyrs decent burial.
Close by is the shrine, executed by Francisco de Mora, of San Pedro del
Barco, a saint of absolutely unknown antecedents, and mentioned as far
back as 1302.