ASTORGA, LUGO, LA CORUÑA.
The road from Leon to Astorga is bad, and traverses a very uninteresting
country. A good part of the old walls of Astorga still remains, with the
usual array of lofty round towers at short intervals: they were in
process of partial demolition when I saw them, and I noticed that they
were in part constructed with what appeared to be fragments of Roman
buildings. There is a rather picturesque Plaza de la Constitucion here,
one end of it being occupied by a quaint town-hall of the seventeenth
century, through an archway in the centre of which one of the streets
opens into the Plaza. A number of bells are hung in picturesque slated
turrets on the roof, and some of them are struck by figures.
The only old church I saw was the cathedral. A stone here is inscribed
with the following words in Spanish: “In 1471, on the 16th of August,
the first stone of the new work of this holy church was laid;” and there
is no doubt that the church is all of about this date, with some
additions,--chiefly, however, of Retablos and other furniture,--in the
two following centuries. The character of the whole design is
necessarily in the very latest kind of Gothic; and much of the detail,
especially on the exterior, is quite Renaissance in its character. The
east end is finished with three parallel apses, and the nave is some
seven or eight bays in length, with towers projecting beyond the aisles
at the west end, and chapels opening into the aisles between the
buttresses. The light is admitted by windows in the aisles over the
chapel arches, and by a large clerestory. These windows are fortunately
filled with a good deal of fine early Renaissance glass, which, though
not all that might be wished in drawing and general treatment, is still
remarkable for its very fine colour. Arches of the same height as the
groining of the aisles open into the towers, the interior view across
which produces the effect of a sort of western transept, corresponding
with a similar transept between the nave and the apsidal choir. The
detail is throughout very similar to that of the better known
cathedrals at Segovia and Salamanca, the section of the columns being
like a bundle of reeds, with ingeniously planned interpenetrating base
mouldings, multiplied to such an extent that they finish at a height of
no less that ten feet from the floor. Another evidence of the late
character of the work is given by the arch mouldings, which die against
and interpenetrate those of the columns, there being no capitals. Beyond
a certain stateliness of height and colour which this small cathedral
has in common with most other Spanish works of the same age, there is
but little to detain or interest an architect. But stateliness and good
effects of light and shade are so very rare in modern works, that we can
ill afford to regard a building which shows them as being devoid of
merit or interest.
From Astorga the road soon begins to rise, and the scenery thenceforward
for the remainder of the journey to la Coruña becomes always
interesting, and sometimes extremely beautiful. The country can hardly
be said to be mountainous, yet the hills are on a scale far beyond what
we are accustomed to; and the grand sweep of the hill sides, covered
occasionally with wood, and intersected by deep valleys, makes the whole
journey most pleasant. One of the prettiest spots on the road, before
reaching Villafranca, is the little village of Torre, where a quaint
bridge spans the brawling trout-stream; and where the thick cluster of
squalid cottages atones to the traveller, in some degree, by its
picturesqueness, for the misery in which the people live. They seem to
be terribly ill off, and their chimneyless hovels--pierced only with a
door and one very small window or hole in the wall, into which all the
light, and out of both of which all the smoke have to find their
way--are of the worst description. The village churches appear to be,
almost without exception, very mean; and all have the broad western
bell-turret, so popular in this part of Spain.
In ten hours from Astorga, passing Ponferrada on the way, from the hill
above which the view is very fine, Villafranca del Vierzo is reached;
and this is the only place of any importance on the road. Its situation
is charming, on a fine trout-stream, along whose beautiful banks the
road runs for a considerable distance; and it is the proper centre for
excursions to the convents of the Vierzo, of which Mr. Ford gives an
account which made me anxious to examine them, though unfortunately the
time at my disposal put it completely out of the question. These old
towns, of the second or third rank, have a certain amount of picturesque
character, though far less than might be expected of external evidence
of their antiquity. Here, indeed, the picturesqueness is mainly the
result of the long tortuous streets, and the narrow bridges over the
beautiful river, which make the passage of a diligence so much of an
adventure, as to leave the passengers grateful when they have gained
with safety the other side of the town. The Alameda here is pleasantly
planted; and the town boasts of an inn which is just good enough to make
it quite possible for an ecclesiologist to use it as headquarters in a
visit to the convents of the Vierzo, whilst any one who is so fortunate
as to be both fisherman and ecclesiologist could scarcely be better
placed.
Villafranca has one large, uninteresting, and very late Gothic church,
into which I could not get admission; the other churches seemed to be
all Renaissance in style.
I arrived at Lugo after a journey of more than thirty hours from Leon.
Like Astorga it is surrounded with a many-towered wall, which still
seems to be perfect throughout its whole extent. The road passes along
under it, half round the town, until at last it turns in through an
archway, and reaches the large Plaza of San Domingo, in which is the
diligence Fonda. This was so unusually dirty even to the eyes and nose
of a tolerably well-seasoned traveller, that I was obliged to look for a
lodging, which, after a short search, I discovered; and if it was not
much better, it was still a slight improvement on the inn. In these
towns lodgings are generally to be found; and as they are free from the
abominable scent of the mules, which pervades every part of all the
inns, they are often to be preferred to them. Mine was in a narrow
street leading out of the great arcaded Plaza, which, on the day of my
arrival, was full of market-people, selling and buying every kind of
commodity; and on the western side of this Plaza stands the cathedral.
This is a church of very considerable architectural value and interest.
It was commenced early in the twelfth century, under the direction of a
certain Maestro Raymundo, of Monforte de Lemos. His contract with the
bishop and canons was dated A.D. 1129; and by this it was agreed that he
should be paid an annual salary of two hundred _sueldos_ of the money
then current; and if there was any change in its value, then he was to
be paid six marks of silver, thirty-six yards of linen, seventeen
“cords” of wood, shoes and gaiters as he had need of them; and each
month two sueldos for meat, a measure of salt, and a pound of candles.
Master Raymundo accepted these conditions, and bound himself to assist
at the work all the days of his life; and if he died before its
completion, his son was to finish it.[132]
The church built by Raymundo is said to have been finished in A.D.
1177,[133] and still in part no doubt remains.[134] It consists of a
nave and aisles of ten bays in length, transepts, and a short apsidal
choir, with aisle and chapels round it. The large central eastern chapel
is an addition made in A.D. 1764; and the west front is a very poor work
of about the same period. There is an open porch in front of the north
transept, and a steeple on its eastern side.
The design and construction of the nave and aisles is very peculiar, and
must be compared with that of the more important, cathedral at Santiago.
This had been finished, so far as the fabric was concerned, in the
previous year, and evidently suggested the mode of construction adopted
at Lugo.
Here the arches, with few exceptions, are pointed; but otherwise the
design of the two churches is just the same. The nave has a pointed
barrel-vault; the triforium, however, has quadripartite vaulting
throughout, in place of the half barrel-vaults used at Santiago; and the
buttresses externally are connected by a series of arches below the
eaves. The triforium consists in each bay of two pointed arches under a
round enclosing arch, carried upon coupled shafts, which have rudely
sculptured capitals. The five eastern bays of the nave appear at first
sight to have no arches opening into the aisles; but upon closer
examination the outline of some low arches will be found behind the
stall work of the Coro. These arches are all blocked up; but if they
were originally open they are so low that they could not have made the
effect very different from what it now is. It looks, in fact, at first
sight, as if the present arrangement of the Coro were that for which the
church was originally built, and as if the nave proper was always that
part only of the church to the west of the present Coro which opens to
the aisles with simple pointed arches of the whole height of the aisle.
But on further examination we find that the vaulting of the aisles in
the four eastern bays is a round waggon-vault, and this, of course,
limited the height to which it was possible to raise the arches between
the aisle and the nave; and it is therefore probable that their height
is not to be attributed so much to the wish to define a Coro in the
nave, as to the fault of the architect, who did not at first
perceive the advantage of using a quadripartite vault instead of a
waggon-vault. The three bays west of these have the former kind of
vaulting without ribs, and with windows both larger and higher from the
floor than the simple round-arched openings which light the four eastern
bays. The eighth and ninth bays are evidently rather later than the
rest; and the western bays, again, are quite subsequent additions. The
crossing has a quadripartite vault, and the transepts waggon-vaults like
those of the nave.
[Illustration: No. 15.
LUGO CATHEDRAL. p. 131.
INTERIOR OF TRANSEPT, LOOKING NORTH-WEST.]
[Illustration: LUGO:--Ground: Plan: of: the: Cathedral: Plate VII.
W. West, Lithr.
Published by John Murray, Albemarle St. 1865.]
It is pretty clear that the work was commenced upon the scheme which we
still see in the bays next the crossing, and carried on gradually with
alterations as the work went on, and probably as it went on the
architect discovered the mistake he was making in confining himself to
waggon-vaulting in the aisles. It is somewhat remarkable that, with the
example of Santiago so near, such a scheme should ever have been
devised, unless, indeed, the work was commenced earlier than the date
assigned, of which I see no evidence.
The choir shows the same gradual variation in style; and I have
considerable difficulty in assigning a precise date to it. It is clear,
however, that the whole of it is of much later date than the original
foundation of the cathedral; and it is probable, I think, that it was
reconstructed in the latter half of the thirteenth century. The windows
in the chapels of the chevet are of two lights, with a small quatrefoil
pierced in the tympanum above the lights. The mouldings of the groining
are extremely bold and simple. The aisle-vaulting, too, is very simple
and of early-pointed character, whilst the clustered columns round the
apse look somewhat later. There is, however, no mark of alterations or
additions; and I think, therefore, that the whole of this work must be
of the same date, and that the difference visible between the various
parts of it may be put down to the long lingering of those forms of art
which had been once imported into this distant province, and to the
consequent absence of development. The sculpture of the capitals in the
chevet is nowhere, I think, earlier than about the end of the thirteenth
century, though that in the chapels round it, being very simple, looks
rather earlier.
Unfortunately all the upper part of the choir was rebuilt about the same
time that the eastern chapel was added. It has strange thin ogee flying
buttresses, large windows, and a painted ceiling.
Here, as at San Isidoro, Leon, the Host is always exposed, and, as I
have mentioned before, two priests are always in attendance at
faldstools on each side of the Capilla mayor in front of the altar.
The interior, of course, has been much damaged by the destruction of the
old clerestory of the choir. It is, nevertheless, still very impressive,
and much of its fine effect is owing to the contrast between the bright
light of the nave and the obscure gloom of the long aisles on either
side of the Coro. The length of the nave, too, is unusually great in
proportion to the size of the church; and though much of the sculpture
is rude in execution, it is still not without effect on the general
character of the building.
On the north side of the nave a chapel has been added, which preserves
the external arrangement of the windows and buttresses in the earliest
part of the building, as they are now enclosed within and protected by
it. The simple and rather rude buttresses are carried up and finished
under the eaves’ corbel-tables with arches between them, so as to make a
continuous arcade the whole length of the building on either side.
The north doorway is of the same age as the early part of the church,
and has a figure of our Lord within a vesica in the tympanum, and the
Last Supper carved on a pendant below it. The head of the door-opening
is very peculiar, having a round arch on either side of this central
pendant. The door has some rather good ironwork. The porch in front of
it is a work of the fifteenth century, or perhaps later, and is open on
three sides.
The only good external view of the church is obtained from the north
side. Here the tower rises picturesquely above the transept, but the
belfry and upper stage are modern[135] and very poor. The bells are not
only hung in the windows, but one of them is suspended in an open iron
framework from the finish the centre of the roof.
The cloister and other buildings seem to be all completely modern, and
are of very poor style.
There are two old churches here--those of the Capuchins and of San
Domingo--both of them in or close to the Plaza of San Domingo. The
church of the Capuchins is evidently interesting, though I could not
gain access to its interior, which appears to be desecrated. It has
transepts, a low central lantern, a principal apse of six sides, and two
smaller apses opening into the transepts. These apses are remarkable for
having an angle in the centre, whilst their windows have a bar of
tracery across them, transome fashion, at mid-height. It is certainly a
very curious coincidence, that in both these particulars it resembles
closely the fine church of the Frari at Venice; and though I am not
prepared to say that the imitation is anything more than the merest
accident, it is certainly noteworthy. The eaves are all finished with
moulded corbel-tables; and there is a rather fine rose-window in the
transept gable. The circles in the head of the apse windows are filled
in with very delicate traceries, cut out of thin slabs of stone, a
device evidently borrowed from Moresque examples; and it is somewhat
strange to meet them here so far from any Moorish buildings or
influence.
The church of San Domingo is somewhat similar in plan. It has a
modernized nave of five bays, a central dome, which looks as though it
might be old, but which is now all plastered and whitewashed, a
principal apse of seven sides, transepts covered with waggon-vaults, and
small apses to the east of them. The capitals have carvings of beasts
and foliage; but none of these, or of the mouldings, look earlier than
the fourteenth century; yet the capitals are all square in plan, and the
arches into the chapels have a bold dog-tooth enrichment. There is a
fine south doorway to the nave, in which chevrons, delicate fringes of
cusping, and dog-tooth, are all introduced. In such a work the date of
the latest portion must be the date of the whole; and so I do not think
it can be earlier than the rest of the church, though at first sight it
undoubtedly has the air of being more than a century older.
Gil Gonzalez Dávila[136] says that Bishop Fernando gave permission for
the foundation of the convent of San Domingo in A.D. 1318, and that
_circa_ A.D. 1350-58 the Dominican Fray Pedro Lopez de Aguiar founded
it; and this date appears to me to accord very well with the peculiar
character of the work.
There is little more to be seen in Lugo. The old walls, though they
retain all their towers, have been to some extent altered for the worse
to fit them for defence in the last war; they have been also rendered
available as a broad public walk,--very pleasant, inasmuch as it
commands good views of the open country beyond the city.
The people here and at Santiago all go to the fountains armed with a
long tin tube, which they apply to the mouths of the beasts which
discharge the water, and so convey the stream straight to their pitchers
placed on the edge of the large basins. The crowd of water-carriers
round a Spanish fountain is always noisy, talkative, and gay; and many
is the fight and furious the clamour for the privilege of putting the
tube to the fountain in regular order.
I travelled between la Coruña and Lugo by night, so that I am unable to
say anything as to the country or scenery on the road, save that for
some distance before reaching Lugo it is cold, bare, and unattractive.
Betanzos, the only town of importance on the road, has two or three good
churches, which I missed seeing by daylight. They are of early date,
with apsidal east ends, and somewhat similar, apparently, to the
churches at la Coruña, though on a larger scale.
La Coruña is charmingly situated, facing a grand landlocked bay, but on
the inner side of a narrow ridge, a short walk across which leads to the
open sea, which is here very magnificent. The views of the coast, and
the openings to the grand bays or rios of Ferrol, Betanzos, and la
Coruña, are of unusual beauty, and it is rarely indeed that one sees a
more attractive country. But there is not very much to detain an
architect. The town is divided into the old and the new; and in the
former are two old churches, which, though small, are interesting;
whilst in the latter there is absolutely nothing to see but shops and
cafés.
The Collegiata of Sta. Maria del Campo was made a parish church by King
Alonso X. in A.D. 1256, and in A.D. 1441 was made collegiate: it has a
nave and aisles of five bays, and a short chancel, with an apse covered
with a semi-dome vault.[137] The nave and aisles are all covered with
pointed waggon-vaults springing from the same level; and as the aisles
are narrow, their vaults resist the thrust of the main vault, without
exerting a violent thrust on the aisle walls. The capitals are rudely
carved with foliage, and the arches are perfectly plain. The bay of
vaulting over the chancel is a pointed waggon-vault, with ribs on its
under side, arranged as though in imitation of a sexpartite
vault.[138]
[Illustration: Churches at LA CORUÑA:--SEGOVIA:--LÉRIDA: and BENAVENTE:
Plate VIII.
W. West, Lithr.
Published by John Murray, Albemarle Street 1865.]
The western doorway has a circular arch, with rudely carved foliage in
the outer orders; and ten angels, with our Lord giving His blessing in
the centre, in the inner order. The tympanum has the Adoration of the
Magi. The abaci and capitals are carved, but everywhere the carving is
overlaid with whitewash so thickly as to be not very intelligible. The
south door has storied capitals, and angels under the corbels, which
support the tympanum over the door-opening; this has a figure with a
pilgrim’s staff, probably Santiago, and there are other figures and
foliage in the arch. The abacus is carried round the buttresses, and a
bold arch is thrown across between them above the door. An original
window near this door is a mere slit in the wall, and not intended for
glazing. The north door is somewhat similar to the other, with a
sculpture of St. Katharine in the tympanum.
The apse has a very small east window, engaged columns dividing it into
three bays, and a simple corbel-table.
[Illustration: Sta. Maria, la Coruña.]
The west front is quaint and picturesque. It has a bold porch--now
almost built up by modern erections--and two small square towers or
turrets at the angles. Of these the south-western has a low, square
stone spire, springing from within a traceried parapet, and with some
very quaint crockets at the angles. A tall cross, with an original
sculpture of the Crucifixion, stands in the little Plaza in front of the
church. The Coro here is in a large western gallery, but both this and
the stalls are Renaissance in style.
The other church is that of Santiago. This has a broad nave, forty-four
feet wide, into the east wall of which three small apses open.[139] The
nave is divided into four bays by bold cross arches, which carry the
wooden roof; and of the three eastern arches, the central rises high
above the others, and has a circular window above it. The west front has
a very fine doorway, set in a projecting portion of the wall, finished
with a corbel-table and cornice at the top. This has a figure of
Santiago in the tympanum, and statues in the jambs. The north doorway
has heads of oxen supporting the lintel, and rude carving of foliage in
the arch. One of the original windows remains in the north wall. This is
roundheaded and very narrow, but has good jamb-shafts and
arch-mouldings. The detail of the eastern apse is of bold and simple
Romanesque character, with engaged shafts supporting the eaves-cornice.
There is not, so far as I know, any evidence as to the exact date of
these churches; but I think that the character of all their details
proves that they were founded about the middle of the twelfth century.
They are evidently later than the cathedral at Santiago, and tally more
with the work which I have been describing in the nave of Lugo
Cathedral. And though the dimensions of both are insignificant, they
appear to me to be extremely valuable examples, as showing two evident
attempts at development on the part of their architect, who, to judge of
the strong similarity in some of their details, was probably the same
man.
Three barrel-vaults on the same level as at Sta. Maria are seldom seen;
and the bold cross arches spanning Santiago are a good example of an
attempt in the twelfth century to achieve what few have yet attempted to
accomplish in the revival of the present day--the covering of a broad
nave in a simple, economical, and yet effective manner.
In the church of Santiago there is preserved a fragment of an
embroidered blue velvet cope. The sprigs with which it is diapered are
so exactly similar in character to those of some of our own old
examples--the Ely cope in particular--as to suggest the idea that the
work is really English.
[Illustration: No. 16.
LA CORUÑA. p. 138.
CHURCH OF SANTIAGO.]
From La Coruña to Santiago the road is, for the first half of the way,
extremely pleasant, and passes through a luxuriant country; gradually,
however, as the end of the great pilgrimage is reached, it becomes
dreary and the country bare; still the outlines of the hills are fine,
and some of the distant views rather attractive. But Santiago is too
important a city, and its cathedral is too grand and interesting, to be
described at the end of a chapter.