SEGOVIA.
Few journeys can be made by the ecclesiologist in Spain which will be
altogether more agreeable or more fruitful of results than one to this
time-honoured city; for not only does it contain within its walls more
than the usual number of objects of architectural and ecclesiological
interest, but the road by which it is usually approached, across the
Sierra de Guadarrama, presents so much fine scenery as to be in itself
sufficient to repay the traveller for his work. It was from Madrid that
I made my way to Segovia, taking the railway as far as the little
station at Villalba, near the Escorial, and travelling thence by a
fairly-appointed diligence. The very fine and picturesque granite ranges
of the Guadarrama are generally bare and desolate on their southern
side, though here and there are small tracts of oak-copse, or fern, or
pine-trees; but, after a slow ascent of some three or four hours, when
the summit of the pass is reached, the character of the scenery changes
entirely, and the road winds down through picturesque valleys and dips
in the hills, which are here thickly covered everywhere with pine-trees
of magnificent growth. It is necessary to travel for a time in the
dismal plains of Old Castile, to enjoy to the full the sudden change to
the mountain beauties of the Guadarrama; and it is impossible not to
sympathize with the kings of Spain, who at La Granja, on the lower
slopes of the northern side of the range, have built themselves a palace
within easy reach of Madrid, and--owing to its height above the sea--in
a climate utterly different from, and much more endurable than, that of
the capital. Of the palace they have built I must speak with less
respect than I do of their choice of its site, for it is now untidy in
its belongings and apparently little cared for. A church forms the
centre of it, and the whole group of buildings has slated roofs,
diversified by an abundance of _tourelles_. The walls are all plastered
and covered with decaying paintings of architectural
decorations--columns, cornices, and the like--which give a thoroughly
pauperized look to the whole place. But probably the interior of the
palace and its famous gardens would correct the impression which I
received from a hurried inspection of the exterior only. It is an
uninteresting drive of about an hour from La Granja to Segovia. The
tower of the cathedral is seen long before reaching the city; but it is
not till one is very near to it that the first complete view is gained,
and this, owing to the way in which the Alcazar and cathedral stand up
upon a rocky height above the suburbs, and the streams which girt it on
either side, is very picturesque. Even finer is it as one drives on
through the suburb and first finds oneself in presence of the grand old
Roman aqueduct, which, still perfect and still in use, spans with its
magnificent ranges of arch upon arch the valley which separates the city
rock from the hills beyond. Its base is girt closely round by houses and
the diligence road passes under one of its arches, so that the enormous
scale upon which it is built is thoroughly appreciated, and it is quite
impossible not to admire the extreme simplicity and grandeur of the
work. Nothing here was done that was useless or merely ornamental, and
the whole still stands with but little repair--and that little well
done--after so many centuries of good service, as useful as at the
first.
A steep hill leads up from the valley below the aqueduct through a
gateway in the walls into the city, and after threading the narrow
winding streets we find ourselves in the fine Plaza de la Constitucion,
which is surrounded by picturesque balconied houses, save at its
north-west angle, where it opens so as to allow a fine view of the east
end of the cathedral. The houses have generally extremely picturesque
open upper stages of wood arcading, and the windows and balconies are
all gay with the heavy curtains which protect them from the sun.
The situation of the city is in every way striking. On either side of it
there is a deep valley, and these at their meeting have between them the
great rock on which the Alcazar is built--as admirably secure a site for
a castle as could have been selected. Going eastward along the narrow
ridge the cathedral is soon reached, and this is the centre of the city,
which then widens somewhat, before the edge of the hill is reached which
leads down to the suburb below the aqueduct. In the two valleys are some
of the best of the buildings: San Millan in one, the Templars’ Church
and the Convent of El Parral in the other; but most of the old churches
are crowded closely together on the summit of the hill.
I shall begin my architectural notes with the cathedral, in deference
only to its rank, and not at all to its age or architectural merits. It
is nevertheless a building of no little value in the history of Spanish
art, as being perhaps the latest Gothic building erected, and one which
was yet but little influenced by Renaissance art. In the Appendix I give
a translation of the interesting contemporary account of the church,
written by one Juan Rodriguez, who appears to have been the canon in
charge of the work. According to his account, Juan Gil de Hontañon, the
architect of Salamanca Cathedral, was appointed in A.D. 1522 to
superintend the work, and on the 8th of June in the same year the Bishop
ordered a procession, and, going himself to the site of the church, laid
its foundation-stone at the western end. Cean Bermudez, in his account
of this cathedral, speaks of a competition among several architects for
the work, and says that the design of Rodrigo Gil de Hontañon--the son
of Juan Gil--was selected.[185] But this seems to be clearly contrary to
the distinct statement of the Canon Juan Rodriguez. The work was
commenced, as we have seen, in 1522, and Juan Gil seems to have died
circa 1531. His son Rodrigo was not made Maestro mayor until 1560, and
on the 5th of August, 1563, laid the first stone of the Capilla mayor.
The inscription on his tombstone in the cloister[186] says that he laid
the first stone of the church; but if he did so it was on behalf of his
father, who was then undoubtedly the Maestro mayor, and we may assume, I
believe, that the greater part of the church, as we now see it, was
finished before the year 1577, in which he died, though, indeed, Madoz
says that the Sacrament was moved to the new cathedral as early as 1558,
though the chapels of the apse were not completed until 1593. The north
door, by Juanes de Mugaguren, was added in A.D. 1626, and is thoroughly
Pagan.
The plan[187] of this church must be compared with that of the new
cathedral at Salamanca, built by the same man. The details of the two
churches are very similar; but the scale of Segovia is slightly greater
than that of Salamanca, and it has the enormous advantage of having a
grand chevet in place of a square east end. It will be seen, on
reference to my account of Salamanca, that the architects who drew up
the scheme for the cathedral there, intended that its end should be
circular, but that nevertheless it has not been so built. It seems
probable, therefore, that Hontañon felt that this alteration was a
mistake, or else that we owe the amended plan of Segovia to the better
taste of his son Rodrigo, who was master of the works of the eastern
portion of the church. But in any case, whether it is to the father or
the son that we owe it, the internal effect is undoubtedly very noble,
in spite of all the shortcomings which must be looked for in a work of
such a date. The main columns are of grand dimensions, moulded, and
rising from lofty bases planned with that ingenious complication of
lines which was always so much affected by the later German and Spanish
architects. The arches are very lofty, and there is no triforium, but
only a traceried balustrade in front of the clerestory, which consists
of uncusped triplets filling the wall above the springing of the
groining, and very low in proportion to the great height of the church,
though at the same time amply sufficient for the admission of all the
light necessary in such a climate. The aisle has a somewhat similar
clerestory, but without the traceried balustrade which we see in the
nave clerestory, and the aisles and chapels are all lighted with
windows, each of one broad light. Most of the smaller arches here are
semi-circular; but though this is the case, and though so many of the
windows are of one light, there is no appearance anywhere of any attempt
to revive the form or detail of earlier work.
On the exterior the general character is just the same as that of
Hontañon’s work at Salamanca. There are the same pinnacles and
buttresses, the same parapets, and the same concealment of the roofs and
roof-lines everywhere--even in the transepts, which have no gables--and
there is also a domed lantern over the Crossing and a lofty tower at the
west end, finished with an octagonal stage covered with a dome, and
rising from between four great pinnacles. So great, in short, are all
the points of similarity, that I can well believe that portions of the
two works may have been executed from the same plans, and this close
copying of the earlier work at Salamanca may perhaps have been the true
reason of the respectably Gothic detail of the chevet, built as it was
so near the end of the sixteenth century. The groining is all of the
kind so common in Spain, having ogee lierne ribs in addition to the
diagonal, and in place of ridge ribs.
Not a little of the grand effect of the interior is owing to the rich
stained glass with which all, or nearly all, the windows are filled. It
is all, of course, of the very latest kind, and poor in much of its
design; yet nevertheless it is often magnificent in colour, and in this
respect quite beyond anything that most of our artists in glass seem to
me to accomplish nowadays. The Coro is here--and probably was from the
first--in the nave; but there is nothing either in its fittings or in
those of the Capilla mayor which struck me as worthy of note. The detail
of the central dome is quite Pagan, and here and there throughout the
work little indications of the same spirit peep out, and show how narrow
was the escape which the whole church had of being from first to last
executed in the Renaissance style.
With all its faults this church has grand points: this every one will
allow who has seen it rising in a noble pyramidal mass above the houses
of the town from the open space in front of the Alcazar, from whence all
its parts are seen to great advantage. Of the other subordinate
buildings I need not say much. The canon, whose account I give in the
Appendix, is much more enthusiastic about them than I was, for in truth
they are cold and tame in design and meagre in detail; and wanting the
effect of height and colour of the interior of the cathedral, want all
that makes it so striking. I saw no great, if any, difference of style
between the cloisters and the church; but they were the cloisters of the
old church, and were removed here by a contract entered into by one Juan
de Campero in 1524. Campero was one of the architects consulted as to
the rebuilding of Salamanca Cathedral, and was evidently a mason or
builder as well as an architect. I was not aware of the history of the
cloister when I was at Segovia, and I did not notice any evidence of the
work having been rebuilt and added to in the way described.
The cathedral is the largest and most important, but at the same time
the most modern mediæval building in Segovia; whilst, on the contrary,
one of the smallest, the church of the Templars, is also one of the most
ancient and curious; it is situated by the roadside just out of the
city, on its north-west side, and below the great rock which is crowned
by the Alcazar. The date of its consecration in A.D. 1208 is given by an
inscription which still remains in the interior, and which has been
incorrectly given by Cean Bermudez. It is as follows:--
Hæc sacra fundantes cœlesti sede locentur;
Atque suberrantes in eadem consocientur.
Dedicatio ecclesiæ beati Sepulchri Xrti
Idus Aprilis Era MCCXLVI. +.
[Illustration: No. 24.
SEGOVIA p. 184.
INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLARS CHURCH LOOKING N E.]
The plan is very peculiar.[188] The nave is dodecagonal, and has a small
central chamber enclosed with solid walls, round which the vaulted
nave forms a kind of aisle. This central chamber is of two storeys in
height, the lower entered by archways in the cardinal sides, and the
upper by a double flight of steps leading to a door in its western side.
The upper room is vaulted with a domical roof which has below it four
ribs, two parallel north and south, and two parallel east and west, and
it retains the original stone altar, arcaded on its sides with a
delicately wrought chevron enrichment and chevroned shafts. The upper
chapel is lighted by seven little windows opening into the aisle around
it. The room below the chapel has also a dome, with ribs on its under
side. On the east side of the building are the chancel and two chapels,
forming parallel apses, to the south of which is a low steeple, the
bottom stage of which is also converted into a chapel. The chapel in the
centre of the nave is carried up and finished externally with a pointed
roof, whilst the aisle is roofed with a lean-to abutting against its
walls. There are pilasters at the angles outside, small windows high up
in the walls, and a fine round-arched doorway on the western side. The
character of the whole of this interesting church is late Romanesque,
and its value is considerable, as being an accurately dated example. It
is not now used, the Templars having been suppressed in A.D. 1312.
Within a few minutes’ walk of this church of La Vera Cruz (for this is
its dedication) is the convent of El Parral, founded in the fifteenth
century,[189] by a Marquis de Villena, on a spot once so beautiful as to
give rise to the saying, “Los huertos del Parral, Paraiso terrenal,” but
now so dreary, desolate, decaying, and desecrated, that the eye refuses
to rest on it, and seeks relief by looking rather at the grand view of
the town on the rocky heights on the other side of the little valley.
Juan Gallego, a native of Segovia, was the master of the works here in
1459, and it is recorded that before beginning to construct the convent
he collected all the waters from the hill above its site, and
distributed them by aqueducts for the service of the convent. The
Capilla mayor was not commenced until A.D. 1472, in which year a
contract was drawn up with Bonifacio and Juan de Guas, of Segovia, and
Pedro Polido, of Toledo, binding them to complete the work within three
years, for the sum of 400,000 maravedis. Then the tribune of the Coro
was found to be too low for the taste of the monks, and it was taken
down and rebuilt by Juan de Ruesga, of Segovia, for 125,000 maravedis;
and by a contract signed in July, 1494, he bound himself to complete the
work before the end of the same year. After this, in 1529, Juan Campero,
whose name has already been mentioned in connexion with the rebuilding
of the cloister of the cathedral, undertook to raise the tower
twenty-nine feet.[190]
The ground-plan and general design of this church are very peculiar. The
accompanying sketch-plan[191] will explain them better than any words;
and, strange as the planning of the transepts looks, it is,
nevertheless, very fine in effect. This is mainly the result of the very
remarkable distribution of light. The western part of the church is
almost without windows, and the great western gallery coming forward
just half the length of the nave, adds much to the impression of gloom
at this end of the building. The eastern end seems to be by contrast all
window, being lighted by twelve large three-light windows, with statues
of the Apostles in their jambs. The effect of the brilliant light at the
east end, and the deep gloom of the west, is most impressive, and shows
how much architects may do by the careful distribution of light. Few old
buildings are altogether without some sign of attention to this
important element of beauty in building, whilst few modern buildings
seem to me ever to have been devised with even any thought of the
existence of such a phenomenon as a shadow! The front of the gallery is
elaborately panelled, and returned eastward on the north side, to form a
gallery in front of the organ; and on the south, to make a passageway to
the staircase by which the monks reached the Coro. The arch under the
gallery is struck from three centres and richly cusped, and the whole is
carried on a stone vault. A very richly carved and cusped doorway leads
from the south transept to the cloisters, and to an elaborately painted
chapel, which has been added on the south-east of the choir. The
exterior of the church and convent is poor and uninteresting, though
there is a rather fine double west door, with a statue of the Blessed
Virgin in the centre, and saints on either side in the jambs.
The conventual buildings deserve but little notice. In the modern
cloister--fast falling to ruin--are retained the traceried balustrades
which probably adorned the cloister built at the time of the foundation
of the convent.
[Illustration: No. 25.
SAN ESTEBAN, SEGOVIA. p. 187.
SOUTH-EAST VIEW OF CHURCH AND STEEPLE]
A very picturesque path loads up from El Parral into the city. The
effect of the Alcazar from hence is very imposing, the enormous
keep-tower which rises out of its western face being very prominent,
with its outline marked by round corner turrets projecting from the
angles so often seen in the old castles of Castile. Its walls, as well
as many others in the Alcazar, are covered with diapers in plaster, with
the pattern left slightly in relief, a mode of decoration which seems to
have been extremely popular in Segovia in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. Until very lately this Alcazar was covered with picturesque
tall slated roofs, but, unfortunately, a fire has completely gutted the
whole building, and left nothing but the outside walls, which still,
however, are most imposing in their effect. The old town walls diverge
slightly from the Alcazar, and enclose the whole city; their outline is
broken picturesquely with towers, sometimes round and sometimes square,
and they wind about to suit the uneven and rugged surface of the rock on
which they are built. The gateways are not very remarkable, though
always effective. One of them is passed in coming from El Parral, and,
as soon as the town is reached, the noble steeple of San Esteban--one of
its finest architectural features--is seen in front.
I have seldom seen a better work than this. It is evidently one of a
large class, most of the other steeples here reproducing the unusual
arrangement of the angles. They are boldly splayed off, and in the
middle of the splay is set a shaft, which finishes with a sculptured
capital. The effect of this design is to give great softness of contour
to the whole steeple, and yet to mark boldly and broadly the importance
of the angles. The arcading of the various stages is richly and
admirably managed, and the details throughout are very pure and good. I
have found no evidence of its exact date, though it is evidently a work
of the first half of the thirteenth century.
The church to which this steeple belongs is remarkable for the remains
of an external cloister against the walls of the nave. There are several
churches here which have the same feature, and in other parts of this
book I have mentioned similar cases at Las Huelgas, Burgos, and at La
Antigua, Valladolid. It looks like an arrangement for keeping the
building cool, and is as good in its effect, as in so hot a climate it
must be convenient.
Of the early churches here none is altogether so fine as that of San
Millan. It stands in the southern valley, not far from the aqueduct, and
exactly on the opposite side of the town to the Templars’ Church. Like
that, too, it is outside the walls, and in a scantily-peopled suburb.
It consists of a nave and aisles,[192] all finished at the east end with
apses, and protected on both sides by cloisters similar to those of San
Esteban, save that they are confined to the sides, and do not return
across the west front. There is a low square lantern at the Crossing,
and transepts which do not project beyond the aisles, and hardly show
themselves, therefore, on the ground-plan. The central lantern is
finished with a corbel-table, roofed with a low tiled roof, and lighted
by a small window in each face. The apses are similar in style and
detail to most of the early Spanish apses, having engaged shafts at
intervals, richly wrought corbel-tables, and round-arched shafted
windows. Both the transepts probably had flat gables, with single
windows, like those in the apse, but the north transept has been
destroyed for the erection of a steeple, which seems to have formed no
part of the original plan. The most striking view of the church is from
the north-west. The west front is quite unaltered, save by the addition
of three little windows over the west door, and is a capital example of
simple Romanesque. The gables are all of the same pitch, and the aisle
walls are arcaded and pierced with windows above the cloister roofs. The
cloister is a very rich composition, the shafts being coupled, with
finely sculptured capitals, and the arches enriched with billet
mouldings. The corbel-tables and cornices to these cloisters have
evidently been carved at a date long after the original foundation of
the church, the edge of the eaves-cornice being cut in a rich
interlacing pattern of ivy-leaves, which cannot, I think, be earlier
than from A.D. 1250 to 1270, and the heads, figures, and foliage on the
corbels under it are all of the same character. There are fine north and
south doors here, and there is a local peculiarity in their design which
deserves notice. Their jambs consist of shafts set within very bold
square recesses; and the number of orders in the arch is double that of
those in the jamb, they being alternately carried on the capitals of the
shafts, and upon the square order of the jambs. The effect is good, the
bold spacing of the shafts, and the massiveness of the intermediate
square jambs, tending to give that effect of solidity which these early
Spanish architects never tired in their attempts to attain.
[Illustration: No. 26.
SAN MILLAN, SEGOVIA. p. 188.
NORTH-WEST VIEW.]
The interior of the church has been much modernized, but still enough
remains to render the whole scheme intelligible. The arcades between the
nave and aisles are all perfect; they are very plain, but spring from
carved capitals of large size. The capitals of the nave arcades have
their abaci planned with re-entering angles, so as exactly to fit the
plan of the two square orders of the archivolt. Some of the caps are of
foliage only, others are _historiés_; one I remember having all round it
the Adoration of the Magi, who are represented as large figures on
horseback, and produce a most strange effect in such a place. The cross
arches under the lantern are old, as also are those across the aisles,
but the roof of the nave is now all under-drawn with plaster, and there
are no means of telling precisely how it was originally covered; but, on
the whole, I incline to the belief that it must have had a cylindrical
vault, with quadrant vaults in the aisles, though it is possible, of
course, that it had a flat wooden ceiling. The square piers in the nave
favour this alternative, inasmuch as they seem to rise higher than they
would have done had the roof been a stone vault. The pilasters against
the aisle walls also run up to the level of the plate inside, and this
(though it is modern) is higher than the springing of the nave arcades,
and seems to prove that there have never been cross arches in the
aisles. The external walls of the aisles above the cloister roofs are
arcaded with plain arches between the pilasters, by which it is divided
into bays, and the aisle windows are set within these arches. The
lantern is modernized, but there still remain coupled cross ribs on its
under side, and these, though they are plastered, being similar to those
under the central vault of the Templars’ Church, are probably original.
I wish much that I could put my hands on some documentary evidence which
would fix the exact date of this very fine and interesting church, for,
from its importance, it may be considered to be a leading example; and
there is no doubt that it very largely influenced the other churches of
this important city. It is possible, however, from the character of some
of the detail, that part of it is older than the Templars’ Church,
consecrated, as we have seen, in A.D. 1208; though other parts of the
detail--as, for instance, that of the external cornices--cannot be
earlier than A.D. 1250-1270. Before the last of these dates, therefore,
I have no doubt the church was erected, though, as the arches are all,
or nearly all, semi-circular, the greater part of the work was probably
finished early in the century, if not in the twelfth century, and the
decorations may have been completed afterwards.[193]
The non-introduction of pointed arches is certainly in favour of the
earlier date, seeing that in the Templars’ Church most of the main
arches, rude as they are, are pointed; and were it not for the late
character of some parts of San Millan, and looking only to the character
of the plan and general design, I might have assumed its date to be
about A.D. 1150. It is possible that the cloisters were added after the
erection of the church.
The object of these external cloisters has been, I believe, matter of
considerable discussion, yet I confess that they always seemed to me to
be adopted mainly, if not solely, on account of the excessive heat in
Spain in summer, and to be well worth our imitation when we have to
erect churches in tropical climates. That they were confined very much
to certain localities is perfectly true, but this is constantly the
case, with local developments, in all parts of Europe; and here, no
doubt, the idea once suggested by some early architect was frequently
repeated by him, without taking the fancy of his brethren generally
enough to make them repeat it elsewhere.
[Illustration: Capital in Cloister, San Martin, Segovia.]
Another example of the same class, which in its original state must have
been finer than San Millan, is to be seen in the church of San Martin.
Here the cloister was carried not only along the sides, but across the
west front also, with a bold projecting west porch, breaking its lines,
and giving great character and dignity to the whole scheme. The west
doorway of the porch has statues in its jambs, and the detail seems to
me to be all genuine thirteenth century work. The illustration of one of
the cloister capitals will, I think, prove this; for though the old
favourite device of couples of birds is repeated here, the lines are all
extremely fine and graceful, and the carving of the abacus of an
advanced kind. This church is, unfortunately, very much modernized
throughout. It seems to have had three parallel apses at the east end,
and transepts, against which the side cloisters of the nave were
stopped. There is a modern lantern over the old crossing, and a tower to
the west of it rising from out of the centre of the nave, which seems to
be in part old. There were northern and southern as well as western
doors, and openings in the cloister opposite each of them.
San Roman, a desecrated church near the palace of the civil governor,
has a short nave, chancel, and apse, with a tower on the south side of
the chancel. The walls are very lofty, and are all finished with
corbel-tables at the eaves. The apse has three round-headed windows, and
there is a noble north door, similar in design to those of San Millan,
and with the abaci and labels richly carved. The west end has a small
doorway, and a circular window over it, the former certainly, and the
latter probably, not original. The lower stage only of the tower
remains. This church must be of about the same age as San Millan.
San Facundo is similar in plan to San Roman, and of the same date. The
detail of the apse is precisely the same as that of San Millan. There is
a large west door, modernized, and an open cloister seems to have been
added at a later date to the side of the church, and is now walled up.
This church is desecrated, and converted into a Museum of Paintings.
Santa Trinidad has a fine apse, and this is again of the San Millan
pattern. It has carved stringcourses at the springing of the windows,
and again just over their arches, and there are three-quarter engaged
wall-shafts between the windows, and a richly sculptured eaves-cornice
and corbel-table.
San Nicolas, close to Santa Trinidad, has two apses, each lighted with a
single window, engaged wall-shafts, and the usual carved labels, abaci,
and corbel-tables. The tower is on the north side, rises one stage above
the roof, and is lighted with two round-arched belfry windows. A small
apse was added rather later than the original fabric to the east of this
tower, and before its erection the plan must have been almost the same
as that of San Roman, but reversed. About a hundred yards from San
Nicolas is another church which is almost an exact repetition of San
Roman.
San Luine (?), in the Plazuela de Capuchinos, is of just the same class
as the rest, with nave, chancel, and apse, and a second apse east of the
tower on the south side. There are no side windows here, and only a
single light at the east end.
Another church, in the Plaza de Isabel II., is of the same plan as the
last, with a modernized tower. The carving on the string-courses here
is of the same kind of natural foliage that I have described at San
Millan.
Near the aqueduct are two churches. One of them, S. Antholin (I think),
has a tower at the north-east of the nave; its two upper stages have on
each face two round-arched shafted windows, and the angles are treated
in a precisely similar way to those of San Esteban, having bold splays
with engaged shafts in their centres. Another church close to this is
modernized, but retains its old tower, with the angles treated in the
same way.
The church of San Juan has remains of an external cloister on one side.
The last church of this long, and I fear very dry, catalogue, is that of
San Miguel, which stands in the Plaza near the cathedral. It has four
bays of nave, shallow transepts, and a very short choir, which is, I
think, apsidal, but almost concealed by a pagan Retablo. The whole is of
late fifteenth-century date, and must, I think, be the work of the same
hand as the cathedral. Some figures at the west end, representing St.
Michael and the Annunciation, have evidently been taken from some older
building, and built into the walls here. There is a very beautiful
triptych in the north transept, with a Descent from the Cross in the
centre, which ought to be looked at. It is a fine work of, I suppose,
the latter part of the sixteenth century.[194]
I have already mentioned the great Alcazar, and the old town walls and
gateways. They are magnificent in their scale, and very picturesque. The
Alcazar was burnt some two or three years ago, and is now roofless, and
I was told that its interior had been completely destroyed. I foolishly
omitted to verify this statement by personal inspection, and contented
myself with the sight of the exterior. The walls of the front towards
the city are all diapered in plaster, and here and there about the town
several other examples of the same kind of work are to be seen. The
patterns are generally tracery patterns of the latest Gothic, repeated
over and over again, so as to produce a regular diaper throughout. I
presume that it was executed with a frame cut out to the required
pattern, so as to allow of the ground being cut back slightly, leaving
the pattern lines formed in the original face of the plaster. This kind
of decoration seems to be perfectly legitimate, and here, owing to the
care with which the plaster has been made and used, it has stood
remarkably well, though most of the patterns that I saw had evidently
been executed in the fifteenth century.
In the front of the Alcazar these plaster patterns are carried not only
all over the plain face of the walls, but also round the towers and
turrets at the angles, so that the very smallest possible amount of
wrought stone is introduced. The great tower or keep standing back a few
feet only from the front is similarly ornamented, but has stone quoins
bonded irregularly into the walls; in its upper stage it has windows
surmounted by quaint stone canopies, and then a series of great circular
turrets, corbelled boldly out from the face of the wall, and carried up
a considerable height, give its extremely marked and Spanish air to this
grand tower. These turrets are of stone, and between them is a parapet
boldly corbelled out on machicoulis from the walls. With that contempt
for uniformity which marks mediæval artists, the keep is more than twice
as broad on one side as on the other, and the great mass of wall and
turret, roofs and spirelets, which crowned the whole building before the
fire, well sustained its picturesque irregularity of shape.
The front of a private house near the walls, not far from San Esteban,
is another capital example of the same kind of plaster-work. Here the
façade is a perfectly smooth and unbroken surface, pierced for doors and
windows, which are set in square panels of stone, and with a regular and
straight line of stone quoining at the angles. At one end a low tower is
carried up a few feet above the general line of the building. The
windows are generally mere plain square openings; but two set side by
side in the principal stage have delicate _ajimez_ windows of two
lights, with elaborately traceried heads. The patterns in the plaster
are three in number: the first carried from the stone plinth up to the
sills of the principal windows, where it is cut by a narrow band of
ornament, acting as a stringcourse to divide it from the second pattern,
which is carried up to the eaves, the tower being covered with a third
diaper, rather less intricate than the others.
Near this house is a tower in the walls even more worthy of notice. It
is of very considerable height, quite plain in outline, and pierced with
only one or two square-headed windows, but surmounted by a fine parapet
supported on machicoulis. The whole tower is built with bold stone
quoins and horizontal bands of brickwork, each band two courses in
height, at intervals of about three feet. Between these bands the walls
are plastered and diapered. Here, as in the other house, only two or
three patterns are used, but I think great judgment is shown in the
repetition for the greater part of the height of the same pattern, which
is changed at last near the top, where it was desirable to emphasize the
work. Most men having three patterns to use would have divided them
equally, but the real artist gives all their value to his simple
materials by not doing so. The construction of this tower led naturally
to its decoration. The wrought stone at the angles, the rough stonework
of the walls, and the occasional bonding-courses of brick, were all used
simply as the best materials for their respective parts; and the rough
stonework being plastered and diapered, gave a richness and polish to
the whole work which it would otherwise have wanted, whilst it in no
degree destroyed the air of stability of the wall, which is secured by
the obviously constructional arrangement of the stone and brick.
The Moors were always distinguished by the beautiful use they made of
plaster; and whether or no these Segovian buildings were executed by
Moorish architects, it is quite certain that at any rate we owe them to
their influence and example. The patterns used are generally such as in
stone-work would be unhesitatingly attributed to the end of the
fifteenth or first half of the sixteenth century, and to this period no
doubt the works I have been describing belong. They deserve a detailed
notice because they prove, as do most Moorish works, that plaster may be
used truthfully and artistically, and that without any approach to the
contemptible effect which the imbecility and dishonesty of the
nineteenth-century designers of plaster-work have contrived to impress
on almost all their productions.
My last work in Segovia was to go to the Alcazar to get a sketch of the
town, with the cathedral rising in a noble mass in its very centre,
backed by the line of the Guadarrama mountains, looking black and angry
with the storm-clouds which swept over the sky and around their summits
at sunset; and then strolling quietly back into the town, I went into
the cathedral, to be impressed, as one always must be in such a place,
by the aweful solemnity which even the latest Gothic architects in Spain
knew how to impart to their buildings.
[Illustration: SEGOVIA:--Ground Plan of the Cathedral: Plate XII.
W. West, Lithr. Published by John Murray, Albemarle St. 1865.]