Cathedral Cities of Spain Part 6

The siege of Gerona is as celebrated in the Spanish history of the Napoleonic wars as that of Saragossa. Both exemplify the bravery and tenacity of the Spaniard of the north. In the first siege in 1808, three hundred men of the Ulster Regiment, under their gallant leader O'Daly, helped to garrison the place against two ferocious attacks by d.u.c.h.esne and his French soldiery. The first failed and the second ended in the utter rout of the besiegers with the loss of all the artillery and baggage train.

In the following year three French generals with an army of thirty thousand men invested the city. Alvarez, the Spanish Governor, was almost without any means of defence, and the women of Gerona enrolled themselves under the banner of Santa Barbara, the patron saint of Spain's artillery, and took their places on the ramparts side by side with their husbands and sweethearts. Alvarez, ably seconded by a few English under Marshall, held out until he was struck down by disease and death. The city then, without a leader, its inhabitants starving, at length surrendered.

So ancient is Gerona that its early history is lost in the mist of ages.

Charlemagne drove the Moors out when they were in possession, but it soon pa.s.sed back into their hands again. The Counts of Barcelona ruled over the place until the union of Catalonia and Aragon, an event which gave birth to the Crown Prince's t.i.tle of Principe de Gerona. Hence we know that in the twelfth century it was a city of great importance. In consequence of its adhesion, at the end of the War of Succession, to the house of Hapsburg, Gerona was deprived of its privileges and university, since which time it has steadily gone down hill.

Down hill it may have proceeded, but I found it a very pleasant, quaint old-world city set in the midst of verdant hills and running waters.

Shady walks are taking the place of now useless fortifications; and have not I sat in one of the most delightful rose gardens you could wish to rest in, and heard the note of the nightingale trilling on the perfumed air? Most of Spain has gone down hill, and most of Spain is nothing but enchanting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GERONA. THE CATTLE MARKET]

Gerona is bisected by the river Onar, and from its waters which wash them, the houses rise tier above tier up the hill side. In the summer when the river is running low, and if it happens to be a Sat.u.r.day, you will see one of the most remarkable sights that Spain can boast of.

Under and around the arches of the old bridge are congregated hundreds of brown and fawn-coloured cattle. The background of ancient houses, yellow, grey, white, brown--every tone, rises up above this throng.

Coloured garments, the week's washing, flutter in the breeze, green shutters and blinds hang from the creeper-clad balconies.

It is market day. The lowing of oxen, mingled with the hum of bargaining humanity in red caps and Prussian-blue blouses, surges up like the sound of breakers on a distant sh.o.r.e. You who enter Spain by the east route, go to Gerona at the end of the week--you will never regret its Sat.u.r.day market.

The Cathedral stands well. The west facade, a Renaissance addition, is approached from the Plaza below by a grand flight of ninety steps in three tiers. In the unfinished jambs of the south door are a series of interesting terra-cotta figures dating from 1458.

There is nothing else in the exterior worthy of note, but directly I entered I stopped in amazement at the daring of an architect who could build so enormous a span as that under which I found myself. This span is seventy-three feet, the clear width of the nave, and unsupported by any pillars. No flying b.u.t.tresses outside give additional strength to the thrust of the roof. The stonework is perfect and the vaulting inside simple. So bold and hazardous were the plans of Guillermo Boffy that the chapter at first refused to sanction them. Being in doubts as to his sanity, they sought the opinion of twelve other architects, who were examined separately. As they all approved and pa.s.sed Boffy's plans, the construction of this marvel was commenced, and the first stone laid in 1416.

The apsidal chancel had been begun a century earlier and finished in 1346, pretty much on the same lines as this part of Barcelona's Cathedral.

Unfortunately--how often does one have to acknowledge this!--the _coro_, with its hideous _respaldos_, painted to imitate Gothic arches in perspective, almost ruins this splendid and solemn interior. Among the seats of the _silleria del coro_ there are still preserved some that date from the fourteenth century.

Early carved work of the same period is found in the elaborate _retablo_ over the High Altar, which is surmounted by three fine processional crosses. The _baldaquino_, also of wood, is covered like the _retablo_ with plates of silver. It is a ma.s.s of precious metal, enamelled coats-of-arms and gems, and is an extremely interesting relic of that century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GERONA. THE CATHEDRAL]

Over the sacristy door are the tombs of Count Ramon Berenguer II. and his wife Ermensendis, who died in 1058, predeceasing her husband by twenty-four years. The sacristy itself contains a remarkable piece of twelfth-century crewel work, said to be the earliest known specimen in existence. It is covered with figures of a type similar to those of contemporary MSS. The Romanesque cloisters form an irregular trapezium.

The columns are doubled and about a foot apart, not unlike those of Tarragona.

The finest Romanesque example that Gerona possesses is the church of San Pedro de los Galligans. The apse, little damaged during the siege, forms a tower in the town wall. There is no doubt of the great antiquity of this building, which dates probably from the early part of the tenth century. The east end is mostly constructed of black volcanic scoriae.

The nave and aisles, the bays of which are very simply built, are almost prehistoric in their roughness.

In the cloisters attached to the church is the Museo Provincial. Many relics of Gerona's heroic defence can here be seen, as well as some early Christian and Hebrew remains.

TOLEDO

Standing high above the yellow Tagus, which, confined in a deep gorge, rushes and swirls far below between precipitous granite cliffs, Toledo was always an ideal position for a fortress before modern firearms rendered Nature's defences of little avail.

Its name is a.s.sociated with the great Cardinals of the Rodrigo, Tenorio, and Foncesca families, as well as scions of the houses of Ximenes, Mendoza, Tavera, and Lorenzana. The wealth of these Prelates was immense, and their power, Ecclesiastical and Temporal, proportionate.

They practically had no rivals, they certainly feared none, they ruled kings as well as countries, and their allegiance to Rome was purely nominal. They made wars and fought in them. For their patronage of art and literature future generations have had good cause to be grateful.

They built schools and improved the means of communication throughout the land. Under their influence the Church was omnipotent, and they have written their names deep in the pages of Spanish history. In fact, so great was the power of Toledo's clergy that it grew to be the cause of the foundation of the Capital at Madrid. Philip II., who removed the Court from Valladolid to Toledo, found it better, after a short residence here, to take himself and his Court to a town where he no longer encountered the arrogance of Ecclesiastical rule.

Under the Romans, who captured it in 193 B.C., "Toletum" became the capital of Hispania. Leovigild removed hither from Seville, and his successor, Reccared, who embraced the orthodox form of Christianity, made it the ecclesiastical as well as political capital of his dominions.

For nearly four centuries, from 712, when the Moors took Toledo, it was under their rule; but divided counsels and the treachery of the down-trodden Hebrew enabled Alfonso VI. to enter in triumph with the Cid. The King then styled himself Emperor, and promoted the Archbishop to the Primacy of Spain. Under Alfonso's rule the city grew rapidly in every way. Churches and convents were built, defences strengthened, and Toledo knew no rival.

With far-seeing wisdom, Moor and Christian were allowed to intermarry, and lived together in peace for wellnigh one hundred and fifty years.

The advent in 1227 of that ecclesiastical firebrand, St. Ferdinand, however, altered this. One of his first acts was to pull down the Mosque, wherein the Moors of the city, by Alfonso's royal prerogative, had been allowed to worship, and commence the building on its site of the great Cathedral.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOLEDO. THE CATHEDRAL]

For two hundred years and more did the architects who followed Pedro Perez add bit by bit, leaving their mark on its stones. Partly constructed of granite it is immensely strong. A softer stone has been used with great discretion in the decorative portions of the building.

No comprehensive view of the Cathedral is obtainable, so closely do the houses surround it on the south and east, and creep up the hill on which it is built, on the north. The west front is best seen from the Plaza Ayuntamiento, a pleasant little garden which the Town Hall bounds on one side. I managed a sketch from the narrow street below this garden.

Only one of the two towers of the west facade is finished as originally intended. The other is capped by a dome, designed by El Greco, that painter of the weird, and under which is the chapel wherein the Mozarabic ritual is celebrated daily at 9 A.M.

The great west door, La Puerta del Perdon, is enriched with embossed bronze work. Flanking on it either side are the doors of Las Palmas, and de los Escribanos. The arches of all three have figures in the jambs, which are continued round each arch in the very best Gothic of the fifteenth century. Above the doors the facade is adorned with a sculptured Last Supper and colossal figures in niches. In the centre is a splendid rose window twenty-eight feet in diameter.

The north transept is entered from the steep Calle de la Chapineria by La Puerta del Reloj, the oldest doorway of the Cathedral. Its bronze doors, of later date than the doorway, were cast to match those of La Puerta de los Leones in the south transept. This doorway's name is derived from the Lions, which holding shields, occupy positions on its pillars. Another entrance is through La Puerta de la Presentacion which opens on the cloisters.

The effect produced by the magnificent interior is much enhanced by the beauty of the gla.s.s which fills most of the windows. The earliest are on the north side of the nave, and form a series which was commenced in 1418 and finished one hundred and fifty years later. The gla.s.s in the rose window over the west door is superb, and the same may be said for that in the north transept and the wheel window over La Puerta de los Leones.

There is no triforium, and the transepts do not project beyond the nave.

The arches of the very beautiful chancel serve as niches for figures.

Here in each bay is a rose window forming a clerestory, and the colours in the gla.s.s of these shine like jewels in a crown.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOLEDO. THE SOUTH TRANSEPT]

There are in all twenty chapels, every one of which contains something worth study. The lofty _retablo_ in the Capilla Mayor is of the richest Gothic. Above is a colossal Calvary of later workmanship. Cardinal Ximenes built this chapel, among the many monuments of which are the tombs of Spain's earliest kings. Separating it from the _crucero_ is a magnificent Plateresque _reja_, on either side of which stands a gilded pulpit.

Behind the _retablo_ is the _transparente_, much admired by Toledans, but the one jarring note in the finest of Spain's Cathedrals. This theatrical ma.s.s of marble figures, in the midst of which the Archangel Rafael kicks his feet high in the air and squeezes a gold fish in one hand! is lit from a window let into the roof of the apse.

The Capilla de Reyes Nuevos contains the tombs of the kings descended from Henry II. His tomb and that of his wife, as well as the spouse of Henry III., a daughter of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, are among the many that crowd the walls.

The Capilla de San Ildefonso is an extremely beautiful example of early Gothic work. The much-mutilated tomb in the centre of Cardinal Albornoz is a masterpiece of the same style. Many other great Ecclesiastics rest in this elegant octagon, notably Inigo de Mendoza, Viceroy of Sardinia, who was killed at the siege of Granada.

The Capilla de Santiago was erected in 1435 by Alvaro de Luna, the man who saved Spain for Juan II. by repressing the turbulent n.o.bles, and who for his fidelity was rewarded by disgrace and execution in the Plaza Mayor at Valladolid. The scallop sh.e.l.ls which decorate the walls represent de Luna's office of Grand Master of the Order of Santiago.

Cardinal Ximenes re-established the Mozarabic Ritual, which is celebrated in the Capilla Mozarabe, as a reminder to the Pope that Spain did not owe implicit allegiance to Rome.

The small detached Capilla de la Descension de Nuestra Senora stands against the second pier in the north aisle. It marks the spot where the Virgin came down and presented San Ildefonso with the _casulla_ or chausable.

The Salle Capitular is a grand example of early sixteenth-century work, with a Plateresque frieze and gilt _artesonado_ ceiling by Francisco de Lara. It contains a series of portraits of the Cardinal Archbishops of Toledo, and frescoes by Juan de Borgona. The work of this painter is to be met with throughout the Cathedral.

The _coro_ occupies two bays of the nave and is a veritable museum of carving and sculpture. Its _silleria_ are in two rows. The lower is of walnut and enriched with scenes representing the campaigns of Ferdinand and Isabella. The upper of the same wood is a perfect cla.s.sical contrast and is inlaid not carved. Berruguete, whose work may be best studied in Valladolid, executed the seats on the south side, and Vigarney those on the north. A small figure of the Virgin in blackened stone looks really ancient. It stands in the middle of the _coro_ on a pedestal. Nicolas de Vergara was responsible for the two reading desks, which are masterpieces of gilded metal work.

The Gothic cloisters enclose a delightful garden, and have an upper cloister reached by a door in the Archbishop's Palace. From this pleasant _claustro alto_ a very good idea of the size of the Cathedral is obtained.

s.p.a.ce does not permit me to enlarge on the manifold works of art which this n.o.ble building contains. The pictures, the iron work--though I must just mention a beautifully fanciful knocker of two nude nymphs hanging downwards from the head of a satyr whose hands clasped together form the handle, which adorns La Puerta de la Presentacion--the sculpture, notably that on the _respaldo_, or outer wall of the _coro_, and the many relics in the Treasury, would all occupy more than I can afford.