It will not be forgotten that the country we are now considering was fully occupied by the Moors, and that they left in Southern Spain buildings of great merit. A certain number of Christian churches exist built in a style which has been called Moresco, as being a kind of fusion of Moorish and Gothic. The towers of these churches bear a close resemblance to the Saracenic towers of which the beautiful bell-tower, called the Giralda, at Seville (Fig. 59) is the type; with this and similar examples in the country it is not surprising that at Toledo, Saragoza, and other places, towers of the same character should be erected as parts of churches in which the architecture throughout is as much Saracenic as Christian. To many of these great churches, cloisters, and monastic buildings, which are often both extensive and of a high order of architectural excellence, are attached. The secular buildings, of Spain in the Gothic period are, on the other hand, neither numerous nor remarkable. PORTUGAL. The architecture of Portugal has been very little investigated. The great church at Batalha[29] is probably the most important in the country. This building, though interesting in plan, is more remarkable for a lavish amount of florid ornament, of which our illustration (Fig. 60) may furnish some idea, than for really fine architecture. The conventual church at Belem, near Lisbon, a work of the beginning of the sixteenth century, and equally florid, is another of the small number of specimens of Portuguese Gothic of which descriptions or illustrations have been published. FOOTNOTES: [25] An illustration of such a campanile will be found in that belonging to the Cathedral of Siena (Fig. 52). [26] See Frontispiece. [27] For an explanation of this term, see _ante_, Chapter V., page 48. [28] A cast of this portal is at the South Kensington Museum. [29] See _Sculptures of the Monastery at Batalha_, published by the Arundel Society. [Illustration: {CRÊTE FROM NOTRE DAME, PARIS.}] CHAPTER IX. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN. _Materials and Construction._ The Gothic architects adhered, at any rate till the fifteenth century, to the use of very small stones in their masonry. In many buildings of large size it is hard to find any stone heavier than two men can lift. Bad roads and the absence of good mechanical means of hoisting and moving big blocks led to this. The mortar, though good, is not equal to the Roman. As a rule in each period mortar joints are thick. They are finest in the fifteenth century. The masonry of all important features of the building is always good; it is often a perfect marvel of dexterity and skill as well as of beauty. The arts of workers in other materials, such as carpenters, joiners, smiths, and plumbers were carried to great perfection during the Gothic period.