Catalonia & the Balearic Islands: an historical and desciptive accountCalvert, Albert Frederick
History
Catalonia & the Balearic Islands: an historical and desciptive account
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Balearic Islands (Spain) -- Description and travel; Catalonia (Spain) -- Description and travel
In plan the church is externally a parallelogram, semicircular at the
east end. The transepts do not project beyond the line of chapels
opening off the aisles, and form each the basis of a tower, 170 feet
high. The old timber roofs of these towers have been removed (as from
our castles) laying bare simply the vaulting covered with tiles. Over
the Puerta de San Ivo by which you enter the north transept, a series of
reliefs illustrates a combat between a knight and a dragon. The former
is not St. George, the patron of Aragon, but a legendary hero, one
Villardell, who by Divine favour was armed with a miraculous sword. With
this he slew the monster which had been let loose by the Saracens, and
exultingly cried, “Well done, good sword, and stout arm of Villardell!”
But at that instant some drops of the dragon’s blood fell on his arm,
and he at once expired. He was thus punished for taking the credit of
the victory to himself.
The west front, only finished ten years ago, compares very unfavourably
with the older portions. The dome over the first or westernmost bay of
the nave is also modern. Little else of the exterior can be seen.
Inside, as I have said, the church is extremely sombre, and very
conducive to what an eminent divine called Gothic devotion. This is due
partly to the dark colour of the stone, and partly to the smallness of
the windows, which are filled with beautiful fifteenth-century stained
glass. The windows of the chapels in the south aisle open into a
corresponding row of chapels in the adjacent cloister. Everything, in
fact, has been done to keep out the torrid rays. The chapels are
continued all round the church, there being no fewer than twenty-seven.
The choir is, as usual, in the middle of the nave, being separated by
the crossing from the chancel. Twenty massive and somewhat inelegant
clustered columns separate the nave from the aisles and the chancel from
the ambulatory, and from their capitals spring the nineteen arches
forming the vaulted roof. Nave and aisles are alike 83 feet high. The
cathedral is dedicated to a local martyr, Santa Eulalia, whose body
since the year 1339 has reposed in the crypt beneath the chancel. The
shrine of the saint was the work of Fabre and is in Italian Gothic
style. The ark is sculptured with scenes from the saint’s life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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