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
The archives of the cathedral contain a Bible, at one time believed to
have been the gift of Charlemagne, and enriched with the signature of
Charles V. of France. Another treasure is an illuminated code dating
from the tenth century, and relating to the Apocalypse--a chapter in
Holy Writ which at that period, when the end of the world was believed
to be at hand, greatly occupied the minds of men.
Not far from the cathedral, and nearer to the river Oñar, is the
collegiate church of San Feliu or San Felix rising proudly above the
town. Its tall campanile is visible from every part of the town and is a
familiar landmark for miles around. It was built in 1392, and is in
three stages: the first or lower stage, quite plain, the second adorned
with graceful windows, the third putting forth shoots in the shape of
tapering finials. “It is seldom,” says Street, “that the junction of
tower and spire is more happily managed than it is here; and before the
destruction of the upper part of the spire the whole effect must have
been singularly graceful.” Though the church seems to have been almost
entirely rebuilt in the fourteenth century, as a foundation, St. Feliu
dates back to the eighth century and was used by the Christians during
the Moorish occupation, which, by the way, only lasted sixty-eight
years. The interior seems, like the cathedral’s, to have consisted of a
single nave, but to this aisles have been added, the whole terminating
in a tri-apsidal chevet. The west front dates from the seventeenth
century. The high altar has some good paintings and sculpture, the
canopies over the tomb of San Feliu and the statues of the Virgin and
St. Narcissus being especially notable. The modern chapel of the
last-named saint is gorgeously enriched with jasper of many colours. In
this church is buried the heroic Don Mariano Alvarez de Castro, beneath
a monument, dating from 1880, executed in Carrara marble and in the
reddish yellow stone of the country. The tomb is crowned by a mourning
female figure, which I have been told is a portrait of the general’s
wife. The sepulchre of San Feliu dates from the thirteenth century and
is sculptured with compositions representing scenes from the saint’s
life. Leaving San Feliu by the south door, we pass through the dark and
massive Portal de Sobreportas, formed by two huge round towers,
connected by a modern intervening story, and at the end of a long gloomy
lane reach a Capuchin convent. The object of our visit is a soi-disant
Moorish bath, covered in by a graceful little pavilion with eight
slender columns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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