CATHEDRAL CITIES OF SPAIN _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_ CATHEDRAL CITIES OF ENGLAND. By GEORGE GILBERT. With 60 reproductions from water-colours by W.W. COLLINS, R.I. Demy 8vo, 16s. net. CATHEDRAL CITIES OF FRANCE. By HERBERT and HESTER MARSHALL. With 60 reproductions from water-colours by HERBERT MARSHALL, R.W.S. Demy 8vo, 16s. net. Also large paper edition, £2 2s. net. _BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY JOSEPH PENNELL_ ITALIAN HOURS. By HENRY JAMES. With 32 plates in colour and numerous illustrations in black and white by JOSEPH PENNELL. Large crown 4to. Price 20s. net. A LITTLE TOUR IN FRANCE. By HENRY JAMES. With 94 illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL. Pott 4to. Price 10s. net. ENGLISH HOURS. By HENRY JAMES. With 94 illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL. Pott 4to. Price 10s. net. ITALIAN JOURNEYS. By W.D. HOWELLS. With 103 illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL. Pott 4to. Price 10s. net. CASTILIAN DAYS. By the Hon. JOHN HAY. With 111 illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL. Pott 4to. Price 10s. net. London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 21 Bedford Street, W.C. [Illustration] [Illustration: BURGOS. THE CATHEDRAL] CATHEDRAL CITIES OF SPAIN WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY W. W. COLLINS, R.I. [Illustration: colophon] LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN NEW YORK: DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1909 _All rights reserved_ _Copyright, London, 1909, by William Heinemann and Washington, U.S.A., by Dodd, Mead & Co_ PREFACE Spain, the country of contrasts, of races differing from one another in habits, customs, and language, has one great thing that welds it into a homogeneous nation, and this is its Religion. Wherever one's footsteps wander, be it in the progressive provinces of the north, the mediævalism of the Great Plain, or in that still eastern portion of the south, Andalusia, this one thing is ever omnipresent and stamps itself on the memory as the great living force throughout the Peninsula. In her Cathedrals and Churches, her ruined Monasteries and Convents, there is more than abundant evidence of the vitality of her Faith; and we can see how, after the expulsion of the Moor, the wealth of the nation poured into the coffers of the Church and there centralised the life of the nation. In the mountain fastnesses of Asturias the churches of Santa Maria de Naranco and San Miguel de Lino, dating from the ninth century and contemporary with San Pablo and Santa Cristina, in Barcelona, are the earliest Christian buildings in Spain. As the Moor was pushed further south, a new style followed his retreating steps; and the Romanesque, introduced from over the Pyrenees, became the adopted form of architecture in the more or less settled parts of the country. Creeping south through Leon, where San Isidoro is well worth mention, we find the finest examples of the period in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, at Segovia, Avila, and the grand Catedral Vieja of Salamanca.