The façade, which is in the Renaissance style, is considered to be the finest part of Santa Maria, and “the jewel of Pontevedra”;[251] it is divided into five sections or storeys, in three of which there are six columns with statues between; above each statue is the shell of St. James. Over the chief entrance is a beautiful relief representing the Assumption of the Virgin--eight Apostles clustering round the couch (a four-poster) of the dying Virgin; the faces are very fine. All the columns are covered with elaborate alto-relief in the _grotesque_ style of the Renaissance. The church is built upon an eminence, and the ground, sloping sharply away from the façade, is covered with three handsome flights of steps; it is thus impossible, unfortunately, to get a good near view of the façade, for every step you take away from it brings you a step lower and makes the point of view less favourable. Above the stone wall which encloses the church on either side of the steps there is a remarkably fine iron railing. The bell-tower is eighteenth-century work, all except the lower storey, which is of the same date as the church. The real date of the façade is 1546, for Señor Casto Sampedro has discovered (in 1907) the deed of contract for its erection; the date of the vaulting of the naves is 1559, the chapels are of various dates. In former days there was a gate of the town between castellated walls facing the church; the present flight of steps is modern. In a book of the sixteenth century, entitled “_Chronicles of England and France_,”[252] in the possession of the British Consul at Villagarcia, there is a picture of the fortified town of Pontevedra with its battlements and towers; a very small portion of the castellated wall still remains near the Convent of Santa Clara. All round the outer walls there is a fringe of _plateresque_ stone lace which is very effective. One corner of the church, added later, forms a modern chapel, dedicated to El Cristo del buen viage (the Christ of the good journey). I looked in at the window, and saw an altar with a crucifix and a great many artificial flowers; in front of the window was a railing and a slit for coppers. This chapel, though modern, has its interests, and good Catholics about to take a journey drop a copper in the slot for good luck.