Before going on to discuss the long-continued influence of the Moors,
three buildings in which Gothic finally came to an end must be
discussed. These are the west front of Lamego, the cathedral of Vizeu,
and the porch and chancel of the Sé at Braga. Except for its romanesque
tower and its west front the cathedral of Lamego has been entirely
rebuilt; and of the west front only the lower part remains uninjured.
This front is divided by rather elaborate buttresses into three nearly
equal parts--for the side aisles are nearly as wide as the central. In
each of these is a large pointed doorway, that in the centre being at
once wider and considerably higher than those of the aisles. The central
door has six moulded shafts on either side, all with elaborately carved
capitals and with deeply undercut foliage in the hollows between, this
foliage being carried round the whole arch between the mouldings. Above
the top of the arch runs a band of flat, early renaissance carving with
a rich Gothic cresting above.
The side-doors are exactly similar, except that they have fewer shafts,
four instead of six, and that in the hollows between the mouldings the
carving is early renaissance in character and is also flatter than in
the central door. Above runs the same band of carving--but lower
down--and a similar but simpler cresting.
[Sidenote: Sé, Vizeu.]
Unlike Lamego, while the cathedral of Vizeu has been but little altered
within, scarcely any of the original work is to be seen outside. The
present cathedral was built by Bishop Dom Diego Ortiz de Vilhegas about
the year 1513, and his arms as well as those of Dom Manoel and of two of
his sons are found on the vault. The church is not large, having a nave
and aisles of four bays measuring about 105 feet by 62; square transept
chapels, and a seventeenth-century chancel with flanking chapels. To the
west are two towers, built between the years 1641 and 1671, and on the
south a very fine renaissance cloister of two stories, the lower having
been built, it is said, in 1524,[91] and the upper about 1730. A choir
gallery too, with an elaborate Gothic vault below and a fine renaissance
balustrade, crosses the whole west end and extends over the porch
between the two western towers. But if the cathedral in its plan follows
the ordinary type, in design and in construction it is quite unique.
Instead of there being a wooden roof as is usual in churches of this
period, the whole is vaulted, and that too in a very unusual and
original manner. Throughout the piers consist of twelve rounded shafts
set together. Of these the five towards the central aisle are several
feet higher than the other seven from which spring the aisle arches as
well as the ribs of the aisle vault. Consequently the vault of the
central aisle is considerably lower at the sides than it is in the
middle, and in this ingenious way its thrust is counteracted by the
vaults of the side aisles; and at the same time these side vaults are
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