Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain — John Shaqi
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in SpainStreet, George Edmund
History
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic -- Spain; Church architecture -- Spain
It was after a hurried journey by night to Paris, and thence the next
night on to Bordeaux, that I arrived, after a few hours spent in that
interesting old city, at the end of the second day in Bayonne. Here my
first work was to furnish myself with money and places in the Spanish
diligence; and in both these matters I received my first lesson in one
peculiarity of Spaniards--that of using foreign words in another and
different sense from that to which we are accustomed. Napoleons are said
to be the best coin for use in Spain, and I furnished myself with them
only to discover, when it was too late, that in Spain a Napoleon means a
silver five-franc piece, and that my gold Napoleons were all but useless
out of Madrid. And again, when I asked for places in the coupé of the
diligence, I found that I was really trying to secure seats in the
banquette--the coupé being called the berlina, and the banquette the
coupé.
At Bayonne there is not very much to be seen beyond the cathedral, the
river crossed by the Duke for his attack on Soult, and a charming view
from the top of the cathedral tower of the lower ranges of the Pyrenees.
The Trois Couronnes is the most conspicuous peak, and its outline is
fine; but here, as generally in the distant views of the chain which I
obtained, there is a lack of those snow peaks which lend so much beauty
to all Alpine views. The exterior of the cathedral has been almost
entirely renewed of late, and a small army of masons was busy in the
cloister on the south side of the choir. It is to be hoped that the
stoppage of the funds so lavishly spent upon the French cathedrals may
happen before the Bayonne architects and masons have come round to the
west end. At present there is a savage picturesqueness about this which
is beyond measure delightful, whilst the original arrangement of the
doorways and porches on the west and south, with enormous penthouse
roofs over them, is just so far open to conjecture and doubt as to be
best left without very much alteration. The general character of the
interior of the cathedral is only moderately good, the traceries of the
lofty traceried triforium and the great six-light windows of the
clerestory in the nave being unusually complicated for French work. The
choir is of late thirteenth century work, very short, with five chapels
in the chevet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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