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
A narrow passage from the Plaza de San Martin leads to the upper side of
a third Plaza opposite the east end; and here, though the cathedral has
been enclosed within square modern walls, there is fortunately just
enough left of the exterior of the eastern chapel and part of the apse
enclosed in a small court to explain its whole original design. The
entrance to this court is garnished with a number of statues, evidently,
I think, taken from a doorway, and perhaps from the destroyed north
doorway.[160] From this fragment of the chevet, it seems that the
eastern chapel was surrounded with a deeply recessed arcading, within
which were broad, round-arched windows with moulded archivolts carried
on shafts with sculptured capitals. The smaller chapels have
three-quarter shafts running up to the cornices placed between the
windows, and the corbel-tables at the eaves are simple and bold. The bay
between the chapels has a window occupying the whole space in width, and
above it is a small circular window, a feature which occurs in almost
exactly the same position in S. Sernin, Toulouse.[161] A string-course
is carried round the aisle wall above the roofs of the chapels, and the
wall is continued up to the same level as the walls of the aisles of the
church, and has alternately windows and arcading in its outer elevation.
This is perhaps the only serious difference between the design of this
church and that of S. Sernin. There the triforia are not carried round
the chevet, and consequently the aisle walls are not so lofty, and the
clerestory of the apse is shown in the usual way.
Continuing the circuit of the cathedral, we now reach the Plaza de los
Plateros, in front of the south transept. This is bounded on the west
side by the outer walls of the cloisters, and a broad flight of steps
all across the Plaza leads up to the transept. This has been to some
extent damaged by the erection of a lofty clock-tower projecting at its
south-east angle, in which are the clock and the bells. The rest of the
old façade is fortunately preserved. It has two doorways in the centre
division, and two grand and deeply recessed windows above them. The ends
of the aisles seem to have been similarly treated above. The finish of
the transept wall is modern, but there still remain two canopies in it,
under one of which is a figure of the Blessed Virgin, no doubt part of a
sculpture of the Annunciation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account