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
The central lantern is carried on piers, which have evidently been in
great part rebuilt at some time subsequent to the foundation of the
church. They carry pointed arches of granite, clumsily moulded, and have
rudely-carved capitals. Two piers on the south of the nave next the
Crossing, and one on the north, were either partly or altogether rebuilt
at the same time, and it looks very much as though the first lantern had
partly fallen, and then, two centuries after the original foundation of
the church, the existing one had been erected, for over the pointed
arches there still seem to be remains of the older round arches. The
lantern is rather loftier than is usual; it is vaulted with an
eight-ribbed dome, carried on arched pendentives, and is lighted by
small windows of two lights in its upper stage. Dávila[179] says that
this church was rebuilt in the time of Ferdinand “El Santo” (1252-1284),
who endowed it with certain rents for the purpose. But other authorities
say, with more show of probability, that the work undertaken in this
year was the repair of the church. The rebuilding at this date, which is
utterly inconsistent with the whole character of the church, agrees,
nevertheless, very well indeed with that of the lantern. Subsequently,
in A.D. 1440, according to Dávila,[180] the tower of the church was
built, and this statement probably refers to the upper stages of the
western steeples. The crypt under the choir, called Nra. Sra. de
Soterraña, is important only for its position: it is entered by a long
flight of steps from the east end of the north aisle, and extends under
the three eastern apses. It is mainly modernized, and the great
attraction seems to be the hole in which, as I understood, people who
wish to take a solemn oath put their hands whilst they swear.
There are no original ritual arrangements remaining here; but an iron
Reja is carried across the nave and aisles one bay to the west of the
crossing, and here probably was the old place for the Coro, as the
position of the shrine of San Vicente under one side of the lantern
would have made it impossible for the Coro to be placed nearer the east.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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