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
In the Collegiata of Sta. Ana, we have the next stage in the development
of Catalan architecture. This is said to have been built in A.D.
1146,[281] and is also a cruciform church, with a central raised
lantern, barrel vaults in the transepts, and two bays of quadripartite
vaulting in the nave. The nave probably dates from about the end of the
twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century, being lighted with
simple lancet-windows, and having bold buttresses. When I visited this
church the chancel was boarded up for repairs, and I am unable to say
certainly whether the east end is old, but it appeared to me to have
been modernized. The exterior of the lantern is very peculiar; above the
roof it is square in plan, but with eight buttresses around it,
radiating from the centre, and evidently intended to be carried up so as
to form the angles of an octagonal central lantern, of which, however,
only the lowest stage remains. The present finish of the lantern is a
steep tiled roof, which springs from just above the point at which the
angles of the square base are cut off; and on the western slope of this
roof a steep flight of stone steps leads to the very summit. The object
of this arrangement is quite unintelligible. At the west end of the
church, and set curiously askew to it, is a cloister of the fourteenth
century, with a Chapter-room on its east side, opening to the cloister
with a round-arched doorway, on either side of which is a good early
middle-pointed two-light window, making the group so invariably found in
old Chapter-house entrances. The west doorway of the church is severely
simple, with a square opening and plain tympanum, under a pointed arch.
Along the north side of the cloister is a fine ruin of a hall of the
thirteenth century, the construction of which is very characteristic and
peculiar. It is of two stages in height. Segmental arches across the
lower rooms carry the floor beams, which are placed longitudinally, and
over them in the upper room bold pointed arches are thrown to carry the
roof. The roof was of very flat pitch, and consisted of a series of
purlines resting on corbels built into the wall over the stone arches,
upon which were laid the common rafters. I shall have to illustrate a
similar roof which still remains in the church of Sta. Agata, so that I
need not say more on the subject now than that this type is an
exceedingly effective one, and occurs repeatedly in the Barcelonese
buildings. The cloister of Sta. Ana is of two stages in height, and very
light, graceful, and Spanish in its character. The columns are
quatrefoil in section, and the capitals are later works of the same
eastern character as those already described in San Pedro, and have
square abaci. There is, perhaps, scarcely sufficient appearance of
solidity and permanence in such extremely light shafts, seeing that they
have to support a double tier of arcades all round the cloister; but
nevertheless the whole effect of the work is very beautiful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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