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
I must now take my readers back somewhat to an earlier church, which is
full of interest, but very different from those which I have been
describing, and of different style. This is the church of Sta. Agata,
situated just to the north of the cathedral. I have been unable to learn
anything as to its history. It has a nave of four bays, spanned by
pointed arches, which carry the wooden roof, and a groined apse of five
sides. East of the apse is a waggon-vaulted chamber, whose axis is at
right angles to that of the church, and out of it rises a delicate
octagonal steeple, the belfry-stage of which has two-light windows on
four sides, and gables on each face. These gables run back till they
intersect the base of a low stone spire, which is now nearly destroyed,
but the lower part of which can be clearly made out from the
neighbouring steeple of the cathedral. A staircase, ingeniously
constructed in the thickness of the south wall, leads up from the nave
to the pulpit (now destroyed), and thence on again to a western gallery.
Some of the windows are like domestic windows in design, having a
slender shaft-monial with the capital of foliage so often repeated in
all the towns from Perpiñan to Valencia. The great height of the windows
from the floor--about twenty-six feet--secures an admirable effect of
light, and their detail is thoroughly good early middle-pointed. The
southern façade has a great deal of that picturesque irregularity which
is always so charming when it is natural. The door is in the western
angle of the south front, partly built under a great overhanging arch,
which carries the wall of a building which abuts on the west end of Sta.
Agata. The lower half of the walls has small windows irregularly placed,
lighting the eastern chapel, the pulpit, and the passage to the gallery;
and then above them the wall is set back a couple of feet between
buttresses, and each bay has an extremely well designed and moulded
window of two lights, with geometrical tracery. The finish of the walls
at the top is modernized. The construction of the roof is very
effective, and at the same time of a most unusual character; it consists
of a series of purlines resting on corbels in the walls over the arches
across the nave; and though it is of flat pitch, this is but little
noticed, owing to the good proportions of these arches, which are so
marked a feature in the design.
The same kind of roof exists still in the great hall of the Casa
Consistorial, and evidently once existed also in the church which I
shall presently mention in the Calle del Carmen. In England we have
somewhat parallel examples at Mayfield and the Mote House, Ightham; but
these Barcelonese examples are useful, as showing how, when a
flat-pitched roof is of necessity adopted, a very good internal effect
may nevertheless be secured. This church is now desecrated, and used as
a sculptor’s workshop.
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