To produce this magnificence in choir and high altar, decorative and industrial art were given a free hand, and together wrought those wonders of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries which placed Spain in a prominent position in the history of art. Goldsmiths and silversmiths, masters of ironcraft, sculptors in stone and wood, painters and _estofadores_, together with a legion of other artists and artisans of all classes and nationalities, worked together in unison to create both choir and high altar. Therefore, from an artistic point of view, the Spanish cathedral is for the foreigner a museum, a collection of art objects, pertaining, most of them, to the country's industrial arts, for which Iberia was first among all nations. * * * * * CHOIR STALLS.--Space cannot allow us to classify this most important accessory of Spanish cathedrals. Carved in walnut or oak, now simple and severe, now rich and florid, this branch of graphic art in low relief constitutes one of Spain's most legitimate glories. It is strange that no illustrated work dedicated exclusively to choir stalls should have been published in any language. The tourist's attention must nevertheless be drawn to this part of religious buildings; it must not escape his observation when visiting cathedral and parish churches, and above all, monastical churches. [Illustration: CLOISTER STALLS IN A MONASTIC CHURCH AT LEON] * * * * * RETABLO.--The above remarks hold good here as well, when speaking about the huge and imposing altar-pieces so universally characteristic of Spain. The eastern wall of the holy chapel in a cathedral is entirely hidden from top to bottom by the _retablo_, a painted wooden structure resembling a huge honeycomb. It consists of niches flanked by gilded columns. According to the construction of these columns, now Gothic shafts, now Greek or composite, now simple and severe, the period to which the _retablo_ belongs is determined. Generally pyramidically superimposed, these niches, of the height, breadth, and depth of an average man, contain life-size statues of apostle or saint, painted and decorated by the _estofadores_ in brilliant colours (of course, as they are intended to be seen from a distance!), in which red and blue are predominant, and which produce a gorgeous effect _rehaussé_ by the gilt columns of the niches. (Compare with the Oriental taste of _Mudejar_ work in ceilings or _artesonados_.)