The Cathedrals of Northern Spain: Their History and Their Architecture; Together with Much of Interest Concerning the Bishops, Rulers and Other Personages Identified with ThemRudy, Charles
History
The Cathedrals of Northern Spain: Their History and Their Architecture; Together with Much of Interest Concerning the Bishops, Rulers and Other Personages Identified with Them
Rudy, Charles
Cathedrals -- Spain
The northern entrance to the building is another fine example of
twelfth-century Spanish, or Galician Romanesque. Though simpler in
execution than the western front, it nevertheless is by some critics
considered purer in style (earlier?) than the first mentioned.
The tower which stands to the left of the northern entrance is one of
the few in the Romanesque style to be seen in northern Spain; it is
severe in its structure and pierced by a series of round-headed windows.
The cloister dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is
another of Galicia's monuments well worth a visit, which proves the
local mixture of Romanesque and ogival, and is, perhaps, the last
example on record, as toward the fifteenth century Renaissance elements
had completely captured all art monuments.
Such is the cathedral of Tuy, a unique example of Galician Romanesque in
certain details, an edifice that really ought to be better known than it
is.
VII
BAYONA AND VIGO
The prettiest bay in Galicia is that of Vigo, which reaches inland to
Redondela--a village seated, as it were, on a Swiss lake, with two
immense viaducts passing over its head where the train speeds to Tuy and
Santiago. There is no lovelier spot in all Spain.
The city of Vigo, with its suffragan church on the hillside, is a modern
town dedicated to commerce; its wharves are important, and the water in
the bay is deep enough to permit the largest vessels afloat to enter and
anchor. The art student will not linger here, however, but will go by
boat to Bayona outside the bay and to the south near the Portuguese
frontier.
Here, until quite recently, stood for an unknown length of time the
suffragan church which has now been removed to Vigo. But Bayona, once
upon a time the most important seaport in Galicia, is a ruin to-day, a
delightful ruin, and one of the prettiest in its ensemble, thanks to the
beautiful and weird surroundings.
Its history extends from the times of the Phœnicians, Greeks, and
Romans,--even earlier, as remains of lake-dwellers have been found. This
statement is not an exaggeration, though it may appear to be one, for
the bay is as quiet as a lake.
After the defeat of the Armada, Bayona was left a prey to Drake and his
worthy companions. They dealt the city a death-blow from which it has
never recovered, and Vigo, the new, the commercial, has usurped its
importance, as it did its church, which once upon a time, as is
generally believed, was a bishopric.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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