The last named chapel is an octagonal addition to the apse. Its walls from the exterior are seen to be richly sculptured and surmounted by a lantern, or windowed dome, surrounded by high pinnacles and spires placed on the angles of the polygon base. The _croisée_ is similar in structure, but, due to its greater height, appears even more slender and aerial. The towers with their _flèches_, together with these original octagonal lanterns with their pinnacles, lend an undescribable grace, elegance, and majesty to what would otherwise have been a rather unwieldy edifice. The Chapel of the Condestable is separated from the ambulatory (in the interior of the temple) by a good grille of the sixteenth century, and by a profusely sculptured door. The windows above the altar are the only ones that retain painted panes of the sixteenth century. Among the other objects contained in this chapel--which is really a connoisseur's collection of art objects of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries--can be mentioned the two marvellously carved tombs of the Condestable and of his wife. The _croisée_, on the other hand, has been called the "cathedral's cathedral." Gazing skyward from the centre of the transept into the high _cimborio_, and admiring the harmony of its details, the wealth of decorative elements, and the no less original structure of the dome, whose vault is formed by an immense star, one can understand the epithet applied to this majestic piece of work, a marvel of its kind. Strange to say, the primitive cupola which crowned the _croisée_ fell down in the sixteenth century, the date also of Burgos's growing insignificance in political questions. Consequently, it was believed by many that the same fate produced both accidents, and that the downfall of the one necessarily involved the decadence of the other. To conclude: The Gothic cathedral of Burgos is, with that of Leon and perhaps that of Sevilla, the one which expresses in a greater measure than any other on the peninsula the true ideal of ogival architecture. Less airy, light, and graceful than that of Leon, it is, nevertheless, more Spanish, or in other words, more majestic, heavier, and more imposing as regards size and weight. From a sculptural point of view--stone sculpture--it is the first of all Spanish Gothic cathedrals, and ranks among the most elaborate and perfect in Europe. VI SANTANDER