The narrow nave is divided from the aisles by massive low clustered
granite pillars supporting slightly pointed arches, above which spring
the simple groins that form the vaulted roof. At the west end the church
is darkened by the gilt wooden ceiling that supports the choir and the
great gilded organ with spread trumpet pipes that is the pride of the
cathedral. The choir itself, raised upon a loft and occupying the whole
west end of the church, is of surprising magnificence; carving and
gilding have run wild; cupids, cherubim, angels, musicians, and fabulous
monsters jostle each other exuberantly upon choir stalls, lecterns, and
panels: all the caprice, skill, and invention of sixteenth and
seventeenth century Portuguese art have been lavished upon the work. And
the effect is rich in the extreme, but utterly incongruous with the
sober early ogival of the church itself. Even in the nave the massive
granite pillars have been crowned by later vandals with florid capitals
of carved gilt wood. The walls, too, are much covered with pictorial
blue and white tiles, and the effect of this, though inartistic, is
quaint and not displeasing. From the tiny cloister of plain romanesque
there opens the chapel of St. Luke, where in two splendid sepulchres lie
the bodies of the Leonese princess, Teresa, and her Burgundian husband,
Count Henrique, to whom she brought the county of Portugal in the late
eleventh century. These are the progenitors of the Kings of Portugal,
the parents of Affonso Henriques, of whom we shall hear much later; and
to Donna Teresa is owing the re-foundation of the Cathedral of Braga. In
the side chapels, in the cloisters, and in the sumptuous chapel of St.
Gerald, the patron saint, there lie dead and mouldering archbishops not
a few; one of them, it is said, incorrupt after eight centuries, though
in consequence of the flesh having been varnished he has the appearance
of a mulatto, and shows to this day the honourable scar across his cheek
that the warrior archbishop gained whilst fighting valiantly by the side
of the Master of Avis at the ever-memorable battle of Aljubarrota, that
gave the regal crown of Portugal to the illegitimate scion of the House
of Burgundy. Another coffin there is, just inside the west door, that
has for most people a still more human interest. It is of gilt copper,
apparently French in design, bearing upon its lid an effigy of a pretty
boy of ten, the little Prince Affonso, whose bones lie within, and who
died at Braga in the year 1400.