The exterior of the cathedral has, like the interior, been much spoilt
by later builders, the little square towers having been crowned by a
mean-looking balustrade and crockets; but the exterior of the
sixteenth-century Lady Chapel is a favourable specimen of the peculiar
florid Portuguese renaissance style called Manueline, of which I shall
have more to say later. Here at the Lady Chapel at Braga it is more
restrained and presents fewer daring departures from the Gothic canons
than elsewhere, though the surprising intricacy of the parapet and
pinnacles show that the new spirit was strongly moving when it was
built. That the artists who executed the work were Spaniards from Biscay
is probably the reason why in this instance the peculiar and more
questionable features of the style are less conspicuous than in the
productions of native Portuguese craftsmen of the same period. The other
churches of Braga have little show. They are mostly rococo
seventeenth-century structures, granite and plaster outside, and
nightmares of carved gilt wood inside; but almost under the shadow of
the overloaded rococo façade of Santa Cruz there is a lovely little
early ogival votive chapel standing by itself, and containing a
characteristically Portuguese group of the dead Christ, infinitely
touching and beautiful.
And so through the quaint old streets the stranger finds his way,
passing by a house here and there whose balconies and windows are
covered with the intricate wooden jalousies that linger still as a
tradition of oriental civilisation. The whole place is bathed and
flooded with vivid sunlight, except where the lengthening shadows fall
almost purple in their depth; and wandering without special aim, past
the public garden called the Campo de Sant’ Anna, towards the outskirts
of the city, I found myself at the foot of a steep hill rising suddenly
on the left of the walk. Climbing it, I found a little plateau on the
top with a tiny quaint seventeenth-century hermitage chapel, the
Guadalupe I learned was its name, under a clump of shady planes and
chestnut trees. Around the plateau was a dwarf parapet upon which two
lovers were sitting, oblivious to all around save each other; but as I
reached the parapet, and my eyes took in the prospect spread before me,
a cry of wonderment at its marvellous beauty sprang involuntarily from
me, and aroused for a moment the attention of the youth and the girl,
who sat with their backs to the landscape, caring nothing for such
things. It was but a glance they gave me, and I could enjoy
thenceforward without interruption or notice the rapture I felt from the
scene, the first of many such peculiarly Portuguese prospects of rolling
valleys and soaring mountains to be gained from comparatively low
elevations; scenes such as in other countries can only be attained after
long and arduous climbs up high mountains. I soon found, it is true,
that this view from the Guadalupe in Braga was but a trifle in