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Title: Catalonia & The Balearic Islands
Author: Calvert, Albert Frederick
Language: English
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THE SPANISH SERIES
CATALONIA
& THE BALEARIC ISLES
THE SPANISH SERIES
_EDITED BY ALBERT F. CALVERT_
GOYA
TOLEDO
MADRID
SEVILLE
MURILLO
CORDOVA
EL GRECO
VELAZQUEZ
THE PRADO
THE ESCORIAL
VALENCIA AND MURCIA
SCULPTURE IN SPAIN
ROYAL PALACES OF SPAIN
GRANADA AND ALHAMBRA
SPANISH ARMS AND ARMOUR
LEON, BURGOS AND SALAMANCA
CATALONIA AND THE BALEARIC ISLES
VALLADOLID, OVIEDO, SEGOVIA,
ZAMORA, AVILA AND ZARAGOZA
CATALONIA
& THE BALEARIC ISLES
AN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE
ACCOUNT BY ALBERT
F. CALVERT, WITH 250 PLATES
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY: MCMX
PRINTED BY
BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD
TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE PRINCIPALITY OF CATALONIA 1
BARCELONA 8
GERONA 23
THE VALLEY OF THE TER 36
LERIDA 40
TARRAGONA 52
POBLET 63
SANTA CREUS 69
VALLBONA 72
MONTSERRAT 73
CARDONA 83
TORTOSA 84
THE BALEARIC ISLANDS 86
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TITLE PLATE
General View of Barcelona 1
General View of Barcelona 2
Barcelona: View from the Funicular Railway Station 3
Barcelona: Panorama from Monjuich 4
Barcelona: Panorama from Monjuich 5
Barcelona: Panorama from Monjuich 6
Barcelona: The Docks 7
Barcelona: General View of the Port 8
Barcelona: Detail of the Port 9
Barcelona: View from Miramar 10
Barcelona: Rambla del Centro 11
Barcelona: Rambla del Centro 12
Barcelona: Rambla de las Flóres 13
Barcelona: Rambla de las Flóres 14
Barcelona: Paseo de Colón 15
Barcelona: Paseo de Colón and Hotel 16
Barcelona: Paseo de Colón and Statue of Lopez 17
Barcelona: Rambla de los Estudiantes 18
Barcelona: Paseo de Gracia 19
Barcelona: Paseo de Gracia 20
Barcelona: Rambla de Cataluña 21
Barcelona: Plaza de Cataluña 22
Barcelona: Rambla de Santa Monica and the Bank 23
Barcelona: La Gran Via and Statue of Güel y Ferrer 24
Barcelona: Plaza de Cataluña 25
Barcelona: Plaza de Cataluña 26
Barcelona: Plaza de la Paz 27
Barcelona: Plaza del Palacio 28
Barcelona: Plaza del Palacio 29
Barcelona: Plaza Real 30
Barcelona: Plaza del Rey 31
Barcelona: Plaza Antonio López 32
Barcelona: Calle de Ferdinand VII. 33
Barcelona: Calle de Balmes 34
Barcelona: Calle de Aragón 35
Barcelona: Güell Park 36
Barcelona: Entrance to the Güell Park 37
Barcelona: Entrance to the Park 38
Barcelona: Lake in the Park 39
Barcelona: Lake in the Park 40
Barcelona: The “Cascada” in the Park 41
Barcelona Park: Details of the “Cascada” 42
Barcelona: Fountain in the Park 43
Barcelona: The Cathedral 44
Barcelona: The Cathedral 45
Barcelona Cathedral: Principal Entrance 46
Barcelona Cathedral: Right-hand Side Door 47
Barcelona Cathedral: Door of the Piedad 48
Barcelona Cathedral: Door of Santa Eulalia 49
Barcelona Cathedral: Exterior Door of Santa Lucia 50
Barcelona Cathedral: Interior Door of Santa Lucia
and Sepulchre of Mossen Borra 51
Barcelona: Interior of the Cathedral 52
Barcelona: Interior of the Cathedral 53
Barcelona Cathedral: Detail of the Choir 54
Barcelona Cathedral: The High Altar 55
Barcelona: The Archive of the Cathedral 56
Barcelona Cathedral: Cloisters and Principal Interior Door 57
Barcelona: Chapel in the Cloisters of the Cathedral 58
Barcelona: Cloisters of the Cathedral 59
Barcelona: Cloisters and Door of the Cathedral 60
Barcelona: Cloisters of the Cathedral 61
Barcelona: Cloisters of the Cathedral 62
Barcelona: Chapel in the Cloisters of the Cathedral 63
Barcelona Cathedral: Fountain in the Cloisters 64
Barcelona Cathedral: Fountain in the Cloisters 65
Barcelona: Fountain in the Cloisters of the Cathedral 66
Barcelona: Fountain in the Cloisters of the Cathedral 67
Barcelona Cathedral: Door in the Cloisters 68
Barcelona Cathedral: Iron Grating in the Cloisters 69
Barcelona Cathedral: Grating in the Cloisters 70
Barcelona Cathedral: Door in the Cloisters 71
Barcelona: Santa Maria del Mar 72
Barcelona: Church of Santa Maria del Mar 73
Barcelona: Church of Santa Maria del Mar. Gate of the Immaculada 74
Barcelona: Church of Santa Maria del Mar. Detail of Left Door 75
Barcelona: Detail of the Door of the Church of Santa Maria del Mar 76
Barcelona: Church of Santa Maria del Pino 77
Barcelona: Byzantine Doorway in the Church of San Pablo 78
Barcelona: Cloisters of San Pablo 79
Barcelona: Cloisters of San Pablo 80
Barcelona: Façade of the Church of Santa Ana 81
Barcelona: Cloisters of the Church of Santa Ana 82
Barcelona: Cloisters of the Church of Santa Ana 83
Barcelona: Church of the Sagrada Familia 84
Barcelona: Church of Las Salesas 85
Barcelona: Church of Las Salesas 86
Barcelona: Church of the Conception 87
Barcelona: Church of Santa Agueda 88
Barcelona: The Town Hall 89
Barcelona: The Town Hall 90
Barcelona: Old Façade of the Town Hall 91
Barcelona: Exterior Detail of the Town Hall 92
Barcelona: Chapel of San Jorge in the Town Hall 93
Barcelona: Courtyard of the Town Hall 94
Barcelona: Entrance to the Courtyard of the Audiencia 95
Barcelona: Upper Part of the Courtyard of the Town Hall 96
Barcelona: The University 97
Barcelona: Cloisters of the University 98
Barcelona: Cloisters of the University, Upper Part 99
Barcelona: Palacio de Justicia 100
Barcelona: Diputacion Provincial 101
Barcelona: Diputacion Provincial 102
Barcelona: The Exchange 103
Barcelona: The Custom House 104
Barcelona: Clinical Hospital 105
Barcelona: Municipal School of Music 106
Barcelona: Catalana del Gas 107
Barcelona: La Maison Dorée 108
Barcelona: Casa de la Canongia 109
Barcelona: Private House of the Eighteenth Century 110
Barcelona: A Shop in the Calle Fernando 111
Barcelona: New Building in the Paseo de Gracia 112
Barcelona: House of the Shoemakers 113
Barcelona: House in the Calle de Caspe 114
Barcelona: Arco de Triunfo 115
Barcelona: Teatro Principal 116
Barcelona: Old Towers in the Plaza Nueva 117
Barcelona: Tower of Santa Agueda 118
Barcelona: Convent of Santa Clara. Old Palace of
the Kings of Aragon 119
Barcelona: Apeadero de la Calle de Aragon 120
Barcelona: Hotel Colón 121
Barcelona: Staircase in a Private House in the Calle de Moncada 122
Barcelona: Staircase in a Private House in the Calle de Moncada 123
Barcelona: Frontón 124
Barcelona: The Bull-Ring 125
Barcelona: Monument to Columbus 126
Barcelona: Monument to Columbus 127
Barcelona: Detail of the Monument to Columbus 128
Barcelona: Monument to Columbus 129
Barcelona: Monument to Güell 130
Barcelona: Fountain in the Plaza de Palacio 131
Barcelona: Statue of General Prim 132
Barcelona: Rambla de Cataluña, Monument to Clavé 133
Barcelona: Statue of Lopez, and Paseo de Colón 134
Barcelona: Plaza del Duque de Medinacelli 135
Barcelona: Monument to Ruis and Toulet 136
Barcelona: View of Tibidabo 137
Barcelona: Funicular Railway Station, Tibidabo 138
Barcelona: Tibidabo Station and Casa Arnus 139
Barcelona: The Devil’s Bridge at Martorell 140
Barcelona: Interior Court of the Convent of Montesion 141
Barcelona: Exterior of the Convent of Montesion 142
Barcelona: Convent of Montesion Cloisters 143
Monastery of Pedralves, near Barcelona 144
Barcelona: Rambla de Canaletas during the Fêtes of 1888 145
Barcelona: The Fêtes of 1888. Inauguration of the Monument
to Columbus 146
Barcelona: Exhibition of 1888. H.M. the Queen leaving
the Exhibition 147
Barcelona: Exhibition of 1888. Palace of Beaux-Arts 148
General View of Tarragona 149
Tarragona: General View from the Cathedral, looking South 150
Tarragona: General View from the Cathedral, looking East 151
Tarragona: General View 152
Tarragona: General View from the Pier 153
Tarragona: Panoramic View 154
Tarragona: View of the Port 155
Tarragona: View of the Harbour from the Town 156
Tarragona: General View of the Cathedral 157
Tarragona: Façade of the Cathedral 158
Tarragona: Façade of the Cathedral 159
Tarragona: Tower and Side of the Cathedral 160
Tarragona: Façade of the Cathedral 161
Tarragona Cathedral: Centre of the Portal 162
Tarragona: Left-hand Side Door of the Cathedral 163
Tarragona Cathedral: Statues of the Portico 164
Tarragona Cathedral: Detail of the Portico 165
Tarragona: Byzantine Door of the Cathedral 166
Tarragona: Right-hand Side Door of the Cathedral 167
Tarragona Cathedral: The Principal Nave 168
Tarragona Cathedral: Tomb of Jaime de Aragon 169
Tarragona: Cloisters of the Cathedral 170
Tarragona: Door of the Chapel of San Pablo 171
Tarragona: La Muralla Ciclopea 172
Tarragona: Puerta de San Antonio and Roman Walls 173
Tarragona: Roman Walls and Tower 174
Tarragona: Tower of the Scipiones 175
Tarragona: Gate of San Antonio and the Roman Wall 176
Tarragona: Palace of Pilatos, now the Prison 177
Tarragona: La Portella, A Cyclopean Doorway 178
Tarragona: A Cyclopean Doorway 179
Tarragona: A Roman House 180
Tarragona: Arco de Bará 181
Tarragona: The Roman Aqueduct 182
Tarragona: The Roman Aqueduct 183
Tarragona: The Seminary 184
Tarragona: Cross of San Antonio (sixteenth century) 185
Tarragona: Ancient Roman Convent 186
Poblet (Tarragona): General View of the Monastery 187
Poblet (Tarragona): Church of the Monastery 188
Poblet (Tarragona): Door of the Monastery 189
Poblet (Tarragona): Chapel of San Jorge 190
Poblet (Tarragona): Temple in the Cloisters 191
Poblet (Tarragona): Cloisters and Palace of King Martin 192
Poblet (Tarragona): Interior View of the Cloisters 193
Poblet (Tarragona): Interior View of the Cloisters 194
Santa Creus (Tarragona): General View of the Church
of the Monastery 195
Santa Creus (Tarragona): Door of the Cloisters 196
Santa Creus (Tarragona): Interior of the Cloisters 197
Santa Creus (Tarragona): Interior Side View of the Cloisters 198
Montserrat: View of the Monastery 199
Monastery of Montserrat 200
View of the Monastery of Montserrat, taken from St. Michael 201
Montserrat: General View of Monastery from the South 202
Montserrat: View of the Monastery from the South 203
Montserrat: General View 204
Montserrat: View of the Monastery from the West 205
Montserrat: The Monastery 206
Montserrat: Grotto of the Virgin 207
Montserrat: The Virgin’s Cave 208
Montserrat: View from the Grotto of the Virgin 209
Montserrat: The Cave of Juan Guarin the Hermit 210
Montserrat: Remains of the Ancient Monastery 211
Montserrat: Door of the Church 212
Montserrat: Interior of the Church 213
Montserrat: View of the Peaks 214
Montserrat: The Devil’s Rock 215
Montserrat: Miranda Peak 216
View of Montserrat, taken from Monistol Station 217
View of Monistol, taken from Montserrat 218
Tortosa: General View 219
Tortosa: Courtyard in the Institute 220
The Court, San Francisco, Palma, Mallorca 221
Gran Hotel, Palma, Mallorca 221
Palace of the Almudaina, Palma, Mallorca 222
Windmill and Electrical Works, Palma, Mallorca 223
View of the “Real Club de Regatas,” Palma, Mallorca 224
Market and Church of San Nicolas, Palma, Mallorca 225
San Francisco, Palma, Mallorca 225
View from the Harbour, Palma, Mallorca 226
View of the Bay, Palma, Mallorca 227
The Almudaina and Cathedral, Palma, Mallorca 228
Puerta de Santa Margarita, Palma, Mallorca 229
The Cathedral, Palma, Mallorca 229
Paseo del Borne, Palma, Mallorca 230
Arabian Baths, Palma, Mallorca 230
View of the Gorch Blau, Mallorca 231
The Gorch Blau, Mallorca 231
Interior of San Francisco, Palma, Mallorca 232
Arab Baths, Palma, Mallorca 233
The Quay, Palma, Mallorca 234
Mills, Palma, Mallorca 235
The River, Seller, Mallorca 236
General View of Alcudia, Mallorca 237
The Cathedral, Palma, Mallorca 238
The Church of the Monastery, Lluch, Mallorca 238
La Cartuja, Valldemosa, Mallorca 239
Puerta del Muelle, Alcudia, Mallorca 239
Interior of the Church, Lluch, Mallorca 240
Transport of Musts, Balearic Islands 241
General View of Deya, Mallorca 242
Castle of Bellver, Mallorca 243
General View of San Antonio (Pityusae Isles) 244
Ruins of the Torre d’ea Galines, Alazor, Menorca 245
Villa Carlos, Mahon, Menorca 246
View of the Port, Mahon, Menorca 246
The Harbour, Mahon, Menorca 247
A View in the Town, Mahon, Menorca 247
The Quay, Mahon, Menorca 248
Paseo del Borne, Ciudadela, Menorca 249
View of the Port, Mahon, Menorca 250
The Port and Town, Ciudadela, Menorca 251
Threshing, San Antonio (Pityusae Isles) 252
A Street in Algendar, Ferrerias, Menorca 252
A View showing the Arabian Towers, Ibiza (Pityusae Isles) 253
River Pareys 254
Portal of d’alt or d’en Servera, Mahon, Menorca 255
Monument to the French Prisoners who died in 1808,
Island of Cabrera, Menorca 256
CATALONIA
THE PRINCIPALITY OF CATALONIA
Every stranger who crosses the Pyrenees knows that Catalonia differs in
many important respects from every other province in the kingdom. He has
heard that the natives speak of going into Spain as if they lived
outside of it; he knows that they speak a tongue different from the
Castilian; that their enterprise and activity distinguish them
favourably among King Alfonso’s subjects, and they have kept well
abreast of every other European community. All this is true, and it
would be easy to enumerate many other peculiarities. The tendency,
however, is to exaggerate the points of difference between Spaniard and
Catalan, and to lose sight of their fundamental affinity. The language
of Catalonia, though not a mere dialect as some suppose, is as
essentially Spanish as the Castilian. It was spoken by those Hispani who
were driven out of Spain by the Saracens and returned in the ninth
century to settle in the north-east corner of the country. Thus Catalan
language and people were born in the very heart of the Peninsula and
have since been confined to a portion of it only by political causes.
There is, of course, no such essential difference between Catalans and
Castilians as between Welsh and English, Bretons and French. Both are
branches of the great Iberian family. If Catalonia were an independent
State, it would be its affinity to Spain that would impress us most, and
set us wondering, as we do in Portugal, how two countries so much alike
could continue politically distinct.
The superior enterprise and energy of the Catalans may be attributed
less, I think, to racial differences than to historical and geographical
causes. Far removed from the scene of the secular struggle with the
Moor, and dwelling on the marge of the sea which was the principal
commercial arena of the ancient and mediæval world, the people of
Catalonia had from a very remote period opportunities for development
denied to the inhabitants of every other part of Spain. The Moors were
expelled from Barcelona at the beginning of the ninth century. Catalonia
had thus a start of more than four centuries over Seville, and of six
over Malaga--to say nothing further of the incontestable advantages of
her geographical position.
Without wishing, it need hardly be said, to depreciate the progressive
tendencies of the Catalans, I confess I am inclined to attribute them,
not to any racial superiority over other Spaniards, but mainly to the
causes I have indicated.
Catalonia thus bears witness to the aptitude of the Spaniard, for the
most active forms of commercial and industrial life, to his ability to
keep in the van of progress. The lead given by Barcelona will inevitably
be followed by all the other towns in the kingdom, now that the special
circumstances which retarded their development have been removed. In the
most populous city of Spain I fail to recognise a miracle or the work of
another people than the Spanish. I see instead the results of Spanish
enterprise and capacity singular only in having had the opportunity to
assert itself.
From the day--it was in the year 813--that the fleet of the Count of
Ampurias gloriously defeated a Saracen squadron off the Balearic Isles,
Catalonia has looked seaward. It was on the wave that the men of
Barcelona found glory and riches. They were the rivals of the Pisans,
Genoese and Venetians, and can boast a maritime history far longer and
hardly less glorious than our own. It is recorded in one of the best
historical works ever written, the “Memorias sobre la Marina de
Barcelona,” by Don Antonio de Capmany y Palau, published in 1779. The
learned author contrasts the naval eminence of Barcelona with that of
other powers, and assigns the city a higher rank than England and
Portugal. In the middle of the Eleventh century, laws regulating and
favouring commerce and providing for the suppression of piracy were
decreed by Count Ramon Berenguer II. In the year 1114, the third Count
of that name assisted, with his own fleet, the Pisans in the reduction
of the Island of Majorca; in 1147 Almeria was attacked and plundered by
the allied fleets of Barcelona and Genoa; and in the following year
another naval victory added Tortosa to the principality.
The conquests of the great King James of Aragon gave a great impetus to
the commerce of Barcelona as well as to the development of arts and
letters. The extension of the city’s relations to the Levant and Egypt
led to the appointment of consuls in all the parts frequented by
Catalans. A Maritime Code was promulgated in 1258, and soon became very
generally adopted throughout the Mediterranean. A second time the hardy
sailors of Barcelona drove the pirates from their nest in the Balearics,
the islands this time remaining definitely annexed to the crown of
Aragon. All the ships were furnished by the city on this occasion, and
the King named as commander Ramon de Plegarnoás, a rich citizen, expert
in naval affairs.
In the thirteenth century, Aragon (or in other words, as regards the
sea, Barcelona) was the most formidable power in the Mediterranean. Her
merchant princes competed successfully with the traders of Genoa and
Venice, at the farthest ports of Egypt and Syria. King James when
appealing to the States of Aragon for a subsidy to carry on the war
against the infidel, reminded them that if Majorca were lost, Catalonia
would lose the dominion and absolute power she exercised over the sea.
Montaner, the Froissart of his nation, has bequeathed to us a stirring
chronicle of the expedition (in which he took part) of the Catalans to
Greece under the leadership of Roger de Flor. In the year 1332, Philip
of France, when about to embark on the Crusades, was advised to entrust
the management of the expedition exclusively to the Genoese and
Catalans, these being provided with the best ships and seamen, and the
most experienced in naval matters. As late as the year 1467, the Grand
Signior found it expedient to pay an indemnity to the King of Aragon to
secure immunity for his coasts from the persistent attacks of the
dreaded privateers of Barcelona. It is with reason that Capmany
attributes to the seamanship of the Barcelonese the extension of the
power of Aragon over the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia. Upon
the consolidation of Spain at the beginning of the sixteenth century and
the rise of the great modern States, the city was eclipsed as a sea
power. Its merchants looked with little favour on the discovery of
America, an enterprise promoted by Castile. Of the reception of Columbus
here by the Catholic Kings, not one word is said in the archives of the
city.
Soon after, Barcelona just escaped becoming the scene of a discovery
almost as important as that of the New World. Here, says O’Shea, on
January 17, 1543, a ship of 200 tons was launched, propelled by two
wheels driven by steam. The inventor was Blasco de Garay, and the trial
was successfully made in the presence of a royal commission. The King’s
treasurer, one Ráongo, for some personal motive it is said, drew up a
report unfavourable to the invention, declaring the ship made only six
miles in two hours, and that the boiler was likely to burst. Perhaps
this report was not ill-founded, for though Garay received a grant of
200,000 maravedis in addition to his expenses, he made no further
progress with his invention. The fate of this and many other experiments
with steam in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries seems
to prove that our ancestors rather failed to recognise the necessity of
any improvement in the means of locomotion, than wanted the skill to
effect it. It will be remembered that Mr. Shandy thought that on
economical grounds alone the inventors of mechanical means of transport
should be discouraged. A useful invention with which the Barcelonese may
fairly be credited, is marine insurance.
BARCELONA
Barcelona has remained true to her traditions. She is still, as of old,
a city of merchant princes, a hive of industry, at once the Liverpool
and Manchester of Spain. To those who visit the capital of Catalonia
after an acquaintance only with the moribund cities of Old Castile, this
vision of España Moderna comes as a shock and a revelation. The first
impression is not pleasing. You approach the city through a vast
wilderness of suburbs, teeming with life, and breathing apparently
through grimy factory chimneys. We realise that we have returned to the
civilised twentieth century. But the brighter side of modernity is soon
revealed. In its heart Barcelona is clean, bright, and spacious. The
boulevards are unequalled in Europe--except perhaps by Budapest--and the
street prospects are worthy of Washington. The Rambla is the most
delightful of promenades; in the Calle Fernando the contents of every
shop window tempt the unthrifty. A noble, beautiful modern metropolis,
still worthy of Cervantes’ encomium: “Flor de las bellas ciudades del
mundo, honra de España, reglo y delicia de sus moradores, y
satisfacción de todo aquello que de una grande famosa, rica, y bien
fundada ciudad, puede pedir un discreto y curioso deseo.”
Barcelona is richer in monuments of the past than many a more
ancient-looking city. Foremost among these is the Cathedral in the very
heart of the town, one of the grandest examples of Gothic architecture
in Spain. Its extreme sombreness and apparently massive character
produce a similar impression to that created by the much larger
Cathedral of Seville.
Street thinks very highly of this church, and remarks on the skill with
which the architect has contrived to make it appear much larger than it
really is. He observes “the architecture of Cataluña had many
peculiarities, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when most
of the great buildings of Barcelona were being erected, they were so
marked as to justify me, I think, in calling the style as exclusively
national or provincial, as ... was our own Norfolk middle-pointed....
Besides this, there was one great problem which I may venture to say
that the Catalan architects satisfactorily solved, the erection of
churches of enormous and almost unequalled internal width.”
The primitive Cathedral was built by Count Ramón Berenguer between 1046
and 1058, and considerably enlarged in the year 1173. The building, not
yet satisfying the needs of the thriving city, was entirely rebuilt at
the beginning of the fourteenth century. The design is attributed by
Street to Jaime Fabre, a native of Majorca, who was succeeded as master
of the works in 1388 by Master Roque. The last stone of the vault was
placed on September 26, 1448.
In plan the church is externally a parallelogram, semicircular at the
east end. The transepts do not project beyond the line of chapels
opening off the aisles, and form each the basis of a tower, 170 feet
high. The old timber roofs of these towers have been removed (as from
our castles) laying bare simply the vaulting covered with tiles. Over
the Puerta de San Ivo by which you enter the north transept, a series of
reliefs illustrates a combat between a knight and a dragon. The former
is not St. George, the patron of Aragon, but a legendary hero, one
Villardell, who by Divine favour was armed with a miraculous sword. With
this he slew the monster which had been let loose by the Saracens, and
exultingly cried, “Well done, good sword, and stout arm of Villardell!”
But at that instant some drops of the dragon’s blood fell on his arm,
and he at once expired. He was thus punished for taking the credit of
the victory to himself.
The west front, only finished ten years ago, compares very unfavourably
with the older portions. The dome over the first or westernmost bay of
the nave is also modern. Little else of the exterior can be seen.
Inside, as I have said, the church is extremely sombre, and very
conducive to what an eminent divine called Gothic devotion. This is due
partly to the dark colour of the stone, and partly to the smallness of
the windows, which are filled with beautiful fifteenth-century stained
glass. The windows of the chapels in the south aisle open into a
corresponding row of chapels in the adjacent cloister. Everything, in
fact, has been done to keep out the torrid rays. The chapels are
continued all round the church, there being no fewer than twenty-seven.
The choir is, as usual, in the middle of the nave, being separated by
the crossing from the chancel. Twenty massive and somewhat inelegant
clustered columns separate the nave from the aisles and the chancel from
the ambulatory, and from their capitals spring the nineteen arches
forming the vaulted roof. Nave and aisles are alike 83 feet high. The
cathedral is dedicated to a local martyr, Santa Eulalia, whose body
since the year 1339 has reposed in the crypt beneath the chancel. The
shrine of the saint was the work of Fabre and is in Italian Gothic
style. The ark is sculptured with scenes from the saint’s life.
There is little remarkable about the High Altar. The choir-stalls are
richly carved, and date from the late fifteenth century. Like the stalls
of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, they are decorated with coats of
arms--those of the knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece, in
commemoration of the chapter held here by Charles V. (then only King of
Spain) in 1519. Among the Knights present were the Kings of Denmark and
Poland, the Prince of Orange, and the Duke of Alva. The rear wall of the
choir is beautifully adorned with columns, and reliefs of Bartolomé
Ordonez, and Pedro Vilar of Zaragoza, representing scenes from the life
of the titular. It is a fine example of the Spanish Renaissance style.
Before beginning an examination of the chapels, attention may be called
to the huge Saracen’s head hanging from the organ in the north
transept--a common feature in Catalan churches, and symbolising the
reconquest of their sites from the infidel.
A floor runs round the church above the side chapels and is carried
across the west front. The upper rooms were never used as places of
worship. The chapels are closed by mediæval grilles of wrought iron.
They date mostly from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and
present no very interesting features. This is fortunate for the
painstaking sightseer, as the obscurity renders an examination
difficult. A crucifix in the uppermost chapel in the chevet is a
memorial of the battle of Lepanto, where it was carried on the prow of
Don Juan’s flagship. The image is believed by some to have bent its head
to avoid the Turkish bullets. In the chapels of San Miguel Arcángel and
Nuestra Señora del Patrocinio, close by, are the fine Gothic tombs of
Bishop Berenguer de Palau (died 1240) and of one of his successors,
Poncio de Gualba (died 1334). Leaving the ambulatory by the north, the
chapel on the right contains another good Gothic monument to Bishop
Escaler. The finest tomb, on the whole, is that of Doña Sancha de
Cabrera, lady of Noalles, in the chapel of San Clemente, in the south
aisle; and three chapels farther on is the sarcophagus of the great
Catalan saint, Ramon de Penafort. The two wooden urns covered with
crimson velvet in the wall between the south transept and the sacristy
enshrine the ashes of Count Ramon Berenguer the Old, and his consort,
Almodis (died 1070). Opening off the south aisle, close to the main
entrance, is the large square chapel of the Holy Sacrament, or of St.
Olegarius, with a fine star-vaulting, the seventeenth-century monument
of the titular, and some paintings of Villadomat, a local artist of some
repute, who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century. There are
also some paintings of merit by the Tramullas, father and son, of
Perpignan, but generally speaking this fine cathedral is poor in
painting and statuary.
Cloisters are nearly always charming, and those adjoining the Cathedral
on the south side are certainly so, with their palms and fruit trees and
fountains. One of these last is adorned with a statue of St. George, a
jet of water serving as a tail to the horse. In one corner is a
goose-pond. I saw nothing of the cats who, Street says, were prowling
about the cloisters and church, and contrived to get into the
choir-stalls just before service, whence they were forthwith chased by
the choristers and such of the clergy as happened to be there. I have
witnessed such scenes in French churches, where they are very
distracting to the devout. The cloister was begun by Master Roque and
finished in 1448. The architecture has been variously criticised, and
the tombs for the most part are poor. On these the profession of the
deceased is indicated by the implements of his trade lightly graven. The
resting-place of Mosém (Monseigneur) Borrà, the jester of Alfonso V. of
Aragon, is distinguished by the cap and bells. In the Chapel of the
Conception there used to be, says O’Shea, a picture painted by order of
the municipality in gratitude for the cessation of the plague in 1651,
at the intercession of the Virgin. The keys of the city, made in
silver, were presented to her on that occasion. In the chapel of Santa
Lucia, at the south-west angle of the cloister, Street recognised a
fragment of the old cathedral. The entrance into the south transept is
of the same date. By the graceful Puerta Santa Eulalia we pass into the
street.
We presently pass the Bishop’s Palace, an eighteenth-century structure
incorporating some late Romanesque arcading. But leaving other
interesting buildings in this the oldest quarter of Barcelona for the
moment, we will seek the next most notable church in the town, that of
Santa Maria del Mar. It occupies the site of the earliest shrine of
Santa Eulalia, over which Bishop Aetius built a temple in the thousandth
year of our era. This modest church was replaced by another in the year
1329, which was restored and reconsecrated after a disastrous fire in
1383 under the reign of Pedro the Ceremonious. All classes of the
community assisted in the work. Those who could not give money gave
their labour, and in commemoration of this two small bronze figures
carrying stone and timber adorn the principal door. The edifice is a
good example of the Catalan church in its breadth and height of nave and
simplicity of plan. Like the cathedral, it forms a parallelogram rounded
at the east end, and presents an unbroken line of wall to the exterior.
Churches of this type usually consist of nave only, but Santa Maria del
Mar has two aisles. Enormous octagonal columns carry the main arches and
the groining ribs which all spring from their capitals. The wall rib
towards the nave is carried up higher than the main arches, so as to
allow space between them for a small circular and traceried clerestory
window in each bay. The arches of the apse are very narrow, and
enormously stilted. There are small windows above them, but they are
modernised. The aisles are groined on the same level as the main arches,
a few feet, therefore, below the vault of the nave, and they are lighted
by a four-light traceried window in each bay, the sill of which is above
the string-course formed by continuing the abacus of the capitals of the
groining shafts. Below this are three arches in each bay, opening into
side chapels between the main buttresses. Each of these chapels is
lighted by a traceried window of two lights, and the outer wall presents
a long unbroken line, until above the chapels, when the buttresses rise
boldly up to support the great vaults of the nave and aisles.[A] The
interior, though still simple and dignified, has been marred by modern
restorations. Another peculiarity remains to be noted: the choir is
placed behind the high altar. Of this latter, a costly but
churrigueresque erection, the less said the better. The royal pew in the
south aisle, recalling the days when Barcelona was a capital, was
connected with the palace by a gallery now destroyed. The church
contains some good glass and examples of the art of Villadomat, a
painter of whom Catalonia can boast. His fate was extremely sad: for the
last seventeen years of his long life, he was paralysed in both hands.
[A] Street, “Gothic Architecture in Spain.”
Standing on the sinister spot where, twelve years ago, twelve people
were killed and fifty others injured by a miscreant’s bomb, we survey
the fine west front. This is flanked by two octagonal towers, of the
telescope kind, and has a magnificent rose-window, above which I rather
felt that an attic or story gable was wanted. The portal is richly
moulded, and adorned with sculpture. The doors are faced with iron.
The churches of Santa Maria del Pino and of Santos Justo and Pastor are
on the same plan, with slight modifications. Adjoining the former is a
tall detached belfry, producing a fine effect. The church was
consecrated in 1453, and derived its name according to one account from
an image of the Virgin found in the trunk of a pine. The west front,
Street considers to have been designed by the architect of the north
transept door of the cathedral. Unlike Santa Maria del Mar, there are
no chapels in the apse, though they are found between the buttresses of
the nave. There is no aisle. In this church Villadomat is buried.
Santos Justo-y-Pastor is another single-nave church, founded in 1345, on
the oldest church site in the city. It has been modernised inside and
out. In the days of the ordeal by combat the parties, fully armed, made
oath in this church, on the altar of San Felio, as to the justice of
their cause and to use no “constellated or enchanted weapons.” We read
that James I. declared null and void the issue of an encounter between
Arnuldo de Cabrera and Bernardo de Cantellas on the ground that the one
had worn certain jewels believed to be enchanted, and that the other had
been invested with a shirt rendered impenetrable by a spell. To-day, I
understand, an oath taken in this church as to the last wishes of a
citizen who has died intestate, will be sufficient grounds for the issue
of letters of administration accordingly. Here also Jews were sworn with
both hands placed on the Decalogue, and according to a long and terrific
formula. This is given at length by Don Pablo Piferrer in the original
Catalan, and is calculated to appal the most hardened perjurer.
Barcelona, it will have been seen, abounds in ancient and interesting
churches. San Pablo del Campo was founded in the first decades of the
tenth century by Count Wilfred II., who was buried in it, as his epitaph
on a Roman tablet attests. Destroyed by Al Mansûr, the church was
rebuilt on the same plan in 1117 by Jinbert Jintardo and his wife
Rotlandis. The west front has retained much of its primitive Romanesque
character. The symbolical sculpture is crude and curious. The interval
is very striking in its simplicity. The cloister is more ornate and the
decoration is considered by some to mark the transition from the
Romanesque to the Moorish style. More eastern in character is the
venerable church of San Pere de las Puellas, believed to date from the
tenth century. It is so called from the nuns who formerly inhabited the
adjoining convent and who, at the time of Al Mansûr’s invasion, cut off
their lips and noses to avoid the amorous attentions of the Moors.
There remain to be visited the old chapel royal of Santa Agueda, now
converted into an archæological museum, where Alfonso el Casto was
baptized, where the order of Montesa was established, and where the
claims of the candidates to the crown of Aragon were discussed in 1410.
Santa Ana, built in 1146 in imitation of the church of the Holy
Sepulchre (as it was then), with a curious fourteenth-century cloister
placed at an angle to the main building, and the simple graceful arches
of the chapel of Montesion, where are hung the Turkish ensigns won by
Spanish valour at Lepanto.
One instinctively searches at Barcelona for monuments of civic state
befitting a city of such antiquity and dignity. Happily such are not
lacking and have been preserved to us. The noble Gothic façade of the
Town Hall (Casa Consistorial), erected in 1373, has been recently
restored, fortunately with good taste. The Council Chamber (Salon de
Ciento), formed of two bays which support an artesonado roof, is lined
by a collection of portraits of Catalan worthies, among whom we
distinguish Capmany, Villadomat and Montaner. A finer building and
preserving more of its primitive character is the Diputacion, the old
Parliament House of Catalonia, and now the seat of the Provincial Court.
This monument, declares Piferrer, “is the admiration of foreigners and
the honour of Barcelona. He who seeks for originality of style, let him
examine all its parts and be convinced that many are of a character
entirely new.” Built in the early fifteenth century, it underwent
frequent restorations and enlargements, and was rebuilt in great part in
1609 by Maestre Pere Blai, who spared the best portions of the old work.
The principal façade is cold and devoid of interest, except for the
figure of St. George above the entrance. To that saint is dedicated the
chapel, with its fine ogival portal, and the adjoining wall damascened
(to quote Piferrer) with reliefs. The chapel is the repository of an
exquisite altar frontal, worked with the design of St. George and the
Dragon, and designed by Antonio Sadarni, in 1458. The pillars sustaining
the galleries of the patio, at one time much admired for their daring
and ingenious execution, were bending and giving way under the strain
till restored and strengthened a few years ago by Don Miguel Garriga y
Roca, a local architect.
The halls breathe the dignity and gravity of a great corporation. The
majestic Salon del Tribunal with its dome and hangings is adorned with
portraits of the Kings of Spain, and paintings by Fortuny, one
representing the victory of Marshal Prim over the Moors at Tetuan.
Catalonia keeps ever green the memory of her heroes.
The rapid extension of the most populous city of Spain has fortunately
spared several noble monuments of bygone ages and beliefs. About an
hour’s walk from the Tibidabo brings one to the Romanesque monastery of
San Cucufat (or Cugat) del Valles, founded by Charlemagne on the site of
a Roman camp, and rebuilt between 1009 and 1014. The exterior is
fortified with battlements and flanking towers, the main entrance being
pierced through a tall square gatehouse, and having been defended by a
drawbridge. The Abbey Church is in the finest Romanesque style, with an
octagonal lantern, apse, nave, and aisles. The interior is plain and
sombre, despite the abominable baroque chapels which have been added to
the right aisle. The church contains but one tomb of importance--that of
the builder or founder, the Abbot Otho, who was also Bishop of Gerona,
and flourished at the dawn of the eleventh century.
The cloister of San Cugat has afforded the Romanesque sculptors the
opportunity of gratifying their most exuberant fancy in stone. The
capitals reveal an extraordinary profusion and variety of
designs--Biblical scenes being associated with fables, conventional
designs, and animals’ heads. Examples of the quaint and more childlike
conceptions of a rather later age (fourteenth century) may be found in
some curious paintings, set in retablos, still adorning the church. They
are specimens of a style peculiar to Catalonia, Valencia, and the
Balearic Islands, at the period “which analogies [says one authority]
with the early Tuscan and old Cologne schools.”
GERONA
Gerona deserves to be, but through some freak of fortune is not, as
famous as Saragossa. Its many sieges, especially those that took place
in the Peninsular War, are among the many proofs of the Spaniard’s
extraordinary tenacity in the defence of positions. Numantia, Saguntum,
Saragossa, Gerona, and Cartagena--can any other country boast so many
and such glorious instances of heroism and resistance to an overwhelming
foe? These five names should be inscribed on the national escutcheon.
They might even one day have more than a sentimental value, and cause
potential invaders to think twice before violating Spanish soil.
Gerona, then, has covered itself with glory, not once, but repeatedly.
The very paynim Moors were invigorated by the heroic atmosphere, for we
read that as long ago as 785 they defied the arms of Louis the Pious,
till the Christian townsfolk, thinking that enough had been done for the
renown of Gerona, arose and expelled them. In the succeeding centuries
the Geronese grew used to this business of sieges, and their assailants
grew more wary. In 1285 the French King, Philippe le Hardi, sat down
before the town and contentedly starved it into submission. Gerona
yielded under protest, and took care to place it on record that she was
not taken by force but by hunger, as the inscription not “per forsa, mes
per fam” over the Puerta de la Cárcel to this day testifies. More than
four centuries later came another Philippe from beyond the Pyrenees,
welcomed by all Spaniards except Catalans. Gerona stubbornly held out
for Austrian Charles, and her garrison of 2000 men bade defiance to
Philippe’s 9000. The Bourbon won; and to punish the recalcitrant city
abolished her University. But a hundred years after, Gerona recovered
her laurels. Her garrison of three hundred men, commanded by Colonel
O’Daly, withstood successfully the repeated assaults of 6000 French
under Duhesme, and beheld in August 1808 the hurried and inglorious
flight of the besiegers. Of the great siege of 1809 you may read in the
pages of Napier. The commander and hero of the defence was Mariano
Alvarez--a much finer fellow than Palafox; and had he not been stricken
with fever and rendered unconscious, the town might not have
surrendered, as it ultimately did after a seven months’ siege. It had
cost Napoleon 15,000 men. Here, as at Saragossa, the women fought beside
the men and worked the guns, under the banner of St. Barbara.
Unconquerable Gerona! Well might the heirs to the crown of haughty
Aragon have been proud to bear the title of your prince.
Towns with such stories invariably reflect them in their physiognomies.
Gerona’s aspect is eloquent of history and legend. Her balconied
houses--yellow and white--seem to rise out of the waters of the river
Oñar, reminding one at moments of a Venetian canal. But to dispel such
an illusion you have but to lift your eyes to the castled hill of
Montjuich, in which the defensive power of the town resides and whose
sides have borne the brunt of every battle that has raged round Gerona.
Penetrating into the labyrinth of streets behind the river front, we
find them dark, narrow, and silent enough to be haunts of the muse of
history; but here and there--often, indeed--we find animated squares and
thoroughfares that show us that Gerona is not outside the brisk
Catalonian current.
The vast cathedral lifts its towers near the river’s marge. It was
founded, after the expulsion of the Moors, by Louis the Pious, in 786,
and was rebuilt in the year 1016. It was consecrated by the Archbishop
of Narbonne, on the French side, assisted by bishops both Cispyrenean
and Transpyrenean. Extensive alteration and restoration went on in the
fourteenth century, among the architects being two from Narbonne.
Perhaps I may be pardoned the digression when I remark that natural
boundaries seem to have been of less importance in the Middle Ages than
now; a fact which may, it seems to me, be partly attributed to the
relative facility with which great mountain barriers could be passed by
the usual means of conveyance in those days. If you travel only on
horseback, a mountain pass presents little more difficulty than a high
road. Street, who extracted these particulars of the cathedral’s history
from various Spanish works, tells us of the deliberations as to the
adoption of the architect Guillermo Boffy’s plan for a nave of a single
span. Fortunately the twelve architects composing the jury (Pascasio de
Xulbe, Juan de Xulbe, Pedro de Valfogona, Guillermo de la Mota,
Bartolomé Gual, Antonio Canet, Guillermo Abiell, Arnaldo de Valleras,
Antonio Antigoni, Guillermo Sagrera, Jehan de Guinguamps, and Boffy
himself) pronounced in favour of the plan, and the work was put in hand
that same year, 1417. The first stone of the campanile was not laid till
1581, and the west front was begun as lately as 1607.
This grand church consists, then, of a single nave 73 feet wide, four
bays in length, and terminating in the usual semicircular east end. The
west front, in the poor style of the seventeenth century, calls for no
remark, and gives no promise of the grandeur of the interior. Street
thinks the exterior could never have looked very well. Even the south
door, executed in 1458, does not merit praise, though its terra-cotta
statues are curious and well preserved.
The vast nave is blocked and greatly marred by the central choir, moved
into this ill-chosen position long after the completion of Boffy’s work.
Three arches separate the east end from the nave. Above them are three
large round windows. Street praises this arrangement and says that it
enhances this effect of vastness. “In short, had this nave been longer
by one bay, I believe that scarcely any interior in Europe could have
surpassed it in effect.”
The high altar is of alabaster with a silver frontal, and belonged to
the old cathedral. It was the gift of Ermesindes, the wife of Count
Ramon Borel (1038). The reredos is a very rich and interesting work
plated with silver. It was completed in 1348. The subjects in the three
tiers of niches relate respectively to the lives of the saints, the life
of the Blessed Virgin, and the life of Our Lord. The work is crowned by
the figures of Christ and His Mother, and the saints Narcissus and
Feliu. Of the same period is the baldachin, the vault of which is
covered with sacred subjects, while the shafts are adorned with
heraldic achievements. Behind the reredos is the bishop’s throne, formed
of a single piece of marble. “Here, when the bishop celebrated
pontifically, he sat till the oblation and returned to it again to give
the benediction to the people.”
In addition to the objects of interest to which the architect of our Law
Courts calls attention--the wooden wheel of bells, &c.--the cathedral
contains several tombs worthy of examination. In the choir is buried
Count Ramon Berenguer, surnamed Cap d’Estopa; in the presbytery, on the
gospel side, is the tomb of Bishop Berenguer de Anglesola; Doña
Ermesindes lies between the chapels of Corpus and San Juan; Bishop
Bernardo de Pau in the chapel of San Pablo.
Adjoining the church is the dark gloomy cloister, which existed in the
early twelfth century, and in which Street recognised “one of the main
branches of the stream by which Romanesque art was introduced into
Spain” from south-eastern France. The galleries, with marble columns and
stone roofs, enclose a court with tall trees and a cistern in the
centre. Numerous black memorial tablets let into the walls have failed
to keep alive the memory of the dead.
The archives of the cathedral contain a Bible, at one time believed to
have been the gift of Charlemagne, and enriched with the signature of
Charles V. of France. Another treasure is an illuminated code dating
from the tenth century, and relating to the Apocalypse--a chapter in
Holy Writ which at that period, when the end of the world was believed
to be at hand, greatly occupied the minds of men.
Not far from the cathedral, and nearer to the river Oñar, is the
collegiate church of San Feliu or San Felix rising proudly above the
town. Its tall campanile is visible from every part of the town and is a
familiar landmark for miles around. It was built in 1392, and is in
three stages: the first or lower stage, quite plain, the second adorned
with graceful windows, the third putting forth shoots in the shape of
tapering finials. “It is seldom,” says Street, “that the junction of
tower and spire is more happily managed than it is here; and before the
destruction of the upper part of the spire the whole effect must have
been singularly graceful.” Though the church seems to have been almost
entirely rebuilt in the fourteenth century, as a foundation, St. Feliu
dates back to the eighth century and was used by the Christians during
the Moorish occupation, which, by the way, only lasted sixty-eight
years. The interior seems, like the cathedral’s, to have consisted of a
single nave, but to this aisles have been added, the whole terminating
in a tri-apsidal chevet. The west front dates from the seventeenth
century. The high altar has some good paintings and sculpture, the
canopies over the tomb of San Feliu and the statues of the Virgin and
St. Narcissus being especially notable. The modern chapel of the
last-named saint is gorgeously enriched with jasper of many colours. In
this church is buried the heroic Don Mariano Alvarez de Castro, beneath
a monument, dating from 1880, executed in Carrara marble and in the
reddish yellow stone of the country. The tomb is crowned by a mourning
female figure, which I have been told is a portrait of the general’s
wife. The sepulchre of San Feliu dates from the thirteenth century and
is sculptured with compositions representing scenes from the saint’s
life. Leaving San Feliu by the south door, we pass through the dark and
massive Portal de Sobreportas, formed by two huge round towers,
connected by a modern intervening story, and at the end of a long gloomy
lane reach a Capuchin convent. The object of our visit is a soi-disant
Moorish bath, covered in by a graceful little pavilion with eight
slender columns.
The oldest church at Gerona appears to be the little oratory of San
Nicolas, built in the form of a cross with its arms ending in apses,
surmounted by domes. The height of the nave is not much more than that
of a tall man. Hardly inferior in antiquity is the church of San Pedro
de Galligans. This is named, not after the Gauls, as one might be
tempted to suppose, but after a little stream called the Galligans,
which at this point flows into the Oñar. Like every other religious
edifice in Gerona, its foundation is attributed to Charlemagne, but
(according to Piferrer) the earliest mention of the church occurs in the
year 992, while the actual fabric was building at the time a third part
of the coinage of Gerona was given by Count Ramon Berenguer III. to the
Benedictine monastery of which his brother was abbot. Street inclines to
think San Pedro was built by the architect of the church at Elne in
Roussillon. The principal apse here, as at Avila, projects beyond the
town wall; on the south side of it are two smaller apses side by side,
opening into the south transept; the north transept expands into apses
on the north and east and is crowned by a fine octagonal steeple with
two rows of round-headed windows. The west front is approached by steps,
many of them bearing Romano-Gothic inscriptions; there is a single
round-arched western door with good fern-leaf carving on its capitals,
and above this a rose-window. Within, the church consists of a nave,
separated by tall, massive columns from the aisles. The capitals are
rude, but offer great variety of design and execution. There is a
clerestory, but no windows to the aisles, which are more like
corridors. On the south side is a cloister probably carved coeval with
the church, but terribly damaged during the siege, and now converted
into the Provincial Museum.
“The whole character of this church,” remarks Street, “is very
interesting. The west front reminded me much of the best Italian
Romanesque, and the rude simplicity of its interior--so similar in its
mode of construction to the great church at Santiago in the opposite
corner of the Peninsula--suggests the probability of its being one of
the earliest examples of which Spain can boast.”
From San Pedro we may follow the course of the little river Galligans to
the deserted monastery of San Daniel, dating as a building from the
eleventh century. In 1015 the original foundations were sold by Bishop
Pedro Roger to Count Ramon Borell III. and his wife Ermesindes, for one
hundred ounces of gold. The Countess erected a monastery, which was
completed by the less fortunate wife of Ramon Cap d’Estopa. The west
front and nave are Gothic, the chancel and lantern in good Romanesque
style. In front of the sanctuary a flight of steps leads down to the
shrine of the titular saint, whose tomb dates from the fourteenth
century.
* * * * *
North of Gerona lies FIGUERAS, accounted the strongest fortress in
Spain. Like so many other “impregnable” strongholds, it has been taken
again and again, so often, in fact, as to give rise to the saying,
“Figueras belongs to Spain in peace, and to France in war.” It is only
fair to add that in several instances its fall has been due to
treachery. In a miserable chamber in the castle of San Fernando died
Mariano Alvarez de Castro, a prisoner in the hands of the French. The
guide-books speak of a religious procession which takes place here on
the last Monday in May, and is called the Profaso de la Tramontana,
after the north wind, which blows here with great violence.
In the vicinity of Figueras is the church of Villabertrán, dating from
the end of the eleventh century. Designed by a priest it exhibits,
remarks a Spanish writer, in every detail the ecclesiastical bias. All
animal figures are excluded as tending to disturb religious
recollection. The interior is nobly designed but destitute of all
ornament. “In this temple everything appeals to the reason, nothing to
the imagination; these low dark vaults dissipate illusions; the thought
of death oppresses the mind; but the eyes discern a gleam of light in
the darkness of the sanctuary, and the soul hungrily seeks a gleam of
faith in the gloom of doubt.”
Of a similarly severe character is the adjacent cloister. The campanile
of the church alone presents any airy or graceful features. The whole
foundation would have been spared even by Knox or Calvin.
On the bay of Rosas, the town of Castellón de Ampurias recalls the great
city of Empurias which was founded by the Greeks, and utterly perished
at the end of the twelfth century. It was among those great maritime
powers which for long resisted the encroachments of the Carthaginians,
and which fell in turn before the irresistible arms of Rome--reminders
for us of the days when the fate of the Mediterranean still hung in the
balance, and it was yet uncertain whether the civilisation of Europe
should be Hellenic, Punic or Latin. The destruction of Empurias is
ascribed partly to the Saracens, partly to the Normans. Whoever
accomplished the work did it thoroughly, for nothing but the name
survives of this once rich and puissant colony of Hellenes.
Castellón de Ampurias is a Latin foundation, with which time has dealt
unkindly. Its parish church of Santa Maria is a noble monument of its
prime. It was consecrated in 1064 and finished in the late Gothic
period. To this last style belongs the west porch, with a pointed arch
of six orders, and the figures of the Twelve Apostles beneath canopies
in the jambs. The tympanum shows a relief of the Adoration of the Magi.
Contrasting strikingly with this carefully chiselled and graceful Gothic
work is the stern square campanile to the left, a remnant of the
Romanesque days. The interior is early Gothic. The combination of this
with the preceding style is strikingly shown in the principal apse. The
altar, a single piece of marble, is carved with reliefs which exhibit
(says Pi y Margall) the artist’s breadth of imagination rather than his
skill.
Further inland is the venerable abbey of San Pedro de Roda, founded in
the tenth century, and abandoned by the religious in the year 1799.
To-day the monastic buildings are in utter ruin, but enough of the
church remains to fill us with admiration for the loftiness of its nave,
the harmonious admixture of the Romanesque with the pure classic forms,
the skilful decoration of the various parts, and the sombre majesty of
the whole.
THE VALLEY OF THE TER
The river Ter, which washes the walls of Gerona, is born among the snows
of the Puigmal, the loftiest of the Eastern Pyrenees. Its stream is
still ice-cold when it flows past the little town of San Juan de las
Abadesas, which changed its name from Ripollet upon the foundation of an
abbey within its precincts by Wilfred the Hairy, Count of Barcelona, in
the year 877. The Count’s daughter was the first Abbess. The present
abbatial church replaced the original structure in 1150. It is strictly
cruciform, consisting of a nave and transept without aisles. There are
only two columns in the church, these being planted at the entrance to
the presbytery. The chancel is in the florid late Gothic style,
contrasting oddly with the extreme simplicity of the rest of the fabric.
Behind the altar is a figure of Christ, sculptured in the year 1250; in
the forehead, it is believed, is contained a Host, which has preserved
its integrity for seven centuries, and which it was found impossible to
remove in the year 1598. The church has two choirs, both blocking the
nave. The north and south porches were reserved respectively for men
and women. The adjoining cloister is in good fifteenth-century style,
and was probably designed or improved by the architect of the Palacio de
la Diputacion at Barcelona.
Five or six miles farther down the valley stands Ripoll, one of the
towns that suffered most severely during the Carlist wars. It has,
however, long since recovered from its reverses. Unfortunately the
damage done to the monastery founded by Wilfred the Hairy cannot be
repaired. As the Mausoleum of the counts from the ninth to the twelfth
century, it possessed great interest. The church, built by Bishop Oliva
about the thousandth year of our era, is roofless. The nave terminates
in an apse, and there are three smaller apses opening from the east into
each transept. The special glory of the building is its west porch,
formed by a rounded arch with three shafts in each jamb. The middle
shafts are carved into life-size figures of St. Peter and St. Paul; the
others are most beautifully chiselled. The orders of the arch are
variously treated; caprices, grotesques, masques, mythological designs
being interwoven with more appropriate religious symbols. One series of
reliefs appears to represent the twelve months.
The façade on either side of this portal is similarly decorated with
graphic reliefs in six courses, the lowest representing scenes in which
centaurs, lions, &c., figure; above this is a row of figures of knights,
princes, and prelates; above this, battle scenes, then come two rows of
sacred figures and subjects, and finally the figure of God the Father
attended by angels and princes. The whole of this portal is of profound
interest to students of the Romanesque.
The interior of the church was restored as lately as twenty years ago.
All styles seem to have entered into its architecture. Instead of
columns, massive piers support the vaulting, and mark off the aisles
from the nave. The chancel--merely a shallow apsidal prolongation of the
nave--is strewn with the ruins of the high altar and the roof.
The cloister of the monastery is the most interesting part. It is
composed of an upper and lower gallery of round arches, uninterrupted by
any piers or buttresses. The harmony of the whole is admirable. The
columns are of Gerona marble, and pinkish grey in hue. Variety is
imparted by the capitals whereon the unknown sculptor has expended his
fanciful, nervous genius. The upper gallery was not completed till the
end of the fourteenth century, though the cloister had been begun as far
back as 1172.
Farther down stream is Vich, a town constantly referred to in the annals
of the Carlist wars. As the history of that insurrection is not well
known to foreigners, visitors are more likely to be interested in the
monuments that have survived those troubled times. The cathedral was
built in 1040--a date which sounds promising; but alas! the architects
of the eighteenth century have forestalled us, and have worked their
wicked will upon a once noble church. The artistic eye will not linger
upon the exterior, but it may find some refreshment in the majestic
nave, divided from the aisles by six clustered columns, with Corinthian
capitals. When the church was rebuilt, all the tombs were swept away,
and none of the altars spared, except the high altar, which is a
meritorious work of the early fifteenth century. As at Ripoll, there is
a fine cloister built five hundred years ago. The gallery, with its
pointed openings and trefoil and quatrefoil tracery, is built over a
substructure with round arched open vaults. The centre of the quadrangle
is occupied by the statue and monument of the philosopher Balmes, who
was born at Vich and died in 1848, aged only thirty-eight years. He is
buried in the cathedral nave.
Outside this church there is little to be seen in the old Catalan town.
The remains of a Roman temple are worth examination, and the artist may
find plenty of material for sketches in the picturesque Plaza Mayor.
From Vich it is about forty-five miles to Barcelona.
LERIDA
Lerida is another of those Catalan cities that remind one of the saying
about new wine in old bottles. Seen from afar it is clearly one of those
old human hives that have existed on the same spot ever since man felt
the need of a permanent abode--you have the hill-site, the walls, the
towers, the flowing river, the mediæval aspect. You observe with delight
a humpbacked bridge, such as (with a total disregard for beasts of
burden) our pious ancestors loved to build. And over all rises the
cathedral--or, as we shall soon learn, what was the cathedral. But on a
closer inspection we find that time has by no means left Lerida
untouched. Already she has overflowed into the opposite side of the
stream, and there is a big new suburb with wide white streets,
spaciously planned squares, and avenues along which the trees are
beginning to grow. And as you cross the humpbacked bridge, you observe
that the centre arch is quite new, and as you enter the old town, you
are astonished by the stir and the modernity of it all. It is just like
Smyrna or Damascus. Every one has been too busy to build the town over
again. Its poor old rickety houses, in which men designed to lead only
the sedatest of lives, have been hastily requisitioned for the service
of modern industry and commerce. The low rooms are packed with
merchandise, the frail houses seem like to burst. The underground
cellars come in very handily. Lerida is very much alive. Some day she
will have to pull her house down and build a new one altogether.
Probably no one would have come to Lerida--no strangers of the
uncommercial variety, that is--if Street had not told us about the old
cathedral, since turned into a barracks. Nor without his detailed and
professional description would the average traveller be able to make
much of the building. The purposes to which it has been put have
obscured the outlines of the features of the original fabric. But you
cannot overlook it for it stands high on the hill like a citadel, which,
indeed, it has now become.
Lerida--which the Catalans, by the way, call Lleyda--was known to the
Romans as Ilerda, and when they turned Christian, they built a church on
this site. This, it is supposed, became a mosque during the brief
Moorish period, to be reconsecrated on the reappearance of the
Christians. The first stone of the actual building was laid on July 22,
1203, in the presence of King Pedro II., and the consecration took
place on October 31, 1278.
(People often wonder why we do not build cathedrals nowadays equal to
the old. One of the reasons may be that we are in too great a hurry. In
the Middle Ages no man expected to see the completion of the work he
began. They were animated by a strong communal sense, different from the
individualism of to-day.)
The excellent bishop and chapter of Lerida in the year 1707 thought the
cathedral too old for their requirements, and having already
commissioned a military architect to build them a new church in the city
below, thither they removed. By a fair exchange the military took
possession of the cathedral. They willingly display it to you, and the
non-commissioned officer who shows you round seems less in a hurry to
get the visit over than your clerical cicerone usually is.
The lay traveller in attempting to understand this church has always to
refer himself to the explanation of Street or else to that of Piferrer,
which is certainly not so intelligible. In plan, then, the church is
cruciform with three eastern apses and square transept arms. Another
apse projects eastward from the south transept, which is flanked on the
other side by a semicircular chapel, pointing south. Over the crossing
rises an octagonal lantern, roofed like the whole church with stone,
and pierced in each face with double windows with varied tracery. At its
north-west angle is a slender octagonal staircase turret, rising from
the south-west angle of the north transept. There is a similar but
stouter tower, detached from the lantern, rising over the south
transept. These towers give the whole pile a romantic and beautiful
appearance.
The principal portal, called in the Catalan dialect the Puerta dels
Fillols, opens into the middle of the south aisle. “This [says our
authority] is an example of singularly rich transitional work, with an
archivolt enriched with chevrons, mouldings, dog-tooth, intersecting
arches, and elaborate foliage. There is the usual horizontal cornice
over the arch, and above this is a fourteenth-century statue of the
Blessed Virgin Mary and Our Lord. The horizontal cornice is carried on
moulded corbels, between which and the wall are carvings of wyverns and
other animals; whilst the soffit of the cornice in each compartment is
carved with delicate tracery panels, in some of which I thought I
detected some trace of Moorish influence. The cornice has a delicate
trailing branch of foliage; and the labels and two or three orders of
the arch, in which sculpture of foliage is introduced, are remarkable
for the singular delicacy and refinement of the lines of the foliage,
and for the exceeding skill with which they have been wrought. There is
none of that reckless dash which marks our carvers nowadays, but in its
place a patient elaboration of lovely forms, which cannot too much be
praised. The mouldings here are all decidedly characteristic by a
later--probably fifteenth-century--vaulted porch, which occupies the
space between two added chapels. The effect is very good and
picturesque.”
The transept doors are also very fine, especially the southern one. The
cornice is beautifully sculptured and the wheel window above reveals in
its details the influence of the Italian Romanesque. These entrances
make us regret the effacement of the west porch, which is concealed by
the vast square cloister covering that side of the church. This
remarkable building, now occupied by troops, is the grandest, Street
declared, he had ever seen. In its present desecrated state, it must be
confessed it needs a highly trained eye to appreciate its beauty. The
arcades are walled up, and there is some ground for supposing that when
in ecclesiastical occupation the galleries were used as dormitory and
refectory. The details vary greatly. The bays vary in width, the
sculpture is of all sorts of design, and of all periods. Adjoining this
vast cloister on the north side is a long barrel-vaulted hall, lighted
only at one end. On the west side the cloister is entered through an
enormous western doorway with a pointed arch. South of this and almost
detached from the cloister stands that beautiful octagonal steeple which
served Pedro Balaguer as a model for the Micalet Tower at Valencia. It
is 170 feet high and divided into five stages, “the whole construction
being of the most dignified and solid description.”
Concerning the position of this tower, Street remarks: “Here, as often
happens with detached campaniles, the grouping of the steeple with the
church from various points of view is very diversified, and often very
striking. From its great height above the valley it is seen on all
sides, and generally at some distance. From the south, the grand size of
the cloister, which connects the steeple with the church, gives it
somewhat the effect of being in fact at the west end of an enormous
building, of which the cloister may be the nave; whilst the steeple
rears its whole height boldly to the right, and makes the whole scheme
of the work utterly unintelligible, until after a thorough
investigation.”
The interior of the church is now cut horizontally by a plank flooring,
and no features of interest can be distinguished, except in a single
apsidal chapel, which is still used as such, and where is buried a
natural son of King Pedro the Catholic, who died in 1254. Whitewash has
obscured all the details of capitals and columns.
Adjacent to the cathedral on the north side is the ruin of a once noble
hall, with traces of Moorish influence in its carving--possibly the
remains of a chapter-house or episcopal palace.
Far exceeding the cathedral in antiquity is the church of San Lorenzo
hard by, though it is not safe to accept the tradition of its Gothic
origin. It was certainly built prior to the twelfth century. Originally
just an apse and a nave, with walls eight feet thick and a span of
thirty-three feet, aisles each ending in an apse were added to it at a
much later period. They communicate with the nave by very simple pointed
arches, and their windows have good traceries of the late thirteenth
century. “The apse has a semi-dome and is lighted by three round-headed
windows, five inches wide in the clear, and has a corbel-table under the
eaves outside.”
The octagonal campanile dates from the fifteenth century, to which
period belongs the western gallery. There is a good deal of pointed work
in the church, which is gloomy and religious. The high altar, dating
from about 1400, has a reredos which is highly praised by some critics.
Lerida was the Salamanca of Aragon. Her university, founded in 1300 by
Jaime II., numbered the profligate Calixtus III. among its professors,
and Vicente Ferrer--the “angel of the judgment”--among its alumni. Ford
reminds us that Horace speaks of the place as a seat of learning in
Roman times, to which the troublesome youths of the capital were
banished. The town, like its Castilian prototype, has been famed for
arms as well as learning. It sustained a severe siege from Felipe IV.
himself in 1640, and withstood the assaults of the great Condé in 1640.
It owned the loss of its university to its devotion to the Archduke
Charles in the War of Succession, and (more directly) to the defeat
sustained close by, by the Bourbon king. At the same time the military
authorities made the clergy give up their cathedral.
Probably none of the ancient edifices of Lerida will interest you as
much as the market-place, surrounded by quaint old houses; entering, you
find the whole house is a great wine-press, the grapes, trodden on the
ground floor, pouring their juice into the cellars below.
* * * * *
Higher up the Segre is the historic town of Balaguer, the Bargusia of
Livy, and the capital of the ancient county of Urgel. The counts had
their residence in the “Beautiful Castle” (“Castillo hermoso”) which
overlooked the town and has now totally disappeared. There are a few
ruins of the once famous priory of Santo Domingo. The site of the
castle is occupied by the church of Santa Maria, built in 1351. It is a
dignified, simple edifice, of a single nave with lateral chapels. The
Trappist monastery of Bellpuig de las Avellanas a little way out of the
town is another and better preserved monument of the piety of the old
Counts of Urgel whose line expired with Jaime el Desdichado at the
beginning of the fifteenth century.
Still going northward, and without crossing the limits of the old
country, we reach the venerable town of Agramunt, notable for its late
Romanesque church with a portal similar to the Puerta dels Fillols at
Lerida. We reach at last Seo de Urgel at the very foot of the Pyrenees.
As a see, the place is of immemorial antiquity. Its bishops (who are
co-sovereigns with France of the Republic of Andorra) attained the
zenith of their power and splendour in the eleventh century. The town
has figured in every border war and was the seat of the audacious
reactionary caucus which called itself a regency and declared Ferdinand
VII. unfit to govern while he was obedient to the constitution.
The actual cathedral was consecrated by Bishop Eribal in 1040, but its
construction lasted well on into the next century. It resembles a church
of southern France more than one of Cataluña. The façade is divided
vertically by two buttresses, horizontally by string courses into three
stages, the lowest of which is pierced by the simple round arched west
porch, the middle by three round-headed windows, the highest forming a
sort of attic, by a round-headed window and two _rosaces_. The interior
is divided into a nave and aisles with transept and lantern. The
treasury is interesting for its collection of documents dating back to
the time of the Carlovingian kings.
Returning from Lerida to Barcelona we pass the castle of Bellpuig, the
seat of the great family of Anglesola--a massive fortress of red stone,
restored in the sixteenth century. Its magnificent staircase still gives
one some idea of the pomp and state of its former lords. The village
extends from the castle to the church--a situation which inspired the
erudite topographer of this country (Piferrer) with reflections that
remind one of Don Quixote’s address to the goatherds. The church
contains the tomb of Don Ramon de Cordova, one of the ablest lieutenants
of Gonzalo de Cordova. His effigy, armed and holding his helmet,
reclines in a sleeping posture on an urn adorned with reliefs of marine
gods and monsters and upheld on the backs of sirens, whose hands are
webbed; the sepulchral arch is formed by six Ionic columns, against
which lean figures expressive of mourning; over the tomb is a relief of
the Entombment. In niches on each side of the arch are two life-size
figures emblematic of Victory; above them, two figures leaning forth
from medallions appear to extend laurels toward the hero. The plinth and
cornice of this superb tomb are adorned with reliefs illustrating the
victories and achievements of the deceased, who was as distinguished as
an admiral as a general. His body remains in the urn practically
incorrupt. The tomb is the work of Juan Nolano.
This work has been brought here from the ruined Franciscan friary,
founded a few miles from Bellpuig by the knight in the year 1507. The
cloister is fairly well preserved. The two lower galleries--a third has
been added since the foundation--are in debased Gothic style. The second
gallery is formed by eleven rectangular columns, like those of the Lonja
at Valencia, with four bands of moulding wreathed round each and
gathered in at the capitals. The convent church is also of interest and
is connected with the cloister by a fine staircase.
From Bellpuig we pass on to Cervera, to which Philip V. transferred the
university from Lerida in 1717. This is the famous body which
proclaimed, in the enlightened reign of Fernando VII., its horror of the
fatal habit of thinking (“Lejos de nosotros a mania funesta de pensar”).
Notwithstanding, it was closed in 1823, and finally suppressed or rather
transferred to Barcelona in 1842. This singular university was housed
in a building opened in 1740, which still dominates the whole town; it
is a huge tasteless structure, a rather suitable home for learned fools.
Nothing seems to have been determined with regard to its ultimate
destiny, and the whole town has a frustrate and somewhat hopeless air.
The church of Santa Maria is not devoid of beauty and interest. One of
the porches appears to be a survival of an earlier Romanesque structure,
and is surmounted by a relief of St. Martin sharing his cloak with the
beggar. The tombs are also worthy of note.
TARRAGONA
Tarragona stands high and nobly on the coast of Cataluña looking east
towards Rome, as her million citizens did when the Cæsars ruled, and she
gave her name to the vast province of Tarraconensis. The Phœnicians were
here, of course, before the Romans; they called the place Tarchon, and
found it already strengthened by walls which remain to this day. Publius
and Cneius Scipio wrested the town from Carthage, and afterwards the
lords of the world gratified the city with the titles of _victrix_,
_togata_, and _turrita_. “It had a mint and temples to every god,
goddess and tutelar; nay, the servile citizens erected one to the
emperor, _Divo_ Augusto, thus making him a god while yet alive.” Since
that time, Tarragona has not flourished, though it was for a brief
interval the capital of the Visigoths. Desolated by the Moors, it was
given at the reconquest to a Norman adventurer whose wife, in his
absence, proved as doughty a warrior as he. And now shrunk and
depopulated, the once imperial city stares in a sort of mellow calm for
ever seaward, as if plunged in reveries on the glorious past.
High over the town, on the crest of the slope, towers the cathedral.
“This,” says Street (and none will disagree with him), “is one of the
most noble and interesting churches in Spain. It is one of a class of
which I have seen others upon a somewhat smaller scale (as, _e.g._, the
cathedrals at Lerida and Tudela) and which appears to me, after much
study of old buildings in most parts of Europe, to afford one of the
finest types from every point of view that it is possible to find. It
produces in very marked degree an extremely effective internal effect,
without being on an exaggerated scale, and combines in the happiest
fashion the greatest solidity of construction with a lavish display of
ornament in some parts to which it is hard to find a parallel.” Roughly
speaking, it may be described as Romanesque, with adornment of the
Gothic period. The delicacy and richness of the later style has relieved
the crudeness of the earlier, while the severity of the original plan
has kept in check the tendency to be profuse of ornament.
Schemes were on foot to rebuild the church at the end of the eleventh
century and Street thinks the oldest part--that is, the eastern
apse--may date from 1131, though the greater portion of the fabric
(including the nave and its aisles and the cloister) seems to have been
executed at the end of the twelfth and during the first half of the
thirteenth century; and it is very possible, therefore, that the brother
Bernardus, who died in 1256, may have been the architect of the larger
part of the existing fabric, both of the church and its cloister.
The west front is striking; it was begun in 1278, but not completed for
another hundred years. The lower half is occupied by a deep-set portal
of four orders, rising to a point. The jambs are occupied by figures of
saints under canopies, and these are continued round the two buttresses
which flank the doorway and end in pinnacles. The shaft is formed by a
statue of the Madonna upon a pedestal, the sides of which exhibit in
relief the scenes of the Creation and Fall. “These subjects are very
fitly placed here, the Fall in the centre coming just under the feet of
her who bears Our Lord in her arms, and thus restores the balance to the
world.” (Street.) The tympanum is pierced with rich geometrical tracery.
Over and behind the cross surmounting this grand doorway is an enormous
rose-window. The whole is surmounted by a gable, the central portion of
which has disappeared, giving a somewhat ruinous appearance to the
church when seen from a distance. Flanking this, the front of the nave,
are the round-arched entrances to the aisles, with round windows above,
betraying Norman influence. Ford states that the great rose-window is
Norman work.
The interior is grand and impressive in the extreme, though a trifle
marred by the heaviness of the pillars. There is no triforium. The
pointed windows of the clerestory are filled with glass vividly
coloured, much of it modern, some of it the work of Juan Guas, specimens
of whose craftmanship are to be seen at Toledo. The aisles are half the
height of the nave, the intervening space being pierced with small
rose-windows. At festivals the arches are hung with precious tapestries,
designed after the Italian fashion with scenes from the histories of
Joshua, Samson, David, and Cyrus. They are believed to have been
presented by some potentate to the chapter about the year 1600.
While the columns are massive and plain, the bases are finely moulded
and the capitals are carved with exuberant foliage. The choir screen is
of marble and jasper; the stalls are plainly and chastely carved. Over
the crossing rises a low, simple, but effective octagonal lantern. “The
old outside roof is destroyed; but the finish of the lanterns of Lerida
and of the old cathedral of Salamanca made it pretty certain that it was
intended to have a pyramidal or domical stone roof.” The transepts are
square, except for an apsidal recess at the east side of each. The nave
and aisles end in apses--the oldest part of the edifice. The roof of the
chancel apse is considerably lower than the choir’s, and the wall-space
is pierced with a small rose-window. This part of the church is pure
Romanesque. The high altar, however, is Gothic, and adorned with
admirable reliefs, illustrating the martyrdom and apotheosis of St.
Thecla, the patron of Tarragona. The centre is occupied by a colossal
statue of the Virgin, covered by a very high peaked canopy of wood. To
the right of the altar is the tomb of Archbishop Alfonso de Aragon, who
died in 1514, and to the left a tomb older by two hundred years, that of
Juan de Aragon, Patriarch of Alexandria. The remains of Cyprian, a
Visigothic bishop of the see, are contained in an urn behind the
reredos. The tombs are not very fine or numerous for a cathedral so
ancient and so splendid.
At the south side of the chancel, at its junction with the apse, is a
very remarkable stone turret stair, leading up to a square tower which
rises over the end of the south aisle. There was probably at one time a
corresponding steeple on the north side.
The chapels, though they have undergone considerable restoration, are
interesting and possess much architectural interest. In the beautiful
north transept is the fourteenth-century chapel of the Tailors (de los
Sastres). Close by is the Capilla del Sacramento, formerly a Roman work,
and incorporated with the cathedral by Archbishop Augustin (1561-1586)
whose fine tomb, by Pere Blay, it contains. The chapel was at one time
the canon’s refectory. Several ancient tombs from the other parts of the
cathedral have been placed in this transept. On the opposite side of the
church is the gorgeous eighteenth-century chapel of St. Thecla.
The cloister adjoins the north-east angle of the cathedral--a most
unusual position. The door communicating with it is the finest in the
building. It is a round-arched doorway richly and curiously sculptured
in the Romanesque style. This cloister is considered one of the best of
the many beautiful works of the kind in Spain. “Each bay has three
round-arched openings divided by coupled shafts, and above these two
large circles pierced in the wall. The arches and circular windows are
richly moulded and adorned largely with delicate dog-tooth enrichments.
Some of the circular windows above the arcade still retain their
filling-in, which was of a very delicate interlacing work, pierced in a
thin slab of stone, and evidently Moorish in its origin, though at the
same time probably the work of Christian hands, as in some of them the
figure of Christ is very beautifully introduced.” The sculptors have
adorned the capitals with all sorts of quaint conceits, notably in one
case with a pictorial rendering of the story of the rats who went to
bury the cat without first tying her limbs. On another capital there is
shown a spirited gladiatorial combat; on another, a cock-fight. These
purely secular subjects where the sculptor seems to have indulged his
humour and fancy absolutely without restraint, remind us of the
“topical” carvings at Oviedo. Their humour has not escaped O’Shea, who,
speaking of the Adoration of the Magi, carved on one of the pillars of
the doorway from the church, says: “The three kings of the east are
economically sleeping three in the same bed, and wakened early by a
winged valet de chambre, that they may rise and proceed on their journey
to Bethlehem.” The words “6th Company,” &c., to which this writer and
others call attention, to be seen on the walls, are reminders of the
passage of British troops here.
The chapter-house, the scene of many important councils, opens out of
the south gallery of the cloister. The door is Norman. The exterior,
like that of the cloister and cathedral generally, is most striking. The
apse and the Tailors’ chapel are particularly fine seen from the
outside.
Contented with their magnificent cathedral the people of Tarragona have
done little to adorn their city with smaller churches. Adjacent to the
seminary there stands the graceful little chapel of San Pablo, the
origin of which is still a matter of conjecture. Its architectural
features suggest the first half of the thirteenth century, with the
exception of its west porch, which belongs to no recognised style. The
chapel is first mentioned in a document of the year 1234.
These edifices apart, the Middle Ages have done little for _Tarraco
togata_. Its remaining monuments belong to its infancy and prime. The
Cyclopean walls, now declared a national monument, extend from near the
Puerta del Rosario to the crest of the hill on which the city stands,
and thence to the eastern angle of the ancient prætorium, now converted
into a prison. The base of this wall is formed by huge blocks of unhewn
stones, uncemented, and with their interstices filled by smaller stones.
The character of the work bespeaks the primitive nature of the builders.
On this rude foundation rests the more regular work of the Roman
conquerors. The _enceinte_ formed by these walls is of the shape of an
irregular polygon, measuring three-quarters of a mile across, and open
on one side. The angles are defended by square towers, and the curtains
are pierced by gates, to some of which the name “Puerta ciclopea” is
given. The Puerta del Rosario, called in the Middle Ages “Portal de
Predicadors,” is about eight yards thick and is roofed by an enormous
block of stone about 36,000 kilogrammes in weight. On the stones
composing the Roman part of the wall, Iberian letters are traced. These
were merely masons’ marks for the guidance of the native workmen, and
form no words. The Torre del Arzobispo was raised in Christian times on
the old Roman tower. The wall extending to the Torre del Capiscol is
attributed to the Scipios, and dates in any case from their time. The
principal Roman gate, called the Puerta del Socarro, is a noble work
formed by three concentric arches. Passing through this we obtain a fine
view of the strip of wall built by order of Hadrian, and may re-enter
the city by the eighteenth-century gate of San Antonio, which pierced a
wall built or restored by Norman adventurers in the twelfth century.
Within the city itself not much remains from Roman times. The sites of
the forum, the prætorium, and the great temples may be traced easily
enough, and stones hewn by Roman hands and commemorating often enough
Roman dead, are embedded in the walls of houses and churches all over
the town. The local museum contains a few of the spoils of antiquity.
There is a beautiful statue of Dionysus in Parian marble, and a great
variety of votive inscriptions. For more substantial memorials of the
Roman era we must leave the city and follow the Barcelona road some four
or five miles. Here we reach the celebrated monument known as the Tomb
of the Scipios, consisting of a rectangular base and an upper body, on
one face of which are sculptured in high relief the figures of two
warriors. The cornice is engraved with a legend in which the words
“perpetuo remane” are alone decipherable. There is no ground whatever
for supposing that the figures represent the brothers Scipio or that
this monument marks their resting-place. It is more probably the
sepulchre of some wealthy Roman settler.
The Arco de Bara is one of the best preserved monuments in Spain. The
arch itself is flanked on each side by two fluted columns of the
Corinthian order, supporting an entablature. It is simple and majestic,
like all the Roman works of the kind. An inscription records its
restoration in commemoration of the pacification of Spain during the
regency of Maria Christina and by order of Don Juan van Halen, the
Spanish general who in 1830 assisted at the defence of Brussels against
the Dutch.
The noblest handiwork bequeathed to Cataluña by the conquerors of the
world is, however, the Aqueduct, which may be compared favourably as
regards preservation and solidity with the more famous work of the same
kind at Segovia. Where it spans a valley it is composed of two series of
arches, eleven below and twenty-five above, and rising to a height of
217 metres. The stone of which it is built was Obtained from the caves
of Monte Loreto, where the quarries may still be seen.
Then there is Centcellas, on the banks of the little river Francoli,
supposed to be on the site of the villa where Hadrian lodged. Part of
the old _Thermæ_ remains--a stone chamber square without and circular
within; while another building seems to incorporate the ruins of an
early Christian structure, including a mosaic of the Ravenna type.
POBLET
About thirty-four miles from Tarragona, near the station of La Espluga,
stands the ancient fane of Poblet, the Escorial of Aragon. It bears
(according to tradition) the name of a hermit who in the first part of
the twelfth century was three times captured by the Saracens and as
often was miraculously released, whereupon the paynim king, recognising
that he had to do with a man protected by heaven, endowed him with all
the lands hereabouts, to be enjoyed by him and his brother hermits. In
proof of this story, the religious triumphantly pointed to a
venerable-looking parchment inscribed with Arabic characters, which they
said and believed was the original deed of gift, and as no one could
read it no one was able to throw doubt on the story. In 1496 a Moorish
prince examined the document and contented himself with observing that
it was not dated in the twelfth century but in the year 1217. However,
no one paid any attention to this assertion, and the legend was repeated
till on the dismantling of the monastery in the last century the
document at last came under the critical eye of Don Pascual de
Gayangos, who confirmed the Moor’s correction and pronounced the
so-called deed simply a general permit to the monks to pass through and
travel freely in the Moorish dominions south of the Ebro.
The foundation of the abbey may now be ascribed with safety to Count
Ramon Berenguer IV., who, having conquered the territory of Lerida,
bestowed the lands of Poblet on the Cistercians of Fontfroide near
Narbonne, who, to the number of twelve, took possession of the site in
the year 1150, Don Esteban being abbot. The monastery soon rose fair and
strong, and prospered exceedingly under the favour of the Kings of
Aragon, who made of it their official place of sepulture. The wealth of
the community was enormous, the power of the abbot extended over
fifty-six villages, but from all this prosperity resulted a falling away
from monastic simplicity, till the holy men would not sit down to table
unless two partridges were placed on their dishes. In the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, they could find no better employment for their
wealth than in loading their beautiful abbey with the atrocious
sculpture and ornament of the period; and then in 1835 came the
anti-clericals and swept out the monks and their _baroque_ rubbish with
them. What the mob spared, the collectors and villagers
annexed--precious manuscripts, vestments, statuary, all were carted
away; and ruinous and forlorn, as it now stands, Poblet would have
rejoiced the heart of the author of the stern Cistercian rule.
It is a vast and embattled pile that greets the eyes of the traveller,
encircled by a crenellated wall which is pierced by a richly sculptured
gate built in 1460 and so richly gilded a hundred years later as to
merit the name of the Puerta Dorada. Enclosed by these outer
fortifications is another line of wall twice as high as the first,
which, together with its twelve towers, was built in the fourteenth
century. To the right of the entrance and still in the outer ward we
have the little church of San Jorge, built by Alfonso V. in honour of
the patron saint of Aragon in 1541, and the chapel of Santa Catalina,
believed to have formed part of the primitive building. In the outer
ward may also be distinguished the remains of numerous other buildings,
such as the Abbot’s house, the Hospice, and the Bridewell, reserved for
female offenders against the Abbot’s jurisdiction.
The inner ward is reached through a gatehouse of the Edwardine type,
flanked by heavily machicolated drum-towers, and decorated with the
escutcheons of Aragon and Castile. We approach the church, founded by
Ramon Berenguer, but substantially the work of his son and successor.
The ugly Græco-Roman façade marks the ancient west front, which is
approached across an atrium called the Galilee. The church is in the
form of an elongated Latin cross. The simplicity of the
architecture--its absolute freedom from ornament--illustrated the early
Cistercian ideals. The aisles are of seven bays, and the chapels are
confined to the south aisle and apse. There were once seventeen altars
in the church, of which only four were kept up by the monastery, the
rest being at the charge of individuals and corporations. All these,
including the high altar, have been stripped of their ornamentations and
accessories, and of the once magnificent choir only a fragment of the
screen remains. Piferrer, who saw the monastery in its prime, gives a
detailed account of it, and enumerated the tombs it contained. He speaks
of the imposing entrance to the royal mausoleum, between the chancel and
the choir. On the Epistle side lay Don Alfonso of Barcelona (II. of
Aragon), opposite him was the sarcophagus of James the Conqueror, near
him lay Pedro the Ceremonious. In addition to these monarchs Juan I.,
Martin, Fernando I., Alfonso V. and Juan II. of Aragon were buried here,
with eight queens, thirty-six infantes and nine infantas. Here lies
Carlos Prince of Viana, the illustrious scion of the house of Navarre;
here were the last resting-places of Aurembiax, Countess of Urgel and
the last princess of her house; here lay the proud Cardonas and the
noble knights and ladies of the Moncada and Anglesola lines. Nearly all
the tombs that had not already been despoiled of their carving and
marbles have been removed to Tarragona. Of those remaining, the best
preserved is that of the Infanta Juana, with its figures relieved
against thick blue glass.
The north side of the church abuts on the great cloister, dating in its
greater part from the thirteenth century. The windows on the south side
are round-headed, those on the other three sides pointed, with good
traceries. Through a round-headed arch we enter the chapter-house,
divided into three aisles by four pillars, so slender as in no way to
interrupt the view of the whole. The groining springs so gracefully from
the capitals that the pillars themselves have the appearance of shooting
up and bending like the branches of a tree. Then there is the library
which once contained 10,145 volumes, including 385 valuable codices, and
250 MSS. in various styles of handwriting--forming a complete museum of
calligraphy. This library is a noble chamber divided by four columns.
Its walls were once hung with the portraits of the Kings of Aragon and
their great nobles. Reminiscent of the brave days of old is the charming
façade of the palace built by good King Martin and intended by him to
be a retreat in his old age. He died before its completion and the work
was abandoned.
You may still traverse miles of cloister and hall at Poblet strewn with
broken tablets, overgrown with shrubs and climbing plants. One of the
most beautiful of the galleries is the Novices’ Dormitory, roofed in
with timber; then there are the locutorium, the only spot where
conversation was permitted between the recluses; the infirmary and the
beautiful cloister of San Fernando, built in 1415 by order of the first
king of that name, the little chapel of the saint, founded by the Count
of Barcelona, and the royal apartments, built in 1375.
SANTA CREUS
Santa Creus is the sister foundation of Poblet from which it is distant
about five leagues. It was also founded by Ramon Berenguer IV. and
belonged to the Cistercian Order. Not so large as Poblet, this abbey of
the Holy Crosses is equally severe and chaste, and of the two, is
distinguished more by its artistic harmony. The church is one of the
most finished works of the age and style. Its front is discovered
immediately on entering the monastery, raised on a terrace above the
long and spacious court round which are grouped the conventual
buildings. The battlements above the façade are a recent and incongruous
addition. The west porch is finely moulded and chiselled, and with the
rich foliage of the capitals creates a good impression. Another door,
symmetrical and elegant, leads into a cloister on the south side of the
church and was at one time flanked by the statues of Don Jaime II. and
his wife Blanca. The wall on this side bears an inscription to Bernard
Ranc, which is assumed to be the name of the architect. The church was
begun in the year 1174, and opened to public worship in 1211. It
preserves its altar, on which the light falls through a rose-window in
the apse. The principal objects of interest in the interior are the
noble tomb of Don Pedro the Great (who defeated the French and bound
Sicily to the throne of Aragon) and of Jaime II., who conquered Sardinia
and harried the Moors of Granada. King Pedro’s tomb consists of a great
porphyry urn supported by lions, which is believed to have been taken
from the infidels; and on this rests the stone coffin carved with
figures in high relief under pinnacled canopies. The tomb is covered by
a beautiful stone baldachin, with three traceried circles on each side
upheld by slender columns with elaborately carved capitals. The tomb of
Don Jaime is on the same plan, but is further adorned by the effigies of
the king and queen in the Cistercian habit, placed here, it seems
likely, long after the completion of the rest of the work. The tomb was
designed by Bertran Riquer, the architect of the royal palace of
Barcelona.
The church communicates with a spacious cloister with four sides of
seven bays, built at the beginning of the fourteenth century by order of
Queen Blanca. The traceries of the windows remaining here and there are
late Gothic, and contrast oddly with the severe lines and rude capitals
of the shafts. As at Poblet, in a corner of the cloister is a hexagonal
chamber said to have been a lavatory. A great number of persons of
distinction seem to have been buried in this cloister, in attendance,
one might say, upon their lords within the church. Among these was the
knight Queralt, who may been seen in effigy in a suit of fine mail, with
surcoat and greaves and girt with two-handed sword. Some of the figures
of divine persons to be seen over the tombs were evidently carved by
late fourteenth-century sculptors.
Here, as at Poblet, the Kings of Aragon had their habitations in life as
in death, and the courts of the ruined palaces of Don Pedro and Don
Jaime still bear some traces of the glory and culture of the greatest
maritime power of the Mediterranean of a bygone age.
VALLBONA
Vallbona, the third great royal abbey of Cataluña, is situated in the
province of Lerida, but on the borders of Tarragona, in a singularly
wild and remote district. Like Poblet, it is named after a hermit who in
the year 1157 founded here and at Colobres, monasteries for both sexes.
Twenty years later, both houses were formed into a single community of
Cistercian nuns, under the headship of Doña Oria de Ramiro. The pious
Anglesola of Vallbona is buried before the high altar in the company of
James the Conqueror. The church is gloomy, silent and severe. It is
entered through a Romanesque porch in the north transept, the west front
presenting an unbroken wall. Vallbona has also a noble cloister, with a
fine gallery in the Pointed style; on the north and the remaining
galleries in the Romanesque. In Piferrer’s time, pictures and monuments
relieved the excessive severity of the royal nunnery of Aragon, but now
there reigns a desolation and poverty which might have affrighted even
the hermit founder.
MONTSERRAT
Montserrat, easily accessible from Barcelona, is one of the four or five
renowned shrines of Christendom. The legend of its institution is one of
the quaintest and at the same time silliest in the annals of hagiology.
In the time, it seems, of Count Wilfred, the Henry of Barcelona, there
dwelt on the mountain a hermit named Guarin whose sanctity was famed
even to the ends of the earth. Church bells rang of their own accord
when he passed, and the forces of nature were at his beck and call. This
being so, when Richildis, the Count’s daughter (she was beautiful, of
course), became possessed of a devil, Guarin was at once called in to
turn him out. Such a task was a mere matter of an Ave and an invocation
on the part of the holy man; but the devil thus incontinently expelled
from the person of Richildis appears to have passed into the body of the
hermit. He conceived an unlawful passion for the maiden, who remained
with him after her cure, to learn the arts of sanctity. He succumbed to
temptation and consummated his crime by murdering the girl, cutting off
her head and burying her in his cave.
Stricken with remorse immediately after, the erstwhile holy man hurried
to Rome and confessed his crime. The Pope ordered him to return to
Montserrat on his hands and knees and never to resume an erect posture
till his pardon should be miraculously announced.
So faithfully did Guarin carry out the penance imposed that he crawled
for seven years about the mountain that he had once illumined with his
sanctity, living on grubs and roots and becoming to all intents and
purposes a wild animal. One day Count Wilfred, while out hunting,
noticed this strange beast and had him taken to his stables at
Barcelona. There Guarin abode some months, saying never a word but
pleasing his captors by his docility. One day he was led into the castle
to amuse the Count and his Court. But before he could perform any
tricks, the infant son of the Count, a baby but three months old, cried
out, “Arise Guarin, for God has pardoned you.” Whereupon the strange
beast rose up on his hind legs, praising God, and confessing his
enormous crimes.
In these days men were very much alive, and thrilled to the passions of
love and hate. But, touched by the miracle, the Count forgave the
murderer of his daughter, and set out with him for Montserrat to
disinter the body buried seven years before. But lo, when the fair form
was revealed, it throbbed with life, and a red line only showed where
her head had been severed from her neck.
Richildis was so grateful for her restoration to life that she
determined to devote the rest of it to the service of God. The Count
founded a monastery for both sexes, of which his daughter was abbess and
Guarin became a humble lay-brother.
A mere fairy tale, yet it is full of what was best in the mediæval
spirit--the conviction that no misfortune was irreparable, no crime
unredeemable, no sinner unreclaimable, that for all men and all things
there was indeed mercy and plentiful redemption.
Upon the invasion of the Arabs in 976 the nuns abandoned their convent,
but the monastery remained and was recognised as a regular community
about the time of Fernando and Isabel.
It is not, of course, to pray before the shrine of Guarin that pilgrims
climb the ragged sides of the saw-edged mountain. Long before the hermit
immortalised his name by his crime and his repentance, a miraculous
image of the Virgin, said to have been carved by St. Luke, and brought
to Spain by St. Peter, had been hidden, to save it from the infidels, in
one of the caverns. Nearly two hundred years after, its whereabouts was
revealed to some shepherds by lights and mysterious melodies. These
manifestations were repeated every Saturday--that being the day of the
week specially consecrated to the Virgin by the Church. The Bishop came
over to investigate the phenomenon, and on entering the cave whence the
sounds proceeded, they found the heavy image carved by St. Luke. So
heavy was it that it resisted all efforts to remove it; so there it
remained till the end of the sixteenth century, when it was found
possible to enshrine it in the present church.
Most of those who have seen the image are not favourably impressed, so
it is worth while to quote another opinion than the present writer’s. “I
cannot conceive [writes Mr. Herbert Vivian] that any one who has been
privileged to behold it can deny the imposing majesty of its expression.
It inspires awe rather than the sympathy and compassion which we are
accustomed to associate with Our Blessed Lady. Indeed, those who change
its vestments on holy days, say that it fills them with fear, that they
do not dare to look it in the face. In the Virgin’s right hand is a
globe, from which springs a fleur-de-lis. The crowns worn by her and the
infant Christ are of prodigious valve, being of pure gold and containing
no fewer than 3500 precious stones, many of them of exceeding size and
purity. Like everything else at Montserrat, they are of modern origin,
all the old valuables having been carried off by French troopers in
1811. In front of the image are two little staircases of walnut-wood by
which those who wish to kiss its hand may ascend and descend.”
As buildings, the church and monastery of Montserrat are wholly
destitute of interest. But they have their memories. Ignatius Loyola,
during the process of conversion, passed long hours at the feet of the
Virgin of Montserrat; Don John of Austria, before the altar of the
Immaculate Conception, swore to maintain the doctrine of the Virgin’s
freedom from original sin, against all and sundry, at the sword’s point,
and the victory of Lepanto was gained perhaps in fulfilment of that vow.
There is a monastic seminary on the mountain, also an extremely ancient
and aristocratic foundation. The boys have some curious customs. On the
feast of St. Nicholas, the patron of youth, they elect one of their
number Bishop, who entertains them all to dinner and heads the visits
which they pay to all the monks in turn.
But if as a shrine Montserrat has little to attract the curious, as a
mountain it is without rival for picturesque and strange grandeur. So
fantastic is the conformation that in all ages it has been regarded with
a certain superstitious awe. The caves with which it is honeycombed are
full of mystery and fascination. They extend and ramify in all
directions, constituting a veritable subterranean city. At all times
they have served as asylums to the natives of the surrounding country
when threatened by invaders. On one occasion the French discovered a
party of peasants in such a retreat and would have attacked them had not
one of the Catalans told them that a single explosion would bring all
the surrounding rocks upon their heads. Whether this was true or false
the soldiers did not care to prove, and they hastily withdrew.
There are plenty of people in Cataluña still who believe in the
wonder-working properties of the Virgin of Montserrat, and newly married
couples come up by the funicular railway to spend a night on the
mountain, in the hope of thereby assuring themselves of a numerous
family.
We may trace the footprints of St. Ignatius to Manresa, a name dear to
the Jesuit in all lands, and borne by the Manchester of Cataluña. It is
a lively, picturesque town, built on an amphitheatre of hills on the
left bank of the Cardoner. High over the factories towers the Collegiate
Church begun in 1328 and finished, probably, a hundred years later. It
is one of those wide-naved churches characteristic of the principality,
its span of nave is, in fact, greater than that of any cathedral with
aisles, except Palma. An interesting peculiarity is the flying
buttresses built partly in and partly outside the church. Over the first
roof rises an impressive bell tower. The interior is disappointing. The
side chapels are Gothic. There is some good glass in the clerestory
windows, and the organ displays one of those Saracens’ heads we so often
find in Catalan churches. In the archives are some interesting pictures
by local artists, reminding one of Byzantine work, and there also is
preserved that altar frontal which excited the fervent admiration of
Street. In a vault beneath the presbytery are treasured the relics of
St. Agnes and St. Maurice, translated here from Vienne on the Rhône in
the time of Berenguer III.
The fine old church of the Carmen commemorated a miracle reputed to have
occurred in the year 1345. The town having been laid under an interdict
by the Bishop of Vich, the innocence of the townsfolk was demonstrated
by a light which penetrated through the windows of the church, filling
it with radiance. But these mediæval traditions are obscured by the
glory of St. Ignatius, whose name the citizens delight to honour. In the
church of Santo Domingo was formerly shown a black cross which the saint
used to bear on his shoulder while he prostrated himself before the
altars in turn. The church of the Cueva--an odius _baroque_ work--is
raised over the cave wherein during ten months he underwent the dolorous
process of his spiritual regeneration. In the Jesuit College you may see
one of his fingers, his books, and the bricks that served him as a
pillow. There is not a spot nor a house in Manresa that the citizens
will not fail to point out as in some way, however slight, associated
with the immortal founder of the Society of Jesus.
Not far from Manresa is the flourishing town of Tarrassa, which occupies
the site of the old episcopal city of Egara. The primitive _arx_ or
citadel gave place in Christian times to a cathedral which was destroyed
by Al Mansûr, and the site is now occupied by the three interesting
Romanesque churches of San Miguel, Santa Maria, and San Pedro.
The oldest of these is undoubtedly San Miguel, which is distinguished
from other Catalan churches by many peculiarities. The plan is
rectangular, over the centre of the roof rises a lantern, resting on a
quadrangle of columns. The capitals of these columns are evidently part
of an older and different structure. Beneath the church is a crypt which
is believed to have been the baptistery of the old Roman cathedral.
Santa Maria was consecrated in 1112 by Raimundo Guillen, Bishop of
Barcelona, and was served by Augustine canons down to 1592. It is
contemporary with the church of San Pedro and both present an aspect of
extreme antiquity accentuated by the Roman tablets and fragments
incorporated with the structure. Close by are the ruins of a fortress
and a chapel attributed by tradition to the Templars. On the other side
of the prettily named Rio Vallparadis are to be seen the fragments of a
tower and castle.
About six miles from Manresa, on the banks of the Llobregat, is a little
monastery of San Benito de Bages, now a private residence. “All here,”
says Piferrer, “invites man to lift his eyes to God, and to banish the
frivolous recollections of this world. The building’s antiquity, the
modesty and simplicity of its plan alike contribute to still the voice
of passions and to excite more tranquil thoughts.”
The thoughts of the former occupants, however, were evidently not always
tranquil, for the little apses opening into the transepts have been
squared off, apparently for defensive reasons, and the tower looks as if
it had been constructed for the same object. The church is dark and
sombre, like a vault, and the cloister has the same funereal aspect,
only slightly relieved by the interesting carvings of courtiers and
warriors on the rude capitals.
Piferrer states that the chapel was built in the middle of the tenth
century and that it was consecrated in 972 in presence of Count Borrell
and his Court by the Bishop of Vich. In the year 1067 it was
incorporated with the Abbey of San Ponce de Tomeras near Narbonne; the
foundation received women, who were subject, like the monks, to the rule
of St. Benedict. At the end of the sixteenth century the community was
united to that of Montserrat.
CARDONA
Cardona is a picturesque walled town on the road from Manresa to
Solsona. It is crowned by a strong castle built by the Cordona family,
which traces its descent from Foulques, the ancestor of the
Plantagenets. Within the castle is the collegiate church of San Vicente,
dedicated in the eleventh century. It is a fine example of the
Romanesque. Its aisles are marked off from the nave by square pillars;
the nave is broad, the aisles narrow, without chapels. A very low
lantern rises above the crossing and the presbytery is raised by a few
steps above the level of the nave. There is not a single moulding in the
whole church, or any curve other than a semicircle. Of the sepulchres of
the mighty lords of the castle only two remain. Within this fortress
died St. Ramon Nonnat in the year 1240. The chapel dedicated to his
memory dates from 1682.
TORTOSA
Tortosa, on the banks of the Ebro, close to its mouth, is the
southernmost of the cities of Cataluña. It is an ancient place where
Roman and Visigothic coins were struck. It fell into the hands of the
Saracens in 716 and was reconquered in 1147 and consecrated in 1441.
Among the architects were the two Xulbes, whose opinion was taken on the
question of the nave at Gerona. Though disfigured by a classical façade
the church produces a good effect. Its aisles are separated from the
nave by twenty columns, which sweep round the east end in a graceful
semicircle so as to form a double apse. To the nine Gothic arches of the
chancel correspond as many apsidal chapels, whose windows overlook the
high altar. The reredos dates from 1351. There are five chapels in each
of the aisles. The windows are filled with transparent marble instead of
glass.
The Collegio Real of Tortosa is in the best Plateresque style. The
cloister is formed by three tiers of galleries, the columns and
balconies being adorned with medallions and escutcheons. The original
building belonged till the year 1528 to the Dominicans and was then
reconstructed by order of Carlos I. with a view to serving as a seminary
for Moorish converts. The College is now a barracks.
The Convent of Santa Clara, dating from the thirteenth century and
restored by order of Jaime II. of Aragon, is another precious memorial
of Tortosa’s more prosperous days.
THE BALEARIC ISLANDS
The Balearic archipelago no longer deserves the name of the Forgotten
Isles bestowed upon it a dozen years ago by a French traveller. Much has
since been written about the islands in our own and other languages, and
yachtsmen often put in at what the Genoese Admiral classed with June,
July and August, as one of the four best harbours in the Mediterranean.
But the influx of tourists has not been large, and the isles run no
immediate risk of losing their marked local characteristics. The remote
past keeps a firm grip on Mallorca and Menorca; as in Egypt, you never
cease to feel dead stony eyes are staring at you across
thousand-year-long vistas. In the aisles the monuments of antiquity
belong to the very dawn of human history, appearing almost the works of
nature, even as those who reared them seem hardly to have emerged into
full manhood. At every turn, as in Sardinia, you are met by the rude
handiwork of that primitive Mediterranean race, which passed away in the
struggle between Latins, Greeks and Semites. Every one knows now that
the word Balearic is derived from a Greek word meaning _to throw_, and
that it refers to the extraordinary dexterity of the natives in the use
of the sling. This was their national weapon, their sole means of attack
and defence. In summer, as their only clothing, each man wore three
slings--one round his head, one round his loins, and one at his wrist.
To train their children in its use, the mothers, we are told, would not
let them have their bread or meat till they had brought it down from a
bough or ledge by means of the sling.
Of all their dexterity they had need when strange men with black curling
beards and dark stern faces--men that they had never seen--came sailing
into their harbours and tempted them down from their perches with a
display of bright rare stuffs and gewgaws. Poor simple white savages, it
is likely enough that they had thought themselves till then the only men
in the world. Then came the attempts of the Phœnicians to enslave and to
subdue them, and wildly the islanders fought for their freedom, knowing
as little as the creatures of the jungle do of the forces arrayed
against them. The wild birds were netted at last. In the sixth century
before Christ, the Carthaginians were masters of the archipelago, and
dragged the slingers off to serve in their armies. Mago, a Punic leader,
gave his name to Puerto Mahon. Then came a time when the natives felt
the grasp of the Semites relax. Their power had been crushed by the
Romans and the islands enjoyed a brief interval of liberty. But in the
year 123 _B.C._, the conquerors of Carthage remembered their neglected
heritage, and sent Cecilius Metellas to take possession. He founded the
cities of Palma and Pollensa, which still retain their Latin names, and
brought with him some thousands of Italian and Spanish colonists, who
soon tamed the wildness of the aborigines. Thence onward for centuries
the archipelago prospered quietly, safe beneath the outspread wings of
the Roman eagle. Upon the break-up of the empire it passed through
various hands to the Visigoths, to be wrested from them in the eighth
century by the Arabs. Under this new dominion the islands became a nest
of pirates, who ultimately founded a kingdom embracing parts of the
Spanish mainland and of Sardinia. The depredations of the Balearic Moors
excited the anger of Christendom, and Pope Pascual II. preached a
crusade against them. Constituting themselves the ministers of Europe’s
vengeance, the Pisans and Catalans inflicted a severe punishment on the
Pirates and sacked the rich city of Palma. Over a hundred years later,
in 1227, Don Jaime I. of Aragon reduced the whole group of islands in a
memorable campaign, and annexed them finally to Christendom. The
conqueror constituted his new possessions into a kingdom for his second
son and namesake, from whose grandson, Jaime II., they were taken by
Pedro IV. in the year 1347 and incorporated with the kingdom of Aragon.
But history had not yet done with the islands. The old rancour between
the peasantry and the nobles came to a head at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, in the war of the Germania or brotherhood. The
viceroy took refuge in the Citadel of Ibiza, while the nobles defended
themselves in the castle of Alcadia against the desperate attacks of the
peasantry led by Juan Colom. The arrival of a royal squadron commanded
by Don Juan de Valesco led to the extinction of the revolt. Ruled by
Carthaginians, Romans, and Moors, the islands excited the cupidity of
another race of conquerors. Seized by the English in 1708, Menorca
remained in their possession till 1781, when it was retaken by the
French and Spaniards. The failure to relieve the garrison cost Admiral
Byng his life. We again took possession of the island in 1793 to
surrender it finally to Spain at the peace of Amiens nine years later.
Mallorca (it is as easy to call it by its proper name as by its variant
Majorca) is the largest and most beautiful of the islands. Towards the
north and south-west it presents an iron-bound wall of rock to the
turbulent waters of the Catalan seas; on the south the plain stretches
to the shore, and here we find the little harbour of Santa Ponza, at
which the conqueror Jaime I. disembarked his army on September 10, 1229.
Hard by is the estate of Ben Dinat, so named, it is averred, because the
conqueror expressed in those two words his satisfaction with a meal of
bread and garlic served him at this spot. It is more probable that the
name is that of some long-forgotten Moor. Then comes the little harbour
and tower of Portopi and round the next promontory the lovely bay of
Palma, with the capital of the Balearics smiling a welcome to the
stranger. The walls that once surrounded the city have been demolished:
the turrets that rise above the house-tops are those of the Cathedral
and the Exchange (Lonja). We enter the town through the Water Gate, a
building not without majesty, and crowned by a statue of the Blessed
Virgin. The streets, as in most Spanish towns, are narrow and shady,
often rewarding the curiosity of the passer-by with glimpses of
Renaissance patios, graceful balconies, and turret windows. Among the
most interesting houses of the Butifarras (big sausages), as the
nobility of the island used to be called, are the Casa de Vivot and the
palace of the Counts of Montenegro. But Palma is a living city, and side
by side with these dignified memories of the past we find handsome
modern buildings such as the Bank of Spain and the Hall of Provincial
Deputation. Nor does Palma want for wide breathing-spaces and
promenades. It has the fine Paseo del Borne and the Boulevards
constructed round the bay and on the site of the old fortifications.
Close to the landing-stage the new-comer’s attention is first attracted
by the Exchange or Lonja. Charles V. on visiting the island for the
first time hastened at once to see it, eagerly demanding if it belonged
to the Church or to the State, and was visibly relieved on hearing that
it was a civil edifice. The Lonja is a quadrangular building, surmounted
by a crenellated balustrade and flanked at each angle with an octagonal
tower of six stages, one of these rising above the balustrade. The walls
are strengthened with graceful pilasters, and pierced in their lower
story by ogival windows with good traceries. The door is square and
enclosed within an ogival arch. The interior forms a single great hall,
the roof of which is supported by only four slender fluted columns, from
which the arches spring like palm branches. This interesting building
was designed and begun by Antonio Sagrera in the year 1426. Like the
numerous other Spanish Lonjas, it has long been deserted by the
mercantile community.
The cathedral towers above the whole city and is one of the most
important churches in the kingdom. The name of the architect is unknown,
but the foundations were laid by order of Jaime the Conqueror soon after
he had annexed the island. The plan is rectangular, the walls supported
by massive flying buttresses, surmounted with pinnacles and turrets. The
south front is the finest and is pierced by the beautiful Puerta del
Mirador, in florid Gothic style, the work of Pedro Morey, who died in
1394. The west porch is an elaborate work, finished in 1601. On the
north side is the noble square bell-tower.
The interior is remarkable for the enormous span of the nave, the widest
in Spain. It rises to a height of 147 feet and is sustained by
relatively slender columns. The nave terminates in the beautiful Capilla
Real, founded in 1282, wherein is the modest tomb of the last King of
Mallorca. The wooden gallery running round the wall is strongly
suggestive of Saracenic influence. Opening into this chapel are the
Capillas de Santa Eulalia, containing a Gothic altar and the tomb of a
Bishop of Palma, and San Mateo, in which ends one of the aisles. In the
chapel of St. Jerome is the fine tomb of the Marques de la Romana, who
did such good service to Spain by bringing from Denmark the Spanish
troops in Napoleon’s service. Another notable sepulchre is that of
Bishop Gil Sancho Munoz, successor elect to Pope Benedict XIII. (1447).
The choir is in decadent Gothic style, but the carving is very good and
reveals imagination and fertility of resource on the part of the artist.
The statues of St. Bruno and St. John were brought here from the
chapter-house of Valledemosa. The old Moorish palace of Almudaina,
adjacent to the cathedral, is the residence of the Captain-General and
seat of the High Court. It is provided with a chapel built by Jaime II.
The only other church worthy of mention at Palma is that of San
Francisco de Asis, remarkably like the cathedral for the span of its
nave and for the tomb of the famous Raymond Lull, Mallorca’s most
illustrious son. This famous philosopher was born in 1235 and is said to
have been converted from evil courses in his youth by finding that his
mistress was devoured by cancer--such reasons for a change of life being
frequent in the Middle Ages. He imagined himself called upon to
overthrow the religion of Mohammed not by the old methods, but by a
“great art” of logic which he devised. Like some liberal Catholics of
later days, he held that the dogmas of his Church could and should be
demonstrated by reason, and not by mere exhortations to believe. To
combat Islam he rightly considered necessary that missionaries should
understand the language of their adversaries. His exertions induced the
Pope to found one or two chairs of Arabic and Syriac, and his
philosophy, strange to say, met with no censure from ecclesiastical
authorities. Lull was credited with immense and preternatural wisdom by
his generation, and was popularly believed to have discovered the
Philosopher’s Stone. He undertook several journeys to Northern Africa in
his zeal for souls, and on the last of these visits received such severe
injuries from a Moslem mob that he succumbed on board ship within sight
of his native isle (1315).
A picture of his funeral may be seen at the Town Hall, which is a rather
imposing Renaissance building adorned by one of those heavy projecting
eaves, carved and once painted, that one sees at Granada. Another house
that should be noticed is the Casa Bonapart, said to have been founded
by an ancestor of the Imperial family in 1411.
In the suburbs of Palma is the fine old castle of Bellver, founded by
the last King of Mallorca. It is composed of a vast keep, strengthened
by bastions and surrounded by a moat. Connected with this stronghold by
a bridge of two tiers is the massive Torre del Homenage. The castle has
received many distinguished and involuntary guests. Here was confined
Jovellanas, the able Minister of Carlos IV., and here was shot General
Lacy for conspiring against the tyrant Fernando VII. Arago the
Astronomer took refuge here, when the mob, suspecting that he was
signalling to the French when he was simply making observations, sought
his life.
Seven miles from Palma is Raxa, the seat of the Conde de Montenegro, who
has an exceedingly valuable collection of antiquities. Here may be seen
a curious chart of the world, drawn in 1439, according to the
instructions of Amerigo Vespucci. It is partly obliterated by the ink
spilt over it when it was being spread out for examination by George
Sand.
That gifted Frenchwoman slayed at the suppressed Carthusian monastery of
Valldemosa, and there she wrote the romance “Spiridion,” at which Mr.
Titmarsh poked his fun. It is a beautiful, decayed old place, once a
royal palace, and decorated with frescoes illustrating its history.
We again come to the traces of Raymond Lull at Miramar, the beautiful
seat of the Archduke Ludwig Salvator, who kindly placed a hospice at the
disposal of travellers. This was originally the college established by
the philosopher for the study of Oriental tongues. The ill-fated
Maximilian of Mexico borrowed the name of his palace near Triente from
this enchanting spot.
In addition to the capital, Mallorca contains three or four towns of
importance, such as Manacor, Alcudia, and Pollensa, but these present
few features of interest. The scenery in the vale of Soller is radiant
and smiling, the soil being of amazing fertility, such as the Barranco
and Gorch Blau, or Blue Gorge. Between Pollensa and Soller in the heart
of the hills is the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lluch, the origin of which
is accounted for by a legend similar to that of Lourdes. To accommodate
the pilgrims who flocked to the spot, a hospice was built, which in
course of time was converted into a school of religious music. Here as
at Miramar every stranger can have three days’ free lodging, including
fire, light, and the indispensable oil and olives.
On the other side of the island are the caves of Anta, rivalling those
of Han and Adelsberg. “The most fantastic part of this subterranean
region,” says Mr. Vuillier, “goes by the significant name of L’Infierno.
It is a nightmare in stone. Tongues of petrified flame seem to lick the
walls. An enormous lion squats in one corner, staring at unhewn tombs
overhung by rigid cypresses. Strange forms of antediluvian monsters lurk
half-seen in the obscurity. Many of the stalactites when rapped sharply
with a stick emit musical notes, some like the vibration of a
harp-string, others like the deep resonance of a church bell. These are
in an immense hall as vast as a cathedral nave.... In silence and
darkness, the forces of nature have for centuries been hewing and
shaping an architecture more sublime than ever was conceived in the
wildest dream of the Gothic craftsman.”
Menorca, the second largest of the islands, is bare and bleak and flat
round the coast, though at one point in the interior it rises to a
height of nearly 6000 feet. Here and there are picturesque spots,
notably the Barranco of Algendar; but speaking generally the island is
the Holland of the Mediterranean. Cleanliness, well-being, industry and
good conduct are the characteristics of the inhabitants, who live
farther outside the world of romance even than most Latin people. We
flatter ourselves of course that they learned their good qualities from
our ancestors, when they ruled the island, and certainly there are
frequent reminders of our influence to be traced in the daily life of
Menorca. “Ashes to Ashes,” though seldom heard now, was in Ford’s time
an oath or exclamation often on the lips of the natives, and children
use English words when playing marbles, a game that we taught them among
other perhaps less useful arts. We sent to the island a Governor Kasie,
who made roads and built market-halls, and did all that a worthy and
unimaginative English gentleman might feel it is his duty to do in such
a position; but the natives do not sigh once more to be under our
dominion, as they are sometimes polite enough to tell English folk they
do, and a Spanish writer actually refers to our paternal government as
the Babylonish captivity.
Puerto Mahon was founded, as we have said, by the Carthaginians, and was
appropriately enough occupied by us, the Carthaginians of later days.
Its harbour is one of the best in the Mediterranean, and is very
strongly fortified. Except for the forts, the town contains no public
monuments of interest. The streets are very clean and rather quiet, and
you remark the absence of the running water in the gutters
characteristic of so many European towns. The streets are well paved,
often with tombstones from the English cemetery; the dustman goes his
rounds as he does in London, and many of the houses have English
windows. The domestic life is held in high honour at Mahon, and the
chief occupation and delight of the women is cleaning their houses. “It
is an amusing spectacle” says M. Vuillier, “to see them armed with
brooms of dwarf palm and immense pails of lime-water, gossiping along
the walls from early morning, while they scrub and wash as if their
lives depended upon it, fastening their brooms to long poles the better
to reach the higher parts of the wall. Should a death occur in a house
the walls are not whitened for a week, a fortnight or even a month,
according to the closeness of the relationship or the degree of grief
felt for the deceased. In rare cases the walls are not touched for six
months.” The traveller comments on the absence of the tribe of unwelcome
bedfellows, so persistent in their attentions in other parts of Spain.
This does not sound very interesting. Mahon is not, however, wholly
devoid of the picturesque element. The old gate of Barbarossa is named
after that famous pirate, by whom the city was surprised and sacked in
1536, and the fortifications still bear traces of the siege of 1781.
Ciudadela, the old capital, at the opposite end of the island, is more
suggestive of old times and memories. The streets are quaint and
arcaded, and lined with fine old mansions: and there is an old palace,
and a vast dim cathedral, which no one has ever properly explored. Ten
minutes will be enough in which to exhaust the sights of Ciudadela, and
you may then go and look at the Buffador, a blow-hole like those to be
seen at Sark.
The people of Menorca have long since abandoned their native
dress--presuming that they ever had one; but M. Vuillier remarked the
continuance of the old custom, observable in other countries, of
strewing the path of a bridal party with obstacles and building a wall
before the house of the bride and bridegroom, the morning after their
marriage. We see one of the innumerable survivals here of marriage by
capture. The people are strangely fond of the practice of vaccination,
and will perform it on each other with the least possible excuse. In
blood-letting they also entertain an ineradicable belief.
Speaking of Alazor, a large village, Ford says: “It is worth the
traveller’s while to go into any of the peasants’ houses and convince
himself that in no other part of the world do the lower (_i.e._,
working) classes live in greater comfort and even luxury. A man who has
only a franc and a half a day as wages, and a little bit of garden, has
a large and commodious house, well furnished, exquisitely clean, and
always with a spare bed for the stranger. The character of the people is
in exact harmony with their surroundings. They are polite and
hospitable, crime is unknown, and their hygienic condition being so
favourable they are healthy and long-lived. If is difficult to write of
them without exaggeration and using too many terms of admiration for the
good and wholesome life they lead.”
To the economist, then, the island of Menorca must be of interest, but
it is infinitely more so to the archæologist. From end to end it is
strewn with the works of prehistoric man, whose record in stone is hard
to read. These megalithic remains present a strong resemblance to the
mirage of Sardinia and Malta, but have also local characteristics which
have puzzled and delighted the learned. M. Cartailhac has traced the
sites of many ancient villages. The most considerable may be seen at
Torre d’ea Galines, south of Alazor. There, on the summit of a slight
eminence, a vast pile of stones is all that remains of the “city” to
which the naked aborigines fled wildly the instant a sail rose above the
horizon. In the constant and arduous struggle waged by the present
inhabitants with the stones and the rock, the limits of the stronghold
have, ages ago, disappeared, and if it had an outer wall it can no
longer be traced. The dwellings were grouped together so closely that no
streets can be distinguished. No chariot or beast of burden could have
been known to the citizens. They communicated with each other by
corridors leading from cabin to cabin. Here and there the doorways
remain intact and uphold a heavy lintel of stone.
In each of these villages is to be found a single huge monument,
composed of two blocks of stone, arranged =T=-shape. It is surrounded by a
semicircular wall of unhewn stones, which probably once rose higher and
higher and supported a roof of flat stones. These monuments are termed
altars by the people of Menorca, and such they may, in fact, have been,
but nothing definite can be said on this point.
Equally uncertain are the nature and purpose of the monuments called
talayots, a word allied to the Arabic term for watch-tower. These are
structures of uncemented blocks of stone in the form of a tower,
slightly conical or cylindrical, sometimes square at the base. None of
them is wholly intact. Whether the summit was a dome or a platform we
have no means of knowing. “I observed, however, at Torranba de Salort,”
says M. Cartailhac, “a detail which throws some light on this point. The
tower is among the highest at the summit and at two steps from the
centre lies a great stone more than a metre in diameter, in the shape of
a thick mushroom, almost circular, flat on one side and with a
protuberance on the other. It is possible that this block once crowned
the culminating-point of the edifice.”
Among the largest talayots are those of Torre Ilafuda. They measure
sixteen metres across the base and fourteen at the summit. The stones
are laid horizontally and are carefully adjusted. The walls are three or
four metres thick, and skilfully constructed. The interior usually forms
a single chamber, and where this was large the roof was supported by a
column formed of huge blocks of stone. The wall itself is often threaded
by a passage to the roof or upper chamber, so narrow that it could only
have been ascended by crawling. The entrance to the talayot is through
a square opening large enough to permit a short man to walk through
upright. All sorts of theories and guesses have been made as to what
these towers originally were. Near every =T=-shaped altar one or two are
to be found; there was always one at least on every town site. Perhaps,
suggests our authority, they existed before all the other structures and
were used as centres by a later population. Though they are often placed
on eminences, it has been established that they were not fortresses; it
can be proved more or less satisfactorily that they were not
dwelling-places, storehouses, or tombs.
The boat-shaped piles, called navetas or naves, on the other hand had
clearly a sepulchral character. The front or prow is slightly concave.
The entrance measures about half a metre across and three-quarters of a
metre in height, the edges are grooved as though to admit some sort of
door. Inside, the passage widens and conducts you to a second opening as
narrow as the first, through which you penetrate into the mortuary
chamber itself. Filled now with rubbish, filth and carrion, these are
the tombs of the fathers of the Mediterranean races, whose bones are
brought to light each time the Menorcan ploughs his stubborn soil.
Stones must always have been a plague to the people of the island, and
this, besides accounting for their selection of the sling as their
peculiar weapon, may partially explain, as Ford reasonably remarks, the
abundance of these monuments. “The erection of a large tumulus was not a
piece of barbaric extravagance. It provided an unperishable monument for
the person it was intended to honour (?) and it got rid of an immense
mass of loose stone which greatly impeded agriculture.”
“One fact,” adds this lively writer, “is very curious. The Menorcans,
even now, are in the habit of constructing just such tumuli as the
talayots for the use of their cattle, though of smaller stones. In the
distance they present an appearance not at all unlike the older
structures.”
* * * * *
Ibiza, the third largest island of the group, is one of those spots
which can afford no sort of justification for its existence. It is a
mere backwater, a stagnant pool of humanity, interesting, though, as a
place buried beneath prejudices and customs hundreds of years old. How
should they be blown away in so out-of-the-way an island? The town
stands on a fine harbour and reminds one rather of Guernsey. The
collegiate church, formerly a cathedral, was founded by the Archbishop
of Tarragona, in the thirteenth century, at the time the island was
granted to him by Jaime the Conqueror. It is uninteresting, except for
the view from the belfry. Better worth a visit is the fortified church
of San Antonio at the other end of the island, wherein the people took
refuge at the approach of the Corsairs. It is flanked with two massive
towers and the apse has a parapet pierced with embrasures for guns. The
walls are nearly eight feet thick, and the doorway is protected by a
machicolation.
There is little else to be seen at Ibiza during the short time the
traveller will be disposed to stay there, but M. Vuillier, who lingered
there longer than he had intended, is able to tell us much that is
interesting about the people and their customs. The islanders are a
savage primitive stock. The recognised form of salutation between man
and maid is for the former to hurry after the latter and without any
warning discharge his gun into the ground at her feet. After spending
the evening at her house, he fires at the ceiling, so that it should be
easy to tell at a glance on going into a house for the first time if the
daughters have been much sought after. The men do not confine their
shooting to this sort of practice, however; duels, assassinations, and
vendettas are frequent, and the feuds partake of the mysterious brutal
character of those of Kentucky and Tennessee. In such a country animals
fare badly, and one is not surprised to learn that throwing stones at a
live cock is one of the favourite pastimes. When the youths come
a-courting, each sits with the girl for a few minutes in turn and if he
overstays the allotted period is punished by the others with the knife
or pistol. Abduction is the rule rather than the exception; but for all
the anxiety shown to possess them, the women have a wretched time, being
hardly allowed to stir out of their dingy poverty-stricken cabins.
Altogether it must be as difficult to make yourself happy at Ibiza as at
any spot on or off the planet.
Of the remaining islands of the group, only one deserves mention and
that only for its sad memories. This is Cabrera. It is little better
than a bare rock, incapable of affording subsistence to more perhaps
than two or three score of men, yet here during the Peninsular War the
Spaniards were thoughtless enough to confine 5500 French soldiers, the
victims of Dupont’s surrender at Bailen. Their sufferings were more
severe than those of many a shipwrecked mariner. Each man was allowed
only 24 ounces of bread and a few beans every four days. There was but
one spring in the island and the thirst-maddened men would fight each
other desperately to get a drink from this. Murder was common, and in
one instance a man was detected in the act of preparing a meal from the
remains of a comrade. It is touching to relate that for many months the
men made a pet of a donkey they found wandering on the island, and it
was not till the boat which brought them their miserable ration was long
overdue that the poor famished wretches could find it in their hearts to
kill and eat their only four-footed companion. As time went on, the
captives made some attempt to cultivate their island, and their lot
greatly improved, as the Spaniards continued to send the same rations,
though their number was now reduced by two-fifths. Finally, in 1814, the
last survivors were taken off by a French transport. The bones of those
who died on the island were interred by the crew of a French warship and
a monument was erected over their remains.
[Illustration: PLATE 1
GENERAL VIEW OF BARCELONA]
[Illustration: PLATE 2
GENERAL VIEW OF BARCELONA]
[Illustration: PLATE 3
BARCELONA: VIEW FROM THE FUNICULAR RAILWAY STATION]
[Illustration: PLATE 4
BARCELONA: PANORAMA FROM MONJUICH]
[Illustration: PLATE 5
BARCELONA: PANORAMA FROM MONJUICH]
[Illustration: PLATE 6
BARCELONA: PANORAMA FROM MONJUICH]
[Illustration: PLATE 7
BARCELONA: THE DOCKS]
[Illustration: PLATE 8
BARCELONA: GENERAL VIEW OF THE PORT]
[Illustration: PLATE 9
BARCELONA: DETAIL OF THE PORT]
[Illustration: PLATE 10
BARCELONA: VIEW FROM MIRAMAR]
[Illustration: PLATE 11
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DEL CENTRO]
[Illustration: PLATE 12
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DEL CENTRO]
[Illustration: PLATE 13
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DE LAS FLÓRES]
[Illustration: PLATE 14
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DE LAS FLÓRES]
[Illustration: PLATE 15
BARCELONA: PASEO DE COLÓN]
[Illustration: PLATE 16
BARCELONA: PASEO DE COLÓN AND HOTEL]
[Illustration: PLATE 17
BARCELONA: PASEO DE COLÓN AND STATUE OF LÓPEZ]
[Illustration: PLATE 18
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DE LOS ESTUDIANTES]
[Illustration: PLATE 19
BARCELONA: PASEO DE GRACIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 20
BARCELONA: PASEO DE GRACIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 21
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DE CATALUÑA]
[Illustration: PLATE 22
BARCELONA: PLAZA DE CATALUÑA]
[Illustration: PLATE 23
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DE SANTA MONICA AND THE BANK]
[Illustration: PLATE 24
BARCELONA: LA GRAN VIA AND STATUE OF GÜELL Y FERRER]
[Illustration: PLATE 25
BARCELONA: PLAZA DE CATALUÑA]
[Illustration: PLATE 26
BARCELONA: PLAZA DE CATALUÑA]
[Illustration: PLATE 27
BARCELONA: PLAZA DE LA PAZ]
[Illustration: PLATE 28
BARCELONA: PLAZA DEL PALACIO]
[Illustration: PLATE 29
BARCELONA: PLAZA DEL PALACIO]
[Illustration: PLATE 30
BARCELONA: PLAZA REAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 31
BARCELONA: PLAZA DEL REY]
[Illustration: PLATE 32
BARCELONA: PLAZA ANTONIO LOPEZ]
[Illustration: PLATE 33
BARCELONA: CALLE DE FERDINAND VII.]
[Illustration: PLATE 34
BARCELONA: CALLE DE BALMES]
[Illustration: PLATE 35
BARCELONA: CALLE DE ARAGÓN]
[Illustration: PLATE 36
BARCELONA: GÜELL PARK]
[Illustration: PLATE 37
BARCELONA: ENTRANCE TO THE GÜELL PARK]
[Illustration: PLATE 38
BARCELONA: ENTRANCE TO THE PARK]
[Illustration: PLATE 39
BARCELONA: LAKE IN THE PARK]
[Illustration: PLATE 40
BARCELONA: THE LAKE IN THE PARK]
[Illustration: PLATE 41
BARCELONA: THE “CASCADA” IN THE PARK]
[Illustration: PLATE 42
BARCELONA PARK: DETAILS OF THE “CASCADA”]
[Illustration: PLATE 43
BARCELONA: FOUNTAIN IN THE PARK]
[Illustration: PLATE 44
BARCELONA: THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 45
BARCELONA: THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 46
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE]
[Illustration: PLATE 47
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: RIGHT-HAND SIDE DOOR]
[Illustration: PLATE 48
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: DOOR OF THE PIEDAD]
[Illustration: PLATE 49
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: DOOR OF SANTA EULALIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 50
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: EXTERIOR DOOR OF SANTA LUCIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 51
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: INTERIOR DOOR OF SANTA LUCIA AND SEPULCHRE OF
MOSSEN BORRA]
[Illustration: PLATE 52
BARCELONA: INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 53
BARCELONA: INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 54
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: DETAIL OF THE CHOIR]
[Illustration: PLATE 55
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: THE HIGH ALTAR]
[Illustration: PLATE 56
BARCELONA: THE ARCHIVE OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 57
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: CLOISTERS AND PRINCIPAL INTERIOR DOOR]
[Illustration: PLATE 58
BARCELONA: CHAPEL IN THE CLOISTER OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 59
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 60
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS AND DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 61
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 62
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 63
BARCELONA: CHAPEL IN THE CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 64
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: FOUNTAIN IN THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 65
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: FOUNTAIN IN THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 66
BARCELONA: FOUNTAIN IN THE CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 67
BARCELONA: FOUNTAIN IN THE CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 68
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: DOOR IN THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 69
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: IRON GRATING IN THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 70
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: GRATING IN THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 71
BARCELONA CATHEDRAL: DOOR IN THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 72
BARCELONA: SANTA MARIA DEL MAR]
[Illustration: PLATE 73
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEL MAR]
[Illustration: PLATE 74
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEL MAR. GATE OF THE IMMACULADA]
[Illustration: PLATE 75
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEL MAR. DETAIL OF LEFT DOOR]
[Illustration: PLATE 76
BARCELONA: DETAIL OF THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEL MAR]
[Illustration: PLATE 77
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEL PINO]
[Illustration: PLATE 78
BARCELONA: BYZANTINE DOORWAY IN THE CHURCH OF SAN PABLO]
[Illustration: PLATE 79
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF SAN PABLO]
[Illustration: PLATE 80
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF SAN PABLO]
[Illustration: PLATE 81
BARCELONA: FAÇADE OF THE CHURCH OF SANTA ANA]
[Illustration: PLATE 82
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF THE CHURCH OF SANTA ANA]
[Illustration: PLATE 83
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF THE CHURCH OF SANTA ANA]
[Illustration: PLATE 84
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 85
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF LAS SALESAS]
[Illustration: PLATE 86
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF LAS SALESAS]
[Illustration: PLATE 87
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF THE CONCEPTION]
[Illustration: PLATE 88
BARCELONA: CHURCH OF SANTA AGUEDA]
[Illustration: PLATE 89
BARCELONA: THE TOWN HALL]
[Illustration: PLATE 90
BARCELONA: THE TOWN HALL]
[Illustration: PLATE 91
BARCELONA: OLD FAÇADE OF THE TOWN HALL]
[Illustration: PLATE 92
BARCELONA: EXTERIOR DETAIL OF THE TOWN HALL]
[Illustration: PLATE 93
BARCELONA: CHAPEL OF SAN JORGE IN THE TOWN HALL]
[Illustration: PLATE 94
BARCELONA: COURTYARD OF THE TOWN HALL]
[Illustration: PLATE 95
BARCELONA: ENTRANCE TO THE COURTYARD OF THE AUDIENCIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 96
BARCELONA: UPPER PART OF THE COURTYARD OF THE TOWN HALL]
[Illustration: PLATE 97
BARCELONA: THE UNIVERSITY]
[Illustration: PLATE 98
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF THE UNIVERSITY]
[Illustration: PLATE 99
BARCELONA: CLOISTERS OF THE UNIVERSITY, UPPER PART]
[Illustration: PLATE 100
BARCELONA: PALACIO DE JUSTICIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 101
BARCELONA: DIPUTACION PROVINCIAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 102
BARCELONA: DIPUTACION PROVINCIAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 103
BARCELONA: THE EXCHANGE]
[Illustration: PLATE 104
BARCELONA: THE CUSTOM HOUSE]
[Illustration: PLATE 105
BARCELONA: CLINICAL HOSPITAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 106
BARCELONA: MUNICIPAL SCHOOL OF MUSIC]
[Illustration: PLATE 107
BARCELONA: CATALANA DEL GAS]
[Illustration: PLATE 108
BARCELONA: LA MAISON DORÉE]
[Illustration: PLATE 109
BARCELONA: CASA DE LA CANONGIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 110
BARCELONA: PRIVATE HOUSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]
[Illustration: PLATE 111
BARCELONA: A SHOP IN THE CALLE FERNANDO]
[Illustration: PLATE 112
BARCELONA: NEW BUILDING IN THE PASEO DE GRACIA]
[Illustration: PLATE 113
BARCELONA: HOUSE OF THE SHOEMAKERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 114
BARCELONA: HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE CASPE]
[Illustration: PLATE 115
BARCELONA: ARCO DE TRIUNFO]
[Illustration: PLATE 116
BARCELONA: TEATRO PRINCIPAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 117
BARCELONA: OLD TOWERS IN THE PLAZA NUEVA]
[Illustration: PLATE 118
BARCELONA: TOWER OF SANTA AGUEDA]
[Illustration: PLATE 119
BARCELONA: CONVENT OF SANTA CLARA. OLD PALACE OF THE KINGS OF ARAGON]
[Illustration: PLATE 120
BARCELONA: APEADERO DE LA CALLE DE ARAGON]
[Illustration: PLATE 121
BARCELONA: HOTEL COLÓN]
[Illustration: PLATE 122
BARCELONA: STAIRCASE IN A PRIVATE HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONCADA]
[Illustration: PLATE 123
BARCELONA: STAIRCASE IN A PRIVATE HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONCADA]
[Illustration: PLATE 124
BARCELONA: FRONTÓN]
[Illustration: PLATE 125
BARCELONA: THE BULL-RING]
[Illustration: PLATE 126
BARCELONA: MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS]
[Illustration: PLATE 127
BARCELONA: MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS]
[Illustration: PLATE 128
BARCELONA: DETAIL OF THE MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS]
[Illustration: PLATE 129
BARCELONA: MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS]
[Illustration: PLATE 130
BARCELONA: MONUMENT TO GÜELL]
[Illustration: PLATE 131
BARCELONA: FOUNTAIN IN THE PLAZA DE PALACIO]
[Illustration: PLATE 132
BARCELONA: STATUE OF GENERAL PRIM]
[Illustration: PLATE 133
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DE CATALUÑA, MONUMENT TO CLAVÉ]
[Illustration: PLATE 134
BARCELONA: STATUE OF LOPEZ, AND PASEO DE COLÓN]
[Illustration: PLATE 135
BARCELONA: PLAZA DEL DUQUE DE MEDINACELLI]
[Illustration: PLATE 136
BARCELONA: MONUMENT TO RUIS AND TOULET]
[Illustration: PLATE 137
BARCELONA: VIEW OF TIBIDABO]
[Illustration: PLATE 138
BARCELONA: FUNICULAR RAILWAY STATION, TIBIDABO]
[Illustration: PLATE 139
BARCELONA: TIBIDABO STATION AND CASA ARNUS]
[Illustration: PLATE 140
BARCELONA: THE DEVIL’S BRIDGE AT MARTORELL]
[Illustration: PLATE 141
BARCELONA: INTERIOR COURT OF THE CONVENT OF MONTESION]
[Illustration: PLATE 142
BARCELONA: EXTERIOR OF THE CONVENT OF MONTESION]
[Illustration: PLATE 143
BARCELONA: CONVENT OF MONTESION CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 144
MONASTERY OF PEDRALVES, NEAR BARCELONA]
[Illustration: PLATE 145
BARCELONA: RAMBLA DE CANALETAS DURING THE FÊTES OF 1888]
[Illustration: PLATE 146
BARCELONA: THE FÊTES OF 1888. INAUGURATION OF THE MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS]
[Illustration: PLATE 147
BARCELONA: EXHIBITION OF 1888. H.M. THE QUEEN LEAVING THE EXHIBITION]
[Illustration: PLATE 148
BARCELONA: EXHIBITION OF 1888. PALACE OF BEAUX-ARTS]
[Illustration: PLATE 149
GENERAL VIEW OF TARRAGONA]
[Illustration: PLATE 150
TARRAGONA: GENERAL VIEW FROM THE CATHEDRAL, LOOKING SOUTH]
[Illustration: PLATE 151
TARRAGONA: GENERAL VIEW FROM THE CATHEDRAL, LOOKING EAST]
[Illustration: PLATE 152
TARRAGONA: GENERAL VIEW]
[Illustration: PLATE 153
TARRAGONA: GENERAL VIEW FROM THE PIER]
[Illustration: PLATE 154
TARRAGONA: PANORAMIC VIEW]
[Illustration: PLATE 155
TARRAGONA: VIEW OF THE PORT]
[Illustration: PLATE 156
TARRAGONA: VIEW OF THE HARBOUR FROM THE TOWN]
[Illustration: PLATE 157
TARRAGONA: GENERAL VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 158
TARRAGONA: FAÇADE OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 159
TARRAGONA: FAÇADE OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 160
TARRAGONA: TOWER AND SIDE OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 161
TARRAGONA: FAÇADE OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 162
TARRAGONA CATHEDRAL: CENTRE OF THE PORTAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 163
TARRAGONA: LEFT-HAND SIDE DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 164
TARRAGONA CATHEDRAL: STATUES OF THE PORTICO]
[Illustration: PLATE 165
TARRAGONA CATHEDRAL: DETAIL OF THE PORTICO]
[Illustration: PLATE 166
TARRAGONA: BYZANTINE DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 167
TARRAGONA: RIGHT-HAND SIDE DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 168
TARRAGONA CATHEDRAL: THE PRINCIPAL NAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 169
TARRAGONA CATHEDRAL: TOMB OF JAIME DE ARAGON]
[Illustration: PLATE 170
TARRAGONA: CLOISTERS OF THE CATHEDRAL]
[Illustration: PLATE 171
TARRAGONA: DOOR OF THE CHAPEL OF SAN PABLO]
[Illustration: PLATE 172
TARRAGONA: LA MURALLA CICLOPEA]
[Illustration: PLATE 173
TARRAGONA: PUERTA DE SAN ANTONIO AND ROMAN WALLS]
[Illustration: PLATE 174
TARRAGONA: ROMAN WALLS AND TOWER]
[Illustration: PLATE 175
TARRAGONA: TOWER OF THE SCIPIONES]
[Illustration: PLATE 176
TARRAGONA: GATE OF SAN ANTONIO AND THE ROMAN WALL]
[Illustration: PLATE 177
TARRAGONA: PALACE OF PILATOS, NOW THE PRISON]
[Illustration: PLATE 178
TARRAGONA: LA PORTELLA, A CYCLOPEAN DOORWAY]
[Illustration: PLATE 179
TARRAGONA: A CYCLOPEAN DOORWAY]
[Illustration: PLATE 180
TARRAGONA: A ROMAN HOUSE]
[Illustration: PLATE 181
TARRAGONA: ARCO DE BARÁ]
[Illustration: PLATE 182
TARRAGONA: THE ROMAN AQUEDUCT]
[Illustration: PLATE 183
TARRAGONA: THE ROMAN AQUEDUCT]
[Illustration: PLATE 184
TARRAGONA: THE SEMINARY]
[Illustration: PLATE 185
TARRAGONA: CROSS OF SAN ANTONIO
(SIXTEENTH CENTURY)]
[Illustration: PLATE 186
TARRAGONA: ANCIENT ROMAN CONVENT]
[Illustration: PLATE 187
POBLET (TARRAGONA): GENERAL VIEW OF THE MONASTERY]
[Illustration: PLATE 188
POBLET (TARRAGONA): CHURCH OF THE MONASTERY]
[Illustration: PLATE 189
POBLET (TARRAGONA): DOOR OF THE MONASTERY]
[Illustration: PLATE 190
POBLET (TARRAGONA): CHAPEL OF SAN JORGE]
[Illustration: PLATE 191
POBLET (TARRAGONA): TEMPLE IN THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 192
POBLET (TARRAGONA): CLOISTERS AND PALACE OF KING MARTIN]
[Illustration: PLATE 193
POBLET (TARRAGONA): INTERIOR VIEW OF THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 194
POBLET (TARRAGONA): INTERIOR VIEW OF THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 195
SANTA CREUS (TARRAGONA): GENERAL VIEW OF THE CHURCH OF THE MONASTERY]
[Illustration: PLATE 196
SANTA CREUS (TARRAGONA): DOOR OF THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 197
SANTA CREUS (TARRAGONA): INTERIOR OF THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 198
SANTA CREUS (TARRAGONA): INTERIOR SIDE VIEW OF THE CLOISTERS]
[Illustration: PLATE 199
MONTSERRAT: VIEW OF THE MONASTERY]
[Illustration: PLATE 200
MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT]
[Illustration: PLATE 201
VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT, TAKEN FROM ST. MICHAEL]
[Illustration: PLATE 202
MONTSERRAT: GENERAL VIEW OF MONASTERY FROM THE SOUTH]
[Illustration: PLATE 203
MONTSERRAT: VIEW OF THE MONASTERY FROM THE SOUTH]
[Illustration: PLATE 204
MONTSERRAT: GENERAL VIEW]
[Illustration: PLATE 205
MONTSERRAT: VIEW OF THE MONASTERY FROM THE WEST]
[Illustration: PLATE 206
MONTSERRAT: THE MONASTERY]
[Illustration: PLATE 207
MONTSERRAT: GROTTO OF THE VIRGIN]
[Illustration: PLATE 208
MONTSERRAT: THE VIRGIN’S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 209
MONTSERRAT: VIEW FROM THE GROTTO OF THE VIRGIN]
[Illustration: PLATE 210
MONTSERRAT: THE CAVE OF JUAN GUARIN THE HERMIT]
[Illustration: PLATE 211
MONTSERRAT: REMAINS OF THE ANCIENT MONASTERY]
[Illustration: PLATE 212
MONTSERRAT: DOOR OF THE CHURCH]
[Illustration: PLATE 213
MONTSERRAT: INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH]
[Illustration: PLATE 214
MONTSERRAT: VIEW OF THE PEAKS]
[Illustration: PLATE 215
MONTSERRAT: THE DEVIL’S ROCK]
[Illustration: PLATE 216
MONTSERRAT: MIRANDA PEAK]
[Illustration: PLATE 217
VIEW OF MONTSERRAT, TAKEN FROM MONISTOL STATION]
[Illustration: PLATE 218
VIEW OF MONISTOL, TAKEN FROM MONTSERRAT]
[Illustration: PLATE 219
TORTOSA: GENERAL VIEW]
[Illustration: PLATE 220
TORTOSA: COURTYARD IN THE INSTITUTE]
[Illustration: PLATE 221
THE COURT, SAN FRANCISCO, PALMA, MALLORCA
GRAN HOTEL, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 222
PALACE OF THE ALMUDAINA, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 223
WINDMILL AND ELECTRICAL WORKS, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 224
VIEW OF THE “REAL CLUB DE REGATAS,” PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 225
MARKET AND CHURCH OF SAN NICOLAS, PALMA, MALLORCA
SAN FRANCISCO, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 226
VIEW FROM THE HARBOUR, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 227
VIEW OF THE BAY, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 228
THE ALMUDAINA AND CATHEDRAL, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 229
PUERTA DE SANTA MARGARITA, PALMA, MALLORCA
THE CATHEDRAL, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 230
PASEO DEL BORNE, PALMA, MALLORCA
ARABIAN BATHS, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 231
VIEW OF THE GORCH BLAU, MALLORCA
THE GORCH BLAU, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 232
INTERIOR OF SAN FRANCISCO, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 233
ARAB BATHS, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 234
THE QUAY, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 235
MILLS, PALMA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 236
THE RIVER, SOLLER, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 237
GENERAL VIEW OF ALCUDIA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 238
THE CATHEDRAL, PALMA, MALLORCA
THE CHURCH OF THE MONASTERY, LLUCH, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 239
LA CARTUJA, VALLDEMOSA, MALLORCA
PUERTA DEL MUELLE, ALCUDIA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 240
INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH, LLUCH, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 241
TRANSPORT OF MUSTS, BALEARIC ISLANDS]
[Illustration: PLATE 242
GENERAL VIEW OF DEYA, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 243
CASTLE OF BELLVER, MALLORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 244
GENERAL VIEW OF SAN ANTONIO (PITYUSAE ISLES)]
[Illustration: PLATE 245
RUINS OF THE TORRE D’EA GALINES, ALAZOR, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 246
VILLA CARLOS, MAHON, MENORCA
VIEW OF THE PORT, MAHON, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 247
THE HARBOUR, MAHON, MENORCA
A VIEW IN THE TOWN, MAHON, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 248
THE QUAY, MAHON, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 249
PASEO DEL home, CIUDADELA, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 250
VIEW OF THE PORT, MAHON, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 251
THE PORT AND TOWN, CIUDADELA, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 252
THRESHING, SAN ANTONIO (PITYUSAE ISLES)
A STREET IN ALGENDAR, FERRERIAS, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 253
A VIEW SHOWING THE ARABIAN TOWERS, IBIZA (PITYUSAE ISLES)]
[Illustration: PLATE 254
RIVER PAREYS]
[Illustration: PLATE 255
PORTAL OF D’ALT OR D’EN SERVERA, MAHON, MENORCA]
[Illustration: PLATE 256
MONUMENT TO THE FRENCH PRISONERS WHO DIED IN 1808, ISLAND OF CABRERA,
MENORCA]
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