Successive
governments, in shifting fever-fits of liberalism and absolutism, have
set up and pulled down his statue.
But his memory is loved and honored,
and the example of this noblest of the comuneros impresses powerfully
to-day the ardent young minds of the new Spain.
Your first walk is of course to the Cathedral, the Primate Church of the
kingdom. Besides its ecclesiastical importance, it is well worthy of
notice in itself. It is one of the purest specimens of Gothic
architecture in existence, and is kept in an admirable state of
preservation. Its situation is not the most favorable. It is approached
by a network of descending streets, all narrow and winding, as streets
were always built under the intelligent rule of the Moors. They
preferred to be cool in summer and sheltered in winter, rather than to
lay out great deserts of boulevards, the haunts of sunstroke and
pneumonia. The site of the Cathedral was chosen from strategic reasons
by St. Eugene, who built there his first Episcopal Church. The Moors
made a mosque of it when they conquered Castile, and the fastidious
piety of St. Ferdinand would not permit him to worship in a shrine thus
profaned. He tore down the old church and laid, in 1227, the
foundations of this magnificent structure, which was two centuries after
his death in building. There is, however, great unity of purpose and
execution in this Cathedral, due doubtless to the fact that the
architect Perez gave fifty years of his long life to the superintendence
of the early work. Inside and outside it is marked by a grave and
harmonious majesty. The great western facade is enriched with three
splendid portals, - the side ones called the doors of Hell and Judgment;
and the central a beautiful ogival arch divided into two smaller ones,
and adorned with a lavish profusion of delicately sculptured figures of
saints and prophets; on the chaste and severe cornice above, a group of
spirited busts represents the Last Supper. There are five other doors to
the temple, of which the door of the Lions is the finest, and just
beside it a heavy Ionic portico in the most detestable taste indicates
the feeling and culture that survived in the reign of Charles IV.
To the north of the west facade rises the massive tower. It is not among
the tallest in the world, being three hundred and twenty-four feet high,
but is very symmetrical and impressive. In the preservation of its
pyramidal purpose it is scarcely inferior to that most consummate work,
the tower of St. Stephen's in Vienna. It is composed of three
superimposed structures, gradually diminishing in solidity and
massiveness from the square base to the high-springing octagonal spire,
garlanded with thorny crowns. It is balanced at the south end of the
facade by the pretty cupola and lantern of the Mozarabic Chapel, the
work of the Greek Theotocopouli.
But we soon grow tired of the hot glare of June, and pass in a moment
into the cool twilight vastness of the interior, refreshing to body and
soul. Five fine naves, with eighty-four pillars formed each of sixteen
graceful columns, - the entire edifice measuring four hundred feet in
length and two hundred feet in breadth, - a grand and shadowy temple
grove of marble and granite. At all times the light is of an unearthly
softness and purity, toned by the exquisite windows and rosaces. But as
evening draws on, you should linger till the sacristan grows peremptory,
to watch the gorgeous glow of the western sunlight on the blazing roses
of the portals, and the marvellous play of rich shadows and faint gray
lights in the eastern chapels, where the grand aisles sweep in their
perfect curves around the high altar. A singular effect is here created
by the gilded organ pipes thrust out horizontally from the choir. When
the powerful choral anthems of the church peal out over the kneeling
multitude, it requires little fancy to imagine them the golden trumpets
of concealed archangels, who would be quite at home in that incomparable
choir.
If one should speak of all the noteworthy things you meet in this
Cathedral, he would find himself in danger of following in the footsteps
of Mr. Parro, who wrote a handbook of Toledo, in which seven hundred and
forty-five pages are devoted to a hasty sketch of the basilica. For five
hundred years enormous wealth and fanatical piety have worked together
and in rivalry to beautify this spot. The boundless riches of the Church
and the boundless superstition of the laity have left their traces here
in every generation in forms of magnificence and beauty. Each of the
chapels - and there are twenty-one of them - is a separate masterpiece in
its way. The finest are those of Santiago and St. Ildefonso, - the former
built by the famous Constable Alvaro de Luna as a burial-place for
himself and family, and where he and his wife lie in storied marble; and
the other commemorating that celebrated visit of the Virgin to the
bishop, which is the favorite theme of the artists and ecclesiastical
gossips of Spain.
There was probably never a morning call which gave rise to so much talk.
It was not the first time the Virgin had come to Toledo. This was always
a favorite excursion of hers. She had come from time to time, escorted
by St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James. But on the morning in question,
which was not long after Bishop Ildefonso had written his clever
treatise, "De Virginitate Stae Mariae," the Queen of Heaven came down to
matin prayers, and, taking the bishop's seat, listened to the sermon
with great edification. After service she presented him with a nice new
chasuble, as his own was getting rather shabby, made of "cloth of
heaven," in token of her appreciation of his spirited pamphlet in her
defence. This chasuble still exists in a chest in Asturias.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 45 of 67
Words from 44677 to 45683
of 67759
