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CATHEDRAL OF BURGOS

Lantern over crossing]

The work immediately around and underneath this gigantic effort is
really the earliest part of the church, for, as was usual, the portion
indispensable for services was begun first. The transepts, the abutting
vaults, the southern and possibly the northern entrance fronts,
undoubtedly all belong to the work carried so rapidly forward by Bishop
Maurice's contagious enthusiasm. The work of the transepts is very
similar to that in the nave, but, in the former, one obtains really a
much finer view of the receding bays north and south than in the nave
with its choir obstruction. The huge rose of the south transept, placed
directly under the arch of the vaulting, is a splendid specimen of a
Gothic wheel. Its tracery is composed of a series of colonettes
radiating from centre to circumference, every two of which form, as it
were, a separate window tracery of central mullion, two arches and upper
rose. The other windows of the transepts are, barring their later
alterations, typically thirteenth-century Gothic, high and narrow with
colonettes in their jambs. While the glazing of the great southern rose
is a perfect burst of glory, that of the northern transept arm is later
and very mediocre.

There is a little chapel opening to the east out of the northern
transept arm which is full of interest from the fact that it belongs to
the original, early thirteenth-century structure. Probably there was a
corresponding one in the southern arm, with groining equally remarkable.
The northern transept arm is filled by the great Renaissance "golden
staircase" leading to the Puerta de la Coroneria, now always closed. It
must have been a magnificent spectacle to see the purple and scarlet
robes of priest and prelate sweep down the divided arms of the stair
uniting in the broad flight at the bottom. Such an occasion was the
marriage in 1268 of the Infante Ferdinand, son of Alfonso the Wise, to
Blanche of France, a niece of Saint Louis. The learned monarch ever had
a lavish hand, and he spared no expense to dazzle his distinguished
guests, among whom were the King of Aragon and Philip, heir to the
French throne. Ferdinand was first armed chevalier by his father, and
the marriage was then celebrated in the Cathedral of Burgos with greater
pomp and magnificence than had ever before been seen in Spain.

The gilt metal railing is as exquisite in workmanship as in design,
carried out by Diego d