ss, that the author does not pretend--_Dios
me libre!_--to have supplied the lack in the following pages. In a
couple of thousand words it would be utterly impossible to do so. No; a
complete, evolutionary study of Spanish architecture would imply years
of labour, of travel, and of study. For so much on the peninsula is
hybrid and exotic, and yet again, so much is peculiar to Spain alone.
Thus it is often most difficult to determine which art phenomena are
natural--that is, which are the logical results of a well-defined art
movement--and which are artificial or the casual product of elements
utterly foreign to Spanish soil.

Willingly the author leaves to other and wiser heads the solving of the
above riddle. He hopes, nevertheless, that they (those who care to
undertake the mentioned task) will find some remarks or some
observations in the following chapters to help them discover the real
truth concerning the Spaniard's love, or his insensibility for
architectural monuments, as well as his share in the erection of
cathedrals, palaces, and castles.

Spanish architecture--better still, architecture in Spain--is peculiarly
strange and foreign to us Northerners. We admire many edifices in
Iberia, but are unable to say wherefore; we are overawed at the
magnificence displayed in the interior of cathedral churches and at a
loss to explain the reason.

As regards the former, it can be attributed to the Oriental spirit still
throbbing in the country; not in vain did the Moor inhabit Iberia for
nearly eight hundred years!

The powerful influence of the Church on the inhabitants, an influence
that has lasted from the middle ages to the present day, explains the
other phenomenon. Even to-day, in Spain, the Pope is supreme and the
princes of the Church are the rulers.

Does the country gain thereby? Not at all. Andalusia is in a miserable
state of poverty, so are Extremadura, La Mancha, and Castile. Not a
penny do the rich, or even royalty, give to better the country people's
piteous lot; neither does the Church.

It is nevertheless necessary to be just. In studying the evolutionary
history of architecture in Spain, we must praise the tyranny of the
Church which spent the millions of dollars of the poor in erecting such
marvels as the cathedral of Toledo, etc., and we must ignore the
sweating farmer, the terror-stricken Jew, the accused heretic, the
disgraced courtier, the seafaring conquistador, who gave up their all to
b