tiago is self-evident in the
cathedral of Orense. How could it be otherwise, when the bishop Don
Diego, who sat on the chair, was a great friend and a continual visitor
of that other Don Diego in Santiago who erected the primate cathedral of
Galicia?

This influence is above all to be seen in the Portico del Paraiso, an
interior narthex leading from the western front to the body of the
church. It is a handsome area of Romanesque sculpture covered by an
ogival vaulting, and would be an important monument if its rival and
prototype in Santiago were not greater, both as regards its perfection
of design, and the grand idea which inspired it.

Of the three doors which lead into the cathedral, the western is crowned
by three rounded arches reposing on simple columns. The tympanum as a
decorative element is lacking, as is also the low relief, which is
usually superimposed above the upper arches. The latter are, however,
carved in the most elaborate manner. As regards the other two portals,
the northern and southern, their composition, as far as generalities are
concerned, is the same as the western, excepting that they are
surrounded by a depressed semicircular arch in relief, the whole of a
primitive design.

[Illustration: NORTHERN PORTAL OF ORENSE CATHEDRAL]

The towers of the cathedral are not old. The general impression of the
building from the outside--unluckily it cannot be contemplated from any
distance, as the surrounding houses impede it--is agreeable. To be
especially observed are some fine fourteenth-century (?) windows which
show ogival pattern, but either of timid execution or else of a bold
endeavour on the artist's part to subdue solemn Gothic to the Romanesque
traditions of the country.

The interior has been restored and changed many a time. In its original
plan it consisted of two aisles and a nave with a one-aisled transept,
and, just as in Lugo, an apse formed by three semicircles, of which the
central was the largest, and contained the high altar. To-day, though
the general appearance or disposition of the church (Roman cruciform
with exceedingly short lateral arms) is the same, an ambulatory walk
surrounds the high altar, which has been moved nearer the transept in
the principal nave. The vaulting is ogival, reposing on solid and
severe shafts; the aisles are slightly lower than the central nave, and
the _croisee_ is surmounted, as in Santiago, by a handsome cupola
similar in construction to that o