rtheless one
of the richest Gothic structures in Spain, especially as regards the
decoration of the interior.

The western front is entirely taken up by the triple portal, surmounted
by arches that prove a certain reluctance on the builder's part to make
them pointed; the northern extremity of the front is devoid of a tower,
though the base be standing. It was originally intended to erect a
second _fleche_ similar to the one described, but for some reason or
other--without a doubt purely financial--it was never built.

Of the three portals, that which corresponds to the central nave is the
larger; it is flanked by the only two statuettes in the whole front,
namely, by those of Alfonso the Chaste and Froela, and is surmounted by
a bold low relief. The arches of the three doors are richly carved with
ogival arabesques, and the panels, though more modern, have been wrought
by the hand of a master.

Taken all in all, this western front can be counted among the most
sombre and naked in Spain, so naked, in fact, that it appears rather as
though money had been lacking to give it a richer aspect than that the
artist's genius should have been so completely devoid of decorative
taste or imagination.

The interior of the Roman cruciform building, though by no means one of
the largest, is, as regards its architectural disposition, one of the
most imposing Gothic interiors in Spain. High, long, and narrow, the
central nave is rendered lighter and more elegant by the bold triforium
and the lancet windows of the upper clerestory wall. The wider aisles,
on the other hand, are dark in comparison to the nave, and tend to give
the latter greater importance.

This was doubtless the intention of the primitive master who terminated
the aisles at the transept by constructing chapels to the right and to
the left of the high altar and on a line with it. The sixteenth-century
builders thought differently, however, and so the aisles were prolonged
into an apsidal ambulatory behind the high altar. This part of the
building is far less pure in style than the primitive structure, and the
chapels which open to the right and to the left are of a more recent
date, and consequently even more out of harmony than the plateresque
ambulatory. The three rose windows in the semicircular apse are richly
decorated with ogival nervures, and correspond, one to the nave and one
to each of the aisles; they belong to the primitive structure, having
illuminated