aving become too weak to support the heavier
materials used in the construction of additions and renovations."

The cathedral was closed to the public by the government in 1850 and
handed over to a body of architects, who were to restore it in
accordance with the thirteenth-century design; in 1901 the interior of
the building had been definitely finished, and was opened once more to
the religious cult.

The general plan of the building is Roman cruciform, with a semicircular
apse composed of five chapels and an ambulatory behind the high altar.

As peculiarities, the following may be mentioned: the two towers of the
western front do not head the aisles, but flank them; the transept is
exceptionally wide (in Spanish cathedrals the distance between the high
altar and the choir must be regarded as the transept, properly speaking)
and is composed of a broad nave and two aisles to the east and one to
the west; the width also of the church at the transept is greater by
two aisles than that of the body itself,--a modification which produces
a double Roman cross and lends exceptional beauty to the ensemble, as it
permits of an unobstructed view from the western porch to the very apse.

Attention must also be drawn to the row of two chapels and a vestibule
which separate the church from the cloister (one of the most celebrated
in Spain as a Gothic structure, though mixed with Renaissance motives
and spoilt by fresco paintings). Thanks to this arrangement, the
cathedral possesses a northern portal similar to the southern one. As
regards the exterior of the building, it is a pity that the two towers
which flank the aisles are heavy in comparison to the general
construction of the church; had light and slender towers like those of
Burgos or that of Oviedo been placed here, how grand would have been the
effect! Besides, they are not similar, but date from different periods,
which is another circumstance to be regretted.

The second bodies of the western and southern facades also clash on
account of the Renaissance elements, with their simple horizontal lines
opposed to the vertical tendency of pure Gothic. But then, they also
were erected at a later date.

Excepting these remarks, however, nothing is more airily beautiful and
elegant than the superb expression of the _razonadas locuras_ (logical
nonsense) of the ogival style in all its phases, both early and late, or
even decadent. For examples of each period are to be found he