S CATHEDRAL]

The central door is surmounted by a plateresque-Renaissance pediment
imbedded in an ogival arch (of all things!); the side doors are crowned
by a simple window.

Vastly superior in all respects to the lower body are the upper stories,
of which the first is begun by a pinnacled balustrade running from tower
to tower; in the centre, between the two towers, there is an immense
rosace of a magnificent design and embellished by means of an ogival
arch in delicate relief; the windows of the tower, as well as in the
superior bodies, are pure ogival.

The next story can be considered as the basement of the towers, properly
speaking. The central part begins with a prominent balustrade of statues
thrown against a background formed by twin ogival windows of exceptional
size. The third story is composed, as regards the towers, of the last of
the square bodies upon which the fleche reposes; these square bases are
united by a light frieze or perforated balustrade which crowns the
central part of the facade and is decorated with ogival designs.

Last to be mentioned, but not least in importance, are the _fleches_.
Though short in comparison to the bold structure at Oviedo, they are,
nevertheless, of surprising dignity and elegance, and richly ornamented,
being covered over with an innumerable amount of tiny pinnacles
encrusted, as it were, on the stone network of a perforated pyramid.

The northern facade is richer in sculptural details than the western,
though the portal possesses but one row of statues. The rosace is
substituted by a three-lobed window, the central pane of which is larger
than the lateral two.

As this northern facade is almost fifteen feet higher than the
ground-plan of the temple,--on account of the street being much
higher,--a flight of steps leads down into the transept. As a
Renaissance work, this golden staircase is one of Spain's marvels, but
it looks rather out of place in an essentially Gothic cathedral.

To avoid the danger of falling down these stairs and with a view to
their preservation, the transept was pierced by another door in the
sixteenth century, on a level with the floor of the building, and
leading into a street lower than the previous one; it is situated on the
east of the prolonged transept, or better still, of the prolonged
northern transept arm.

On the south side a cloister door corresponds to this last-named portal.
Though the latter is plateresque, cold and severe,