isee_ and the Chapel of the
Condestable are the two chief attractions of the cathedral church.

The last named chapel is an octagonal addition to the apse. Its walls
from the exterior are seen to be richly sculptured and surmounted by a
lantern, or windowed dome, surrounded by high pinnacles and spires
placed on the angles of the polygon base. The _croisee_ is similar in
structure, but, due to its greater height, appears even more slender and
aerial. The towers with their _fleches_, together with these original
octagonal lanterns with their pinnacles, lend an undescribable grace,
elegance, and majesty to what would otherwise have been a rather
unwieldy edifice.

The Chapel of the Condestable is separated from the ambulatory (in the
interior of the temple) by a good grille of the sixteenth century, and
by a profusely sculptured door. The windows above the altar are the only
ones that retain painted panes of the sixteenth century. Among the other
objects contained in this chapel--which is really a connoisseur's
collection of art objects of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries--can
be mentioned the two marvellously carved tombs of the Condestable and of
his wife.

The _croisee_, on the other hand, has been called the "cathedral's
cathedral." Gazing skyward from the centre of the transept into the high
_cimborio_, and admiring the harmony of its details, the wealth of
decorative elements, and the no less original structure of the dome,
whose vault is formed by an immense star, one can understand the epithet
applied to this majestic piece of work, a marvel of its kind.

Strange to say, the primitive cupola which crowned the _croisee_ fell
down in the sixteenth century, the date also of Burgos's growing
insignificance in political questions. Consequently, it was believed by
many that the same fate produced both accidents, and that the downfall
of the one necessarily involved the decadence of the other.

To conclude: The Gothic cathedral of Burgos is, with that of Leon and
perhaps that of Sevilla, the one which expresses in a greater measure
than any other on the peninsula the true ideal of ogival architecture.
Less airy, light, and graceful than that of Leon, it is, nevertheless,
more Spanish, or in other words, more majestic, heavier, and more
imposing as regards size and weight. From a sculptural point of
view--stone sculpture--it is the first of all Spanish Gothic cathedrals,
and ranks among the most elaborate and pe