ity, a curious custom was in vogue in the city
until a few years ago, when the Basque Provinces finally lost the
privileges they had fought for during centuries.

When Alfonso VIII. granted these privileges, he told the citizens they
were to conserve them "as long as the waters of the Zadorria flowed into
the Ebro."

The Zadorria is the river upon which Vitoria is situated; about two
miles up the river there is a historical village, Arriago, and a no less
historical bridge. Hither, then, every year on St. John's Day, the
inhabitants of Vitoria came in procession, headed by the municipal
authorities, the bishop and clergy, the clerk of the town hall, and the
sheriff. The latter on his steed waded into the waters of the Zadorria,
and threw a letter into the stream; it flowed with the current toward
the Ebro River. An act was then drawn up by the clerk, signed by the
mayor and the sheriff, testifying that the "waters of the Zadorria
flowed into the Ebro."

To-day the waters still flow into the Ebro, but the procession does not
take place, and the city's _fueros_ are no more.

In the reign of Isabel the Catholic, the Church of St. Mary was raised
to a Colegiata, and it is only quite recently, according to the latest
treaty between Spain and Rome, that an episcopal see has been
established in the city of Vitoria.

Documents that have been discovered state that in 1281--a hundred years
after the city had been newly baptized--the principal temple was a
church and castle combined; in the fourteenth century this was
completely torn down to make room for the new building, a modest ogival
church of little or no merit.

The tower is of a later date than the body of the cathedral, as is
easily seen by the triangular pediments which crown the square windows:
it is composed of three bodies, as is generally the case in Spain, the
first of which is square in its cross-section, possessing four turrets
which crown the angles; the second body is octagonal and the third is in
the form of a pyramid terminating in a spire.

The portal is cut into the base of the tower. It is the handsomest front
of the building, though in a rather dilapidated state; the sculptural
decorations of the three arches, as well as the aerial reliefs of the
tympanum, are true to the period in which they were conceived.

The sacristy encloses a primitive wooden effigy of the Virgin; it is of
greater historic than artistic value. There is also a famous picture