b-looking geometrical tracery of the ogival arches, is both light
and elegant.

This cathedral was at one time used as the pantheon of the kings of
Navarra. About ten elaborate marble tombs still lie at the foot of the
building.

_Santo Domingo de la Calzada._--The primitive ground-plan of the
cathedral has been preserved, a nave and two aisles showing Romanesque
strength in the lower and ogival lightness in the upper tiers. But
otherwise nothing reminds one of a twelfth or thirteenth century church.

The cloister, of the sixteenth century, is a handsome
plateresque-Renaissance edifice, rather small, severe, and cold. The
great merit of this church lies in the sepulchral tombs in the different
chapels, all of which were executed toward the end of the fifteenth and
during the first years of the seventeenth centuries, and any one wishing
to form for himself an idea of this particular branch of Spanish
monumental art must not fail to examine such sepulchres as those of
Carranza, Fernando Alfonso, etc.

[Illustration: CLOISTER OF NAJERA CATHEDRAL]

The effigy of the patron saint (Santo Domingo) is of painted wood
clothed in rich silver robes, which form a striking antithesis to the
saint's humble and modest life. The chapel where the latter lies is
closed by a gilded iron _reja_ of plateresque workmanship. The saint's
body lies in a simple marble sepulchre, said to have been carved by
Santo Domingo himself, who was both an architect and a sculptor. The
truth of this version is, however, doubtful.

Of the square tower and the principal entrance no remarks need be made,
for both are insignificant. The _retablo_ of the high altar has been
attributed to Foment, who constructed those of Saragosse and Huesca. The
attribution is, however, most doubtful, as shown by the completely
different styles employed by the artist of each. Not that the _retablo_
in the Church of Santo Domingo is inferior to Foment's masterworks in
Aragon, but the decorative motives of the flanking columns and low
reliefs would prove--in case they had been executed by the Aragonese
Foment--a departure from the latter's classic style.

In one of the niches of the cloister, in a simple urn, lies the heart of
Don Enrique, second King of Castile of that name, the half-brother (one
of the bastards mentioned in a previous chapter and from whom all later
Spanish monarchs are descended) of Peter the Cruel. The latter was
murdered by his fond relative, who usur