RAL]

It has been supposed that the western front of the building possessed at
one time a narthex, like the cathedral Tuy, for instance. Nothing
remains of it, however, as the portal which used to be here was done
away with, and in its place a modern chapel with a fine Gothic _retablo_
was consecrated.

Seen from the interior, the almost similar height of the nave and
aisles, leaves, as in Zamora, a somewhat stern and depressing impression
on the visitor; the light which enters is also feeble, excepting beneath
the _linterna_, where "the difficulty of placing a circular body on a
square without the aid of supports (_pechinas_) has been so naturally
and perfectly overcome that we are obliged to doubt of its ever having
existed."

Gothic elements, more so than in Zamora, mix with the Romanesque
traditions in the decoration of the nave and aisles; nevertheless, the
elements of construction are purely Romanesque, excepting the central
apsidal chapel which contains the high altar. Restored by the Fonseca
family in the sixteenth century, it is ogival in conception and
execution, and contains some fine tombs of the above named aristocratic
family. But the chapel passes unnoticed in this peculiarly exotic
building, where solidity and not grace was the object sought and
obtained.

IV

SALAMANCA

The very position of Salamanca, immediately to the north of the chain of
mountains which served for many a century as a rough frontier wall
between Christians and Moors, was bound to ensure the city's importance
and fame. Its history is consequently unique, grander and more exciting
than that of any other city; the universal name it acquired in the
fourteenth century, thanks to its university, can only be compared with
that of Bologna, Paris, and Oxford.

Consequently its fall from past renown to present insignificance was
tremendous, and to-day, a heap of ruins, boasting of traditions like
Toledo and Burgos, of two cathedrals and twenty-four parish churches, of
twice as many convents and palaces, of a one-time glorious university
and half a hundred colleges,--Salamanca sleeps away a useless existence
from which it will never awaken.

Its history has still to be penned. What an exciting and stirring
account of middle age life in Spain it would be!

The Romans knew Salamantia, and the first notice handed down to us of
the city reads like a fairy story, as though predicting future events.

According to Plutarch, the t