h century by Tavera, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo, who had
at one time occupied the see of Ciudad Rodrigo. It is a peculiar mixture
of Gothic and Romanesque, of pointed windows and heavy buttresses; the
flat roof is decorated by means of a low stone railing or balustrade
composed of elegantly carved pinnacles.

To conclude: excepting the western front and the central lobe of the
apse, the tower and the ogival arch surmounting the northern and
southern portals, the cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo is one of the most
perfectly preserved Romanesque buildings to the south of Zamora and
Toro. It is less grim and warlike than the two last-named edifices, and
yet it is also a fair example of severe and gloomy (though not less
artistic!) Castilian Romanesque. Its _croisee_ is not surmounted by the
heavy cupola as in Salamanca and elsewhere, and it is perhaps just this
suppression or omission which gives the whole building a far less
Oriental appearance than the others mentioned heretofore.

In the inside, the choir occupies its usual place. Its stalls, it is
believed, were carved by Aleman, the same who probably wrought those
superb seats at Plasencia. It is doubtful if the same master carved
both, however, but were it so, the stalls at Ciudad Rodrigo would have
to be classified as older, executed before those we shall examine in a
future chapter.

The nave and two aisles, pierced by ogival windows in the clerestory and
round-headed windows in the aisles, constitute the church; the
_croisee_ is covered by means of a simple ogival vaulting; the arches
separating the nave from the aisles are Romanesque, as is the vaulting
of the former. It was originally the intention of the chapter to
beautify the solemn appearance of the interior by means of a triforium
or running gallery. Unluckily, perhaps because of lack of funds, the
triforium was never begun excepting that here and there are seen
remnants of the primitive tracing.

With the lady-chapel profusely and lavishly ornamented, and quite out of
place in this solemn building, there are five chapels, one at the foot
of each aisle and two in the apse, to the right and left of the
lady-chapel. They all lack art interest, however, as does the actual
_retablo_, which replaces the one destroyed by the French; remnants of
the latter are to be seen patched up on the cloister walls.

This cloister to the north of the church is a historical monument, for
each of the four sides of the sq