country seen--and how many art waves had swept over the peninsula!

Gothic is traceable throughout the building: here it is flamboyant,
there rayonnant. Here the gold and red of _Mudejar_ ceilings are
exquisitely represented, as in the chapter-room; there Moorish influence
in _azulejos_ (multicoloured glazed tiles) and in decorative designs is
to be seen, such as in the horseshoe arches of the triforium in the
chapel of the high altar. Renaissance details are not lacking, nor the
severe plateresque taste (in the grilles of the choir and high altar),
and neither did the grotesque style avoid Spain's great cathedral, for
there is the double ambulatory behind the high altar, that is to say,
the _transparente_, a circular chapel of the most gorgeous
ultra-decoration to be found anywhere in Spain.

Signs of decadence are unluckily to be observed in the cathedral to-day.
The same care is no longer taken to repair fallen bits of carved stone;
pigeon-lamps that burn little oil replace the huge bronze lamps of other
days, and no new additions are being made. The cathedral's apogee has
been reached; from now on it will either remain intact for centuries, or
else it will gradually crumble away.

Seen from the exterior, the cathedral does not impress to such an extent
as it might. Houses are built up around it, and the small square to the
south and west is too insignificant to permit a good view of the
ensemble.

Nevertheless, the spectator who is standing near the western facade,
either craning his neck skyward or else examining the seventy odd
statues which compose the huge portal of the principal entrance, is
overawed at the immensity of the edifice in front of him, as well as
amazed at the amount of work necessary for the decorating of the portal.

The Puerta de los Leones, or the southern entrance giving access to the
transept, is perhaps of a more careful workmanship as regards the
sculptural decoration. The door itself, studded on the outside with
nails and covered over with a sheet of bronze of the most exquisite
workmanship in relief, is a _chef-d'oeuvre_ of metal-stamping of the
sixteenth century, whilst the wood-carving on the interior is among the
finest in the cathedral.

The effect produced on the spectator within the building is totally
different. The height and length of the aisles, which are buried in
shadows,--for the light which enters illuminates rather the chapels
which are built into the walls between