d from the Corinthian or
Composite, have stiff leaves covering the change from the round to the
square, and between them broad tendrils which end in very carefully cut
volutes at the angles. The heads themselves are markedly horseshoe in
shape, which at first sight suggests some Moorish influence, but in
everything else the details are so thoroughly Western, and by 1109 such
a long time, over a hundred years, had passed since the Moors had been
permanently expelled from that part of the country, that it were better
to see in these horseshoes an unskilled attempt at stilting, rather than
the work of some one familiar with Eastern forms. (Fig. 16.)

CHAPTER II

THE EARLY BUILDINGS IN THE SOUTH

In 1057 Fernando, king of Castile, Leon and Galicia crossed the Douro,
took Lamego, where the lower part of the tower is all that is left of
the romanesque cathedral, and is indeed the only romanesque tower in the
country. Vizeu fell soon after, and seven years later he advanced his
borders to the Mondego by the capture of Coimbra. The Mondego, the only
large river whose source and mouth are both in Portugal, long remained
the limit of the Christian dominion, and nearly a hundred years were to
pass before any further advance was made. In 1147 Affonso Henriques, who
had but lately assumed the title of king, convinced at last that he was
wasting his strength in trying to seize part of his cousin's dominions
of Galicia, determined to turn south and extend his new kingdom in that
direction. Accordingly in March of that year he secretly led his army
against Santarem, one of the strongest of the Moorish cities standing
high above the Tagus on an isolated hill. The vezir, Abu-Zakariah, was
surprised before he could provision the town, so that the garrison were
able to offer but a feeble resistance, and the Christians entered after
the attack had lasted only a few days. Before starting the king had
vowed that if successful he would found a monastery in token of his
gratitude, and though its vast domestic buildings are now but barracks
and court-houses, the great Cistercian abbey of Alcobaca still stands to
show how well his vow was fulfilled.

Although Santarem was taken in 1147, the first stone of Alcobaca was not
laid till 1153, and the building was carried out very slowly and in a
style, imported directly from France, quite foreign to any previous work
in Portugal. It were better, therefore, before coming to this, the
larges