ter of 1755 the whole inside was plastered, all the
capitals both of the main

[Illustration: PLAN OF CATHEDRAL, LISBON]

piers and of the gallery were converted into a semblance of gilt
Corinthian capitals, and large skylights were cut through the vault.
Only the inside of the low octagonal lantern remains to show that the
church must have been at least as interesting, if not more so, than the
Se Velha or old cathedral at Coimbra. If the nave has suffered such a
transformation the fourteenth-century choir has been even worse
treated. The whole upper part, which once was as high as the top of the
lantern, fell and was re-roofed in a most miserable manner, having only
the ambulatory and its chapels uninjured. But these, the cloister and a
rather fine chapel to the north-west of the nave, had better be left for
another chapter.[41]

[Sidenote: Se Velha, Coimbra.]

[Illustration: PLAN OF CATHEDRAL, COIMBRA]

Smaller but much better preserved than Lisbon Cathedral is the Se Velha
or old cathedral of Coimbra. According to the local tradition, the
cathedral is but a mosque turned into a church after the Christian
conquest, and it may well be that in the time of Dom Sesnando, the first
governor of Coimbra--a Moor who, becoming a Christian, was made count of
Coimbra by King Fernando, and whose tomb, broken open by the French, may
still be seen outside the north wall of the church--the chief mosque of
the town was used as the cathedral. But although an Arab inscription[42]
is built into the outer wall of the nave, there can be no doubt that the
present building is as Christian in plan and design as any church can
be. If the nave of the cathedral of Lisbon is like Santiago in
construction, the nave here is, on a reduced scale, undoubtedly a copy
of Santiago not only constructively but also in its general details. The
piers are shorter but of the same plan, the great triforium gallery
looks towards the nave, as at Santiago and at Toulouse, by a double
opening whose arches spring from single shafts at the sides to rest on
double shafts in the centre, both being enclosed under one larger arch,
while the barrel vault and the supporting vaults of the gallery are
exactly similar. Now Santiago was practically finished in 1128, and
there still exists a book called the _Livro Preto_ in which is given a
list of the gifts made by Dom Miguel, who ruled the see of Coimbra from
1162 to 1176, towards the building and adorning of the church