be put
down to foreign influence. Much better as a rule are the round windows,
mostly of the fourteenth century, but they are all very like one
another, and are probably mostly derived from the same source, perhaps
from one of the transept windows at Evora, or from the now empty circle
over the west door at Lisbon.

[Sidenote: Sao Francisco, Santarem.]

Much more refined than this granite church at Guimaraes has been Sao
Francisco at Santarem, now unfortunately degraded into being the stable
of a cavalry barracks. There the best-preserved and most interesting
part is the west door, which does not lead directly into the church but
into a low porch or narthex. The narthex itself has central and side
aisles, all of the same height, is two bays in length and is covered by
a fine strong vault resting on short clustered piers.[59] The doorway
itself, which is not acutely pointed, stands under a gable which reaches
up to the plain battlemented parapet of the flat narthex roof. There are
four shafts on each side with a ring-moulding rather less than half-way
up, which at once distinguishes them from any romanesque predecessors;
the capitals are round with a projecting moulding half-way up and
another one at the top with a curious projection or claw to unite the
round cap and the square moulded abacus. Of the different orders of the
arch, all well moulded, the outer has a hood with billet-mould; the
second a well-developed chevron or zigzag; and the innermost a series of
small horseshoes, which like the chevron stretch across the hollow so as
to hold in the large roll at the angle.[60] (Fig. 26.)

[Sidenote: Santa Maria dos Olivaes, Thomar.]

In a previous chapter the building of a church at Thomar by Dom Gualdim
Paes, Grand Master of the Templars, has been mentioned. Of this church
and the castle built at the same time, both of which stood on the east
or flat bank of the river Nabao, nothing now remains except perhaps the
lower part of the detached bell-tower. This church, Santa Maria dos
Olivaes, was the Matriz or mother church of all those held, first by the
Templars and later by their successors, the Order of Christ, not only in
Portugal but even in Africa, Brazil, and in India. Of so high a dignity
it is scarcely worthy, being but a very simple building neither large
nor richly ornamented. A nave and aisles of five bays, three polygonal
apses to the east and later square chapels beyond the aisles, make up
the whole bui