seen. Of
these the simplest and probably the oldest is that of an aisleless nave
with simple square chancel. In the second the nave has one or two
aisles, and at the end of these aisles a semicircular apse, but with the
chancel still square: while in the third and latest the plan has been
further developed and enlarged, though even here the main chancel
generally still remains square.

[Sidenote: Villarinho.]

There yet exist, not far from Oporto, a considerable number of examples
of the first type, though several by their pointed doorways show that
they actually belong, in part at least, to the period of the Transition.
One of the best-preserved is the small church of Villarinho, not far
from Vizella in the valley of the Ave. Originally the church of a small
monastery, it has long been the parish church of a mountain hamlet, and
till it was lately whitewashed inside had scarcely been touched since
the day it was finished some time before the end of the twelfth century.
It consists of a rather high and narrow nave, a square-ended chancel,
and to the west a lower narthex nearly as large as the chancel. The
church is lit by very small windows which are indeed mere slits, and by
a small round opening in the gable above the narthex.[32] The narthex is
entered by a perfectly plain round-headed door with strong impost and
drip-mould, while above the corbels which once carried the roof of a
lean-to porch, a small circle enclosing a rude unglazed quatrefoil
serves as the only window. The door leading from the narthex to the nave
is much more elaborate; of four orders of mouldings, the two inner are
plain, the two outer have a big roll at the angle, and all are slightly
pointed. Except the outermost, which springs from square jambs, they all
stand on the good romanesque capitals of six shafts, four round and two
octagonal. (Fig. 12.)

[Sidenote: Sao Miguel, Guimaraes.]

Exactly similar in plan but without a narthex is the church of Sao
Miguel at Guimaraes, famous as being the church in which Affonso
Henriques, the first king of Portugal, was baptized in 1111. It claims
to have been the _Primaz_ or chief church of the whole archdiocese of
Braga. It is, like Villarinho, a small and very plain church built of
great blocks of granite, with a nave and square chancel lit by narrow
window slits. On the north side there are a plain square-headed doorway
and two bold round arches let into the outer wall over the graves of
some great