SPANISH GOTHIC.
The Iberian peninsula, which borrowed the Romanesque style will ingly from France, afterward took with equal alacrity the Gothic also from its neighbor. Burgos Cathedral, commenced in 1221, has a choir laid out in the French manner with an aisle and five chapels. The Ca thedral of Toledo, commenced in 1227, has five aisles, with a double aisle around the choir, as in the Cathedral of Paris. The upper part of the structure, with its triforium, resembles internally the French cathedrals, though mixed in some places with reminiscences of the Moorish style. The Cistercian Church of Las Huelgas, near Burgos, erected in the forms of the thirteenth century, has a polygonally-terminated choir with four small side-choirs, also ending polygonally.' The conventual church at Batalha, also of the thirteenth century, has a similar plan; to a three-aisled nave are attached a one-aisled transept and five parallel choirs with polygonal ends, the central one rather wider than the side ones. The Cathedral of Leon, begun in 125o, has a three aisled nave and a choir ending in the French chevet. The slenderness of the architectural system was such that stability was sacrificed, and soon after its construction a part of the openings had to be walled up; so that it has recently been found necessary to take down and rebuild a large portion of the edifice. The Cathedral of Avila is Gothic with a Roman esque arrangement, and that of Valencia, begun in 1262, has two chapels attached to each side of the polygonal aisle around the apse. The prin cipal part of the Cathedral of Avila was executed in the beginning of the fourteenth century.
Barcelona Cathedral, begun in 129S, for the most part built in the first half of the fourteenth century, but with parts reaching into the fifteenth, has in many respects emancipated itself from the French system. The details, indeed, are completely based upon it, but it has, as is the case in Italy, widely-spaced and proportionally slender piers, and side-aisles car ried up so high that only small openings remain to admit light into the middle aisle. Each bay of the nave on both sides has two polygonal chapels between the buttresses.
The choir of the Cathedral of Gerona, commenced in 1312 and com pleted in 1346, has an apsidal aisle and nine chapels, and the collegiate Church of Manresa, commenced in 1328, has seven square chapels around the apsidal aisle. Santa Maria del Mar (132S-1383) at Barcelona has a middle aisle roofed with four square vaults of about 12 metres (4o feet) span, and Sta. Maria del Pino and St. Just y Pastor of the same city have only one aisle, with a vault of even wider span. The middle aisle of the Cathedral of Palma in Majorca is nearly zo metres (65 feet) wide, and consists of eight bays, to each of which, on either side, is attached a polygonal chapel. These chapels are somewhat larger than the polyg onal choirs which close the side-aisles toward the east, while a principal choir of entirely German plan terminates the middle aisle and has at its eastern polygonal end a small polygonally-terminated chapel of several bays. The single transept of Valencia Cathedral dates from 1350, the
Church of St. Giles at Burgos is of the fourteenth century, and the bell tower of Valencia Cathedral was built r381-1418. The cathedral at Oviedo was commenced in 138S.
Seville Cathedral, commenced in £403, has five aisles and a series of chapels also on each side; the middle aisle is but slightly higher than the side-aisles. The cathedral at Pamplona, commenced in 1397, has a French arrangement of the choir and is chiefly a work of the fifteenth century. St. Pablo at Burgos was built 1415-1433, and in 1416 the nave of the Cathedral of Gerona was added to the choir. This nave consists of a single aisle with a vault as wide as the three aisles of the choir adjoining it, and is spanned by four fine groined vaults, to each side of which two polygonal chapels are attached. The façade of the cathe dral at Toledo dates from 1418-1479; in 144r the Cathedral of Astorga, which has three simple parallel choirs and two western towers, was coin menced; the towers of Burgos Cathedral were erected between 1442 and 1456;' the vaulting of the Barcelona Cathedral was finished in 1448; the Church of El Paral at Segovia was begun in 1459; the splendid octangular chapel at the head of the choir of Burgos Cathedral dates from 14S7; San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo was begun in 1476; the Cartusa at Miraflores was finished in 148S, and in 1499, San Benito at Valladolid, which has radiating groining, was commenced. The Cathedral of Huesca belongs to the fifteenth century; that of Salamanca was erected between 1510 and 156o, and that of Segovia was begun in 1522. The Mausoleum of King Manuel, attached to the conventual church of Batalha, follows the type of the circular churches and is decorated in a fantastic manner. The equally fanciful conventual church at Belem belongs also to the sixteenth century. The cupola and the transept of Burgos Cathedral were executed previous to 1567.
Secular Buildings.—The evolution of the Spanish secular edifices of this period is most interesting. Arabian survivals and borrowed Northern forms compose the designs for dwelling-houses and palaces intended for Southern habits, and the serious is in them mingled with the gay in the most agreeable manner, while structures erected for military purposes were made less severe by an abundance of decorations. We may mention the Puerta de Serranos at Valencia (1349); the Casa Consistorial at Barce lona (1369-137S), which has a great hall; the Casa de la Disputacion, and the Audiencia, with arcades of several storeys and a great open staircase in the court (pi. 39,fig. 6), as well as the Puerta del Cuarte at Valencia (1444) and the Casa Lonja, which was begun in 1482.