An Architect's Note-Book in Spain Part 24

San Feliu, as he is popularly called, was an early Spanish Christian, deacon to San Narciso, the Martyr, Protector and "Generalissimo" of the See of Gerona.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 100

GERONA OLD WALLS NEAR SAN PEDRO

MDW 1869]

PLATE C.

_GERONA._

OLD WALLS NEAR THE MONASTERY OF SAN PEDRO.

FROM the date at least on which Charlemagne captured Gerona from the Moors, it has been a victim to the horrors of war; manned through all history, and under every circ.u.mstance of siege and occupation, by men and women of the sternest courage and determination it has been held with the utmost tenacity, as really even more than Figueras (the actual frontier town), the key to the easiest line of advance from France into Spain. Hence the strength and interest of its fine old walls, which in spite of every ancient and modern vicissitude, still retain more curious features of middle age defence than, to the best of my belief, any other city of Spain, with the exception of Avila. As will be seen from my sketch, the apse of the fine old Romanesque church of San Pedro, which actually forms a bulwark, has been raised so as to bring it into practical fighting order; and the covered galleries for marksmen, with bow and cross bow, matchlock and firelock, still extend from it to the north and to the south in easily to be recognised, and still fairly complete, galleries of well-sheltered communication. The present aspect of the north of Gerona forms a fair pendant to the description Charles Didier gives of its sister fortress to the side of France, Figueras. He says, "Tout a un air d'abandon et de desolation; les casernes sont magnifiques, mais desertes; les casemates s.p.a.cieuses, mais vides; les longues herbes de la solitude croissent partout, et la seule partie des batiments qui soit aujourd'hui de premiere necessite, l'infirmerie, n'est point terminee; les pierres a moitie taillees jonchent le sol et sont couvertes de mousse. J'errai longtemps seul dans ce silencieux desert sans rencontrer personne; de loin en loin seulement, j'apercevais quelque sentinelle perdue a la pointe d'une demi-lune et nonchalamment appuyee contre les canons et les mortiers; de gros rats rongeaient en paix les affuts; ils se sont si bien empares du lieu, que mon approche les derangeait a peine; je n'avais pas fait trois pas, qu'ils se remettaient a l'oeuvre. Voila sous quels traits l'Espagne apparait au voyageur qui vient de France, triste et frappante image d'une chute sans exemple et d'une misere sans terme."[67]

One would have preferred receiving from any other than a Frenchman so dreary a picture of the desolation mainly wrought by Frenchmen.

Returning to Gerona, to which Didier's description applies (as I have already stated) nearly as well as to Figueras, in sight of which he may have written it, we shall find Mr. Street no less strongly impressed than I was with what Spain owes to France in the matter. "All this havoc and ruin is owing," he says, "like so much that one sees in Spain, to the action of the French troops during the Peninsular War." It is however but just to the French to add that the Spaniards are not, like them, endowed with wonderful recuperative energy.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Von P. L. Berckenmeyern. Hamburg, 1731.

[2] "The Frenchman like an eagle. The German like a bear. The Italian like a fox. The Spaniard like an elephant. The Englishman like a lion."

[3] Waring (John Burley) Architectural, Sculptural, and Picturesque Studies of Burgos and its neighbourhood. Folio. London. 1851.

[4] Examples of Architectural Art in Italy and Spain. Folio. London.

1850.

[5] "Viaggio in Spagna," quoted by O'Shea, page 498.

[6] Examples of Ornamental Heraldry of the sixteenth century. London, 1867. Privately printed.

[7] Given at length under the No. x.x.xV in the Appendix to the First Volume of the "Noticias de los Arquitectos y Architectura de Espana, &c.," por Senor D. Eugenio Llaguno y Amirola, &c. Madrid, 1829.

[8] Carefully ill.u.s.trated geometrically in the "Monumentos Arquitectonicos." Madrid. Folio.

[9] See: "Historia de las ordenes Militares de S. Iago," por F. Caro de Torres. Madrid, 1629. Folio.

[10] O'Shea. Page 236.

[11] Ingenious and diverting letters of "A Lady's Travels into Spain,"

London, 1720, Vol. I, page 308.

[12] See Colmenar's description of the condition of the University in 1715.

[13] London 1771, Vol. II., page 24.

[14] There is much in this very town of Avila in the beautiful old church of San Vicente.

[15] Catalogo de la Real Armeria--siendo Director General, &c.--el S. D.

Jose Maria Marchesi--Madrid, 1849, pages 188-89.

[16] Les Delices de l'Espagne et du Portugal--Leide chez Pierre van der Aa, 1706.

[17] See the true and topographical views given in the above work, and the artistic and considerably embellished one by David Roberts in Jennings' Landscape Annual for 1837.

[18] "Doc.u.mentos," Vol. I. of the "Noticias" Appendix No. x.x.xVIII.

[19] Printed at Alcala in 1514-15 in 6 vols. folio.

[20] Espana Artistica y monumental de Villa Amil y Escosura, Vol. I.

page 82.

[21] Tome I., page 222. Bruxelles, 1837.

[22] The greater part of the above facts are verified by the inscription which was placed upon the bridge by Alonzo the Wise, in 1252, and the original of which is given by Cean Bermudez in his "Doc.u.mentos" Vol. I.

Number XXIV.

[23] Noticias de los Arquitectos, &c. Par Amirola y Bermudez, Madrid, 1829. Vol. I. page 41.

[24] Noticias &c. Vol. I. page 79.

[25] A Journey to Mequinez. London, Jacob Tonson, 1725.

[26] Probably a son of the great Henrique de Egas, who died in 1534.

[27] O'Shea states (page 410) that the Infante Don Fernando, uncle of Juan II., lodged in it in 1407.

[28] In the Street of the Abbots, all have _uncles_ none _fathers_.

[29] The Cathedral Canons have no _sons_, those they keep at home are _little nephews_.

[30] "A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain," by Philip Thicknesse. Bath, 1777. Vol. I. pages 260-1.

[31] In his amusing "Tra los Montes." Bruxelles, 1843. Vol. II. page 44.

[32] Neu-vermehrter Curieuser Antiquarius. Hamburgh. 1731.

[33] Travels through Spain in the year 1775 and 1776, in which several monuments of Roman and Moorish architecture are ill.u.s.trated by accurate drawings taken on the spot by Henry Swinburne, Esq. London. 4to. 1779.

[34] O'Shea adds the name of Cayon to that of Acero, describing the two as descending from the Salamanca school, founded by Churriguera and Tome.