In the sacristy there has lately been discovered some old columns which date from the ninth century, and here too the sculpture on the capitals is very curious.
Another church worth examination is that of Santo Domingo. This building was consecrated by Bishop Sarmiento in 1534,[268] but the Gothic vaulting was only completed in 1730. A large part of the expense of its completion was borne by the Sotomayor family, two of whom became bishops of Tuy. The church is in the form of a Latin cross with very short arms, and only one wide nave terminating with a hectagonal apse and two small circular chapels to right and left. The Pointed Gothic arches of the nave rest upon Græco-Roman pillars supported by exterior buttresses. The central arch leading to the apse is also Pointed Gothic, and rests upon Gothic pillars. The vaulting of the transept is cylindrical, but the rest of the vaulting is Gothic.[269] The Gothic apse, which reminds us strongly of that of Santo Domingo at Pontevedra, was formerly lighted by three long and narrow lancet windows, and the smaller apses had each two such windows, but the bad taste of the eighteenth century led to their being all bricked in, in order that a hideous reredos might be placed behind the altar. There are two entrances to this church, the chief one at the end of the nave, and another, called the Door of the Rosary, at the end of the south arm of the transept. This last is pure Romanesque, and possibly the oldest part of the edifice; it has an archivolt composed of two pointed arches which rest upon two pairs of shafts. The capitals are curiously sculptured: on one I could distinguish faces of angels and long-necked swans, on another was a monkey with a long tail twisted round some small object. On the tympanum, within a border of horseshoe arches, there is a very old group representing the Adoration of the Magi, the figures of which have been sadly mutilated. Enclosing the tympanum is an arch decorated with various images of a symbolic nature. The Eternal Father is represented by a hand stretched out from clouds in the act of benediction.
We now come to the Cathedral, which is the principal object of interest in Tuy. King Ferdinand of Leon conquered Tuy and took it from Alfonso of Portugal in 1170, and as he made a handsome donation in 1180 to its bishop for the building of a Cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it is thought that this was the date at which the foundations were laid.[270] The Cathedral was consecrated in 1124, and at the same time opened for public worship. The original plan of the building was in the form of a Latin cross with very short arms, and with three naves in the transept as well as in the body of the church.
The western façade is very fine, but the episcopal palace which has been built to the right of the portico detracts greatly from the beauty of its perspective. The chief façade, with its high flight of steps and its two massive and castellated towers, has an exterior portico, also castellated and supported on four pillars. This is the only portico of its kind in Galicia, for those of Santiago and Orense are interior porticos, and that of Lugo is merely an additional piece built into the original Romanesque doorway. The interior of the Tuy portico is square and covered with Gothic vaulting. The entrance door is flanked on either side by four columns and as many statues: each statue stands upon the back of some animal, except one, which rests upon the shoulders of a man;
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BELL-TOWER OF THE CATHEDRAL. LOWER PART ROMANESQUE, TUY | THE CATHEDRAL, TUY. |
three have their feet upon monkeys; between each pair of statues there is also a column. This class of decoration is anterior to the use of niches; it is also to be seen in the northern portico of Chartres.[271] The decoration of the lintel is divided into three subjects, the central relief representing the death of the Virgin. The tympanum is covered with a sculptured group representing the Adoration of the Magi.