| APSE OF CHURCH NEAR ORENSE | CONVENTUAL CHURCH OF THE MONASTERY OF OSERA, ORENSE | PART OF THE APSE OF THE CHURCH OF AQUASANTAS, ORENSE |
CHAPTER XXIII
MONFORTE AND LUGO
Monforte—The Jesuit College—A picture by Greco—Cloister planned by Herrera—Relics in the convent of Santa Clara—Doña Catalina—The modern town—Like a spider’s web—The Province of Lugo—The town of Lugo—The Roman wall—Towers and windows—A Celtic town—Derivation of the name—The Sueves at Lugo—The seat of a Metropolitan—Struggles between the clergy and the nobles—Lugo’s great privilege—The continual exposition of the Host—Early references to this privilege—The Archives of Lugo—Molina—Lugo Cathedral—Its peculiarities—Our Lady of the Large Eyes—The lateral façade—Wood-carving of the choir—Sarcophagus of Froila—The chapel of Our Lady with the Large Eyes—The convent of San Francisco—Peculiarity of its apses—Frescoes—The cloister—Borrow on Lugo Cathedral—Santo Domingo—Traces of the Roman occupation—Rain in Lugo—A great Roman Catholic gathering—From our hotel windows—A funeral procession—St. James on horseback—Mondoñedo
MONFORTE, or, to give it its full name, Monforte de Lemus, in the province of Lugo, was our next halting-place after we left Orense. The population of Orense is under five thousand, and there is, besides the Jesuit College, nothing in the modern town to recommend it to the visitor’s attention beyond the fact that it gives its name to an important railway junction, by which communication is carried from Galicia to Madrid and the rest of Spain. We decided, however, to spend one night there that we might have time to visit the fourteenth-century tower with dungeons below it that crowns the mediæval citadel, the remnant of the palace of the Counts of Lemos, and the neighbouring Benedictine convent with its handsome church of San Vicente del Pino, bearing the date 1539.
Two professors conducted us through the various public apartments of the Jesuit College. They showed us with pride a painting of St. Francis of Assisi by Greco[279] (and bearing his signature), which is said to be finer than the one that is so highly prized in the Madrid Gallery. St. Francis wears a grey robe and cowl, and holds a skull in his hand, and another monk with hands clasped is looking up to his face as he listens to his words. We next visited the church; there our attention was drawn to the famous reredos of carved wood, said to be the work of the great Gallegan wood-carver Francisco Moure. Every niche is filled with an exquisitely carved group representing some well-known Biblical scene. Moure died before this work was completed, and it was finished by his son. Among their many precious relics the Jesuits were particularly anxious that we should note the skull of the second Pope, and other valuable relics. They then took us to see their fine cloister, which dates from the year 1600, and was planned by Herrera, the architect of the Escurial. The whole college is well built, and stands in extensive grounds; its façade is imposing, especially from the train windows. This college was intended by its founder to draw students from all parts of Spain, and to be one of the principal centres of learning in the country.