Exactly opposite the church of Santiago there is a square tower, evidently intended for the protection of this town during the early Middle Ages; it is now used as a dwelling-house.
Another church worth visiting is that of Santa Maria de Azogue. We found it in the midst of repairs and full of scaffolding. In this church too there is the same kind of slant as that at Sar. Dr. Eladio Oviedo is of the opinion that both this church and that of Santiago date from the fourteenth century—that is, from the second period of Gothic art.
We next visited the ex-conventual church of San Francisco, beneath whose pavement lie buried more than a hundred distinguished men belonging to the highest aristocracy of Galicia. One is impressed at once with the sculptural decoration of the chief entrance, which is purely Romanesque. Villa-Amil considers this church to be the most remarkable—from the point of view of sculpture—of all the Franciscan edifices in Galicia, and he adds that we have no clue to the exact date of any one of them. The sculptured sarcophagus of Fernán Peréz de Andrade has an inscription with the date 1387. This sarcophagus rests on the back of a bear and a wild boar, both life size. On it is the recumbent mail-clad effigy of Andrade, who must have been a great sportsman, for his feet rest upon two dogs, each of which has a smaller dog between its paws; another dog is biting the corner of his stone pillow; the outer side of the sarcophagus is covered with alto-relief representing a lively boar hunt, in which are to be distinguished four huntsmen on horseback and a number of dogs, one of which has got hold of a boar and is biting its ear; each dog wears a collar; there is a second boar in the rear. There are a number of other tombs, but the one I have just described is by far the most striking of them all.
One end of the transept is lighted by a rose window, the other has double lancet windows. The triumphal arch leading to the chief apse is adorned with the sculptured figures of angels and grotesques. There are three Gothic apses with lancet windows. The exterior of this church is peculiar, with its tiled roofing, and the whole style of it strikes one as very archaic.
A few miles out of Betanzos, on the railway line to Lugo, but situated in the province of Coruña, there is a small station called Cambre, and here every visitor interested in Spanish
| THE MARKET PLACE, LUGO PHOTOS. BY AUTHOR |
CHILDREN PLAYING “HIDE AND SEEK” AMONG COFFINS EXPOSED FOR SALE IN A STREET OF SANTIAGO PHOTOS. BY AUTHOR |