THE SILVER ALTAR, WITH STATUE OF ST. JAMES, IN SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL
THE STONE COFFIN IN WHICH THE LOST BODY OF ST. JAMES WAS DISCOVERED IN 1879. IT HAD BEEN HIDDEN THERE IN 1589 WHEN SIR FRANCIS DRAKE ATTACKED CORUÑA
in pilgrim garb, with a king kneeling on either side of him. Alas, indeed, that so ordinary and uninteresting a piece of work should have replaced a façade that must have rivalled that of the Platerias in its beauty and elegance!
There still remains one more façade for us to study—the western one, called the Façade of the Obradoira, after the workshops of the goldsmiths that were once situated in the building to the right. Here we have what may be called the grand entrance to the cathedral. Eighteenth-century Italian steps in two winding flights with stone balustrades lead up to the double doorway, behind which is concealed the crowning glory of Galicia, the world-famed Pórtico de Gloria. On either side rise the great twin steeples, the lower portions of which date from the eleventh century and were part of the original Romanesque towers. “The only peculiarity about them,” wrote Street, “is the planning of the staircases. The steps are carried all round the steeples in the thickness of the walls, and the central space is made use of for a succession of small chambers one above the other. These staircases are unusually wide and good, and their mode of construction obviously very strong.”
We stand in the centre of the chief square in the town, the Plaza de Alfonso XII., to study the workmanship of the façade of which the twin steeples seem to form a part. The general effect of the whole is really very fine, but we feel as we gaze upon this façade that, to say the least, it is monotonous even in its grandeur. Yet, for all that, we are now contemplating a piece of work which is universally acknowledged to be the most beautiful, the most sumptuous, the most truly magnificent example of the Churrigueresque style[142] of architecture in the whole of Spain. So monumental is it that in looking at it we fail to perceive the details. It is indeed “a perfect example of monumental exuberance.” As we have remarked in the preceding chapter, the style of Churriguera is in reality a prolongation and exaggeration of the style which in Spain is called plateresque; it is a decadent, a fin du siècle style even at its best, and we have a lurking sensation of sympathy with the traveller who wickedly designated the style of this façade as vile. However, as the work is unquestionably monumental, it is of interest to the student of Galicia to learn that its author was a native of that province, a Gallegan—Fernando de Casas y Novoa.
This façade is composed of three storeys, with columns of the mixed order and covered profusely with bas-relief twists and curls of granite, which do not show up at all clearly in any photograph that has come under my notice. Those, therefore, who wish to form a correct opinion of it should suspend their judgment until they have had an opportunity of examining the original.