Things seen in Spain

by C. Gasquoine Hartley

Its architecture shows a curious mingling of Arab, Gothic, and Renaissance work. Christian and Moor overlap in many buildings, while in others the art of each emerges isolated and independent. In the great cathedral, the perfection of Gothic in Spain, we see nothing of the Moor, while in the mosque of Bel-el-pardon, now called El Cristo de la Luz, and in the ancient mosque in the Calle de las Tornarias, which has never been converted to Christian uses, and retains its original character almost unimpaired, we can with difficulty trace the Christian. But in other buildings—the Sinagoga del Tránsito, for instance—we find the Moorish traditions persisting with the Christian. And it is this intermingling and absorption of the Moorish civilization with the Christian that gives the real character to Toledo. Not only in the churches that once were mosques does the passage of that great people remain, but in the houses, austere without but beautiful within, in ancient palaces, in fragments of gardens that still are places of rest, in embattled bridge and arch, in exquisite harmonies of ornament that meet you everywhere, and, more than all, we find this gracious influence in the spirit of the city itself. Toledo is a living picture, a city in which each building is a voice that speaks the history of Spain.

In Cordova, and even in Granada, you are less sharply conscious of the Moorish influence.

Time, the tamer of proud cities, has shadowed Granada, and to visit it is to understand the desolation of conquest. The big hotels, placed so incongruously near to the Alhambra, the clamorous guides, the beggars—all the disagreeable conditions of a show city that trades on its past are here. The efforts of recent years, that have developed a certain amount of industrial activity, have not lessened this impression; for modern enterprise seems strangely out of place in Granada, while the attempts to improve the old city, such as the boulevard which has been driven through its centre, have been left unfinished, with a result of added desolation. In the air itself there seems something of decay, as the white mists from the snowy heights of the Sierra Nevada rest shroud-like upon the vega. Always you seem to catch an echo of that ultimo suspiro del Moro. Ruins meet you everywhere; only the gardens in Granada have kept the charm of their exquisite beauty.

But there is one possession that conquest has left to Granada. It is to see the Alhambra that everyone comes to the city, which is but a setting to this Moorish jewel. And in the wooded garden, which lies around the citadel, where nightingales sing, and flowers embroider the grass, and the sound of running water is always heard, Granada, with its memories of ruin, seems shut off as by a veil of quiet. The Alhambra is the supreme pearl of Moorish art in Spain. It is bewildering in the appeal of its strange beauty. It is like an invocation of an Eastern sorcerer, and as you wander in its courts and halls the Thousand and One Nights seem true. It is hardly conceivable that people lived here. You seem to understand the brilliant dominion of the Moors in Spain. Only people with a history like theirs could have reigned here; life lived here could but have been a romance.

The first impression you gather from the almost bewildering beauty is how any building so seemingly fragile can be so strong. More than five centuries have passed since the Alhambra was built. The repeated earthquakes which did so much damage to Granada, and laid in ruin the Renaissance palace of Charles V., have been powerless to destroy this most delicate of architectural structures. To-day the Alhambra is kept as a show-place, rejuvenated by the restorer. But even this has not been able to dim the exquisite beauty of its courts and halls. And all the jewelled weaving of ornaments, so difficult to grasp as being quite real, have kept much of their splendour. It almost seems as though the common superstition were true, and that the charm of Fate does guard the Red Palace of the Moors.

Cordova suffers from the memory of a past greatness which she cannot now support. Gautier describes the city as le squelette blanché et calciné. Cordova is a city in sleep; it rests in a quiet and beautiful dream. Here the Eastern spirit of acceptance echoes with an unsilenced voice. And this is why the sensitive stranger will find such perfect satisfaction in the white city’s sleeping peace. Cordova was the town that I most loved in Spain.

But the tourist goes to Cordova in haste to visit the mosque. “Mezquita? Mezquita?” Each Cordovese you encounter will surmise your desire and direct you without question. They know that this imperishable building is the one interesting lion in their city; it is to visit it that the stranger comes to Cordova.

The great mosque is a “wonder of the world,” the one perfectly satisfying building left in the city of the Khalif, the Cordova that was known as “the Bride of Andalusia.” This Church of the Divine Wisdom is the most complete expression in building that the Moors have left in Spain, more even than the Alhambra. It is one of the buildings that sum up the genius of a people, the experience of a race, and the teaching of a school.

In the Outer Court of Oranges, where the water of the fountains and the leafy shade of the orange-trees give delicious coolness from the blazing heart of the sun, you will find the untiring charm and dreamy peace of Oriental repose. You will see the women of Cordova gathered around the great almîda fountain with their red-brown pitchers to fill. You will hear them chattering, telling the news of the day. Now and then will come a sound of laughter as a youth, also with a vessel to fill, joins them. The women will leave their pitchers and go into the mosque, one by one or in groups together, for prayer is a part of the day’s work. Figures move slowly up and down the cloisters; they are the Canons; each will be smoking a cigarette. Groups of beggars crouch on the low stone seats; they seem quite content in the sun. At the hour of service a band of acolytes will come from the chancery and cross the court slowly to the mosque, making a line of scarlet. And presently there will be a soft sound of music as the boys sing the coplas in honour of the Virgin. Yes, the Court of Oranges is the most perfect spot in Cordova, to which the stranger will come again and again.