This Spanish sentiment is further sustained by many of the interior accessories and details, of which the chief and most elaborate are an altar-screen of wood and stone of great magnificence, a marble retable of the seventeenth century, a baptismal font of the twelfth or thirteenth century, some indifferent paintings, the usual organ buffet with fifteenth-century carving, and a tomb of a former bishop (1695) in the transept.
The altars, other than the above, are garish and unappealing.
A further notable effect to be seen in the massive nave is the very excellent "pointed" vaulting.
There are, close beside the present church, the remains of an older St. Jean—now nought but a ruin.
The Bourse (locally called La Loge, from the Spanish Lonja) has a charming cloistered courtyard of a mixed Moorish-Gothic style. It is well worthy of interest, as is also the citadel and castle of the King of Majorca. The latter has a unique portal to its chapel.
It is recorded that Bishop Berengarius II. of Perpignan in the year 1019 visited the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and on his return built a church or chapel on similar lines in memory of his pilgrimage. No remains of it are visible to-day, nor can it be further traced. Mention of it is made here from the fact that it seems to have been a worthy undertaking,—this memorial of a prelate's devotion to his faith.
XIV
STE. EULALIA D'ELNE
Elne is the first in importance of the dead cities which border the Gulf of Lyons.
It is the ancient Illiberis, frequently mentioned by Pliny, Livy, and, latterly, Gibbon.