1808. ] 
and the population is calculated at 
forty-five thousand. 
The old town isstill easily distinguished 
from the new, being an oblong of above 
half a mile along the river, by one third 
ofa leg breadth, It is surrounded 
by ancient walls, with gates in the middle 
its four sides, in all of which, vestiges 
man architecture may be traced. 
ie stone bridge over the Ebro leads 
“into the middle of this old town : and in 
these circumstances it bears some resem- 
es 
- ~ blance to the city of London, with its 
4 
’ 
y 
. 
r% 
My 
: 
‘ 
x 
» 
we 
“ae unless it be the remains of theinner 
7 
so ha 
picee in the midst of the present capi- 
al. That part of the old wails which 
ran along the river, is either hidden by 
mod jouses, or entirely removed : on 
the outside of the three other parts of 
the old walls, runs a broad open street 
in the manner of the boulevards of Paris, 
beyond which the new town spreads in 
all directions, but chiefly to the west- 
ward ; the ground being confined on the 
south and east by the little river Huerva, 
which falls into the Ebro at the east end 
of the town. 
The streets of both the old and the 
new town are tolerably straight, crossing 
ch other at right angles; but they are 
generally narrow, particularly within the 
old or Roman town. 
Saragossa is very ancient; the present 
name is a gradual corruption of Cesarau- 
gusta, 2 name given to it by Augustus 
Cesar, who repaired and beautified a 
ace called Salduba, situated on the 
‘same spot. “Pliny mentions both towns, 
aying, * Cxsaraugusta was a free colony 
on th of the Ebro, where formerly 
stood a toy -ealled Salduba,” Tt began 
‘In the reiga of Augustus to coin money; 
and many of its coins sull remain, com- 
anemorating the signal favours it received 
from that emperor. 
‘Saragossa has undergone so many 
changes from the various incursious of 
Goths, Moors, and ocher foreign nations, 
alls and gates, no antiquities of Roman 
times are now to be seen. The churches, 
palaces, the town-house, the exchange, 
“are, however, well worthy of observation. 
The town possesses no less than two 
cathedrals in whieh divine service is al- 
ternately performed by the same chap- 
ter; the one is a venerable gothic buil- 
ding, supported by four rows of clustered 
pillars; the other is a modern structure 
of Greek architecture, in the form, not 
of a cross, but of a parallelogram, about 
five hundred feet long, by two hundred 
feet broad, It is built of brick, but the 
Montury Mas., No, 174, 
Account of Recent Travels in Spain. 
25 
intention was to case it entirely over with 
some of the valuable narbles with which 
Spain abounds, The pan was, to erect 
a square tower at each angle of the paral- 
lelogram, a grand dome in the centre, 
and five other domes towards the east 
end; a design certainly singular and 
different from what we see adopted for 
other christian churches. The interior 
is divided by two rows of massy square 
pillars, ornamented with pilasters, The 
chief object in erecting this extraordinary 
structure, was to provide a suitable man- 
sion for the miraculous image of the vir- 
gin, there preserved and celebrated far 
and wide, in ancient as in modern tines, 
under the designation of owr lady of the 
pillar, The origin ef this appellation 
was this, that soon after the ascension 
of our Saviour, but during the life ime 
of Mary, when St. James the Elder was 
employed in preaching the gospel in 
Spain, and had yet made but very few 
converts, the virgin, transported by a 
choir of angels, passed from Jerusalem 
to the neighbourhood of Saragossa, and 
appeared to James, seated on a marble 
pillar, brought by the angels for the pur- 
pose; when encouraging him to continue 
his apostolic labours, which would, ulti+ 
mately be crowned with success, she di- 
rected him to erect a chapel to her ho- 
nour, and to place in it the pillar on 
which she sat, for an everlasting memo- 
rial of her appearance. The virgin was 
immediately wafted back to Jerusalem, 
and a chapel waserected at Saragossa by 
St. James and his eighé disciples, (for his 
converts were not more numerous) in 
which the sacred pillar was deposited 5 
and this identical pillar it was, which 
without intermission has been, and still 
is, venerated in Saragossa. 
Under the centre dome of the five on 
the east end of this new: cathedral is 
erected a magnificent chapel of Greek 
arclitecture, and of the most precious 
marbles the country affords, in the form 
ofa tittle temple, in the centre of which 
stands the sacred, pillar supporting an 
ancient image of the virgin, with her ine 
fant son, of wocd now as black as ebony. 
The riches appertaining to this image are 
beyond calculation; and on account of 
the miracles performed at this shrine, 
the resort of pilgrims from distant. parts, 
not only of Spain, but of Europe, is even 
at this day very great. 
This new cathedral was founded in the 
end of the 17th century, and in 1753, 
Ferdinand VI, directed the chapel of 
eur lady oF the pillar to be cunsirugteds 
at 
Pa 
