6o6 



The National Geographic Magazine 



swept across the sky, seeing nothing of 

 the corona itself. 



porta coeei — "the; gates of heaven" 



Having seen every other party settled, 

 I would like to take you back to the 

 headquarters of the expedition at beauti- 

 ful Porta Coeli,' or, in plain English, 

 "The Gates of Heaven." 



retreat of the Carthusian monks, but is 

 now the property of Don Francisco Car- 

 bajosa, who has preserved intact as far 

 as he could the wonderful chapel itself. 

 A former owner had despoiled the chapel 

 of some of its adornments to grace cathe- 

 drals at Madrid and elsewhere, but in the 

 main it is as the ancient monks left it. 

 Like other old Spanish ruins of a once 



Spanish Mendicant 



Surely upon the perfect summer day 

 upon which we arrived at Porta Coeli 

 this name seemed most appropriate. A 

 group of green hills with verdant valleys 

 between ; here and there the tall smoke- 

 stacks of the vineyards near by, cutting 

 the skyline like pins in a mat; and top- 

 ping one of the hills an ancient and pic- 

 turesque monastery looked down upon a 

 beautiful valley that wended its way to 

 the sea. The monasterv was once the 



religious character, it also has its legends. 

 One of these in particular is most in- 

 teresting. It tells of a Carthusian monk 

 who loved not wisely but too well, and 

 was doomed for his sin to life imprison- 

 ment within the circumscribed limits of a 

 narrow cell. The only window in this 

 cell, a small one, opened upon the chapel, 

 through which he could hear the daily 

 mass, but the beautiful view into the 

 Gates of Heaven and all other communi- 



