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THE XATTOXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



square feet, followed by Milan Cathedral, 

 with an area of 107,000 square feet. 



The nave of St. Peter's is 100 feet 

 wide by nearly 150 feet high; the great 



dome, internally, is [35 feet in diameter, 

 with a clear height of 333 feet. 



Italian Gothic may lay claim to having 

 produced in the cathedral of Florence 



one of the greatest churches of the world 

 (page 108). The genius of the Ital- 

 ians iti the construction of domes has 

 crowned this church with the noblest 

 Gothic dome in existence, the octagon be- 

 ing 136 feet in diameter and 375 feet to 

 the top of the external cross. Near by 

 stands the lovely, marble-encased campa- 

 nile of Giotto, regarded by many critics 

 as the finest example of that tower con- 

 struction in which, whether working in 

 Romanesque or modified Gothic, the Ital- 

 ians excelled. 



SPANISH GOTHIC WAS AN IMPORTATION 



Spanish Gothic, like that of Italy, was 

 an importation ; and although in the 

 period of its greatest development it was 

 superior to the work of the Italians and 

 more true to type, it bears, like the Ital- 

 ian, the strong imprint of national tastes 

 and predilections, especially in its deco- 

 rative enrichment. 



At the time when the Norman bishops 

 were covering Saxon England with their 

 stately, round-arched, Norman cathedrals, 

 Christian Spain, having shaken off the 

 Moorish yoke, was actively engaged in 

 erecting churches on a style that was not 

 widely dissimilar to the early Norman. 



Like the Norman, the early Spanish 

 form of church probably was an intro- 

 duction from France. Beginning as a 

 round-arched style, it later adopted the 

 pointed arch and assumed Gothic charac- 

 teristics. 



This early Roman-Gothic was simple, 

 but bold and dignified. Perhaps its most 

 distinctive feature was the development 

 of the dome at the intersection of nave 

 and crossing. The Spanish architects ex- 

 celled in this construction, and have left 

 some notable examples of their skill. 



The finest examples of pointed Spanish 

 Gothic belong to the "Middle" period, 

 which lasted from about 1225 to 1425. 

 Three of the notable cathedrals of the 

 world, Toledo (pages 94 and 95), Burgos 

 (page 93), and Seville (pages 90 and 92), 



belong to this period. The cathedral at 

 Toledo, begun in 1227, a few years after 

 the founding of Amiens, was designed to 

 surpass that masterpiece in size and mag- 

 nificence. I fence, everything is on the 

 grand scale ; and in area it exceeds every 

 French cathedral, though its interior 

 height is far below that of Amiens. 

 Ivheims, or P>eauvais. 



Externally, the architectural result is 

 disappointing and not to he compared 

 with the great French examples. The 

 glories of Toledo lie within, not without. 

 Its impressive interior, made up of five 

 aisles with the unusual total width of 178 

 feet, is enriched with such a wealth of 

 carving and statuary, wrought in the dis- 

 tinctive Spanish manner, that the result 

 is bewildering and scarcely in keeping 

 with the simplicity of true Gothic. 



In Burgos the conditions are reversed ; 

 for, unlike Toledo, this church shows to 

 best advantage from without. Although 

 it is not a large church, as cathedrals go. 

 Burgos is admitted to present one of the 

 finest architectural exteriors in the whole 

 range of Gothic architecture. The west- 

 ern towers, crowned with open-work 

 spires (reminiscent of Cologne, page 98), 

 with the richly-decorated octagons above 

 the crossing and above the chapel at the 

 eastern end, combine in a harmonious 

 grouping, the picturesque beauty of which 

 has never been questioned. 



SKVIIXlt HAS LARGEST GOTHIC CATHEDRAL 



The Cathedral of Seville (page 90) 

 carries the distinction of being the largest 

 and in some respects the noblest of all the 

 Gothic cathedrals. Its plan, a parallelo- 

 gram, 415 feet long by about 300 feet 

 wide, followed that of a mosque which 

 was torn down to make way for it. The 

 area covered is about 123,000 square feet. 

 No other Gothic cathedral approaches 

 these dimensions. Not only is the cen- 

 tral aisle nearly 60 feet in width, but 

 flanking this, on each side, are two side 

 aisles and a row of chapels, each 40 feet 

 in width and therefore equal to the nave 

 of most English cathedrals. The interior 

 height is in proportion, and the whole 

 effect of the many lines of massive col- 

 umns is impressive to a degree that is not 

 surpassed, in the opinion of many critics, 

 by that of any other medieval Gothic 

 cathedral. 



